Copyright and Intellectual Property Flashcards
Protection of Intellectual Property
• US constitution gives congress power to vote the progress of science and useful arts securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries
patent
give inventors the right to use their product in the marketplace or to profit by transferring that right to someone else. Patents can be valid up to 20 years.
o typewriter
o Designs- the appearance of an article of manufacture
trademark
words, slogans, symbols used to identify goods and services that distinguish a company or product from its competitors. Also can register designs that represent a brand. TM can be used freely in the context of news, parody, satire, commentary.
copyright
gives the author or owner the right to reproduce, distribute perform, display, create derivatives
• What can you copyright? Just about anything
what cannot be copyrighted
News, facts and data, science and math
Copyright term lengths/durations-
95 years for works before 1978, life of creator plus 70 years for work after 1978.
Eldred v. Ashcroft
• This was a case involving a constitutional challenge to the Copyright Term Extension Act that changed the length of time that existing copyrights would remain valid. The plaintiffs argued that the law does not comply with the constitutional requirement that copyright protections be granted for “limited times,” but the Supreme Court concluded that Congress could define “limited times” however it wanted. As long as they didn’t pass a law giving people the right to control their copyrights FOREVER, then the law satisfied the “limited times” requirement.
fair use
- Allows people to use other’s copyrighted works without permission
- Creative commons (license) allows owners to maintain protection while giving blanket permission for certain uses
- Fair use- Public domain
doctrine of fair use 1
Nature of work
o Is work still available
o Informational v. creative (newspaper or item in encyclopedia rather than novel, play or poem)
o Published or unpublished
doctrine of fair use 2
Purpose of use- commercial interests?
o Criticism
o Commentary
o Educational
o Scholarship and research- public interest
o Transformative? – adding something of value; not changing or distorting
• Hope poster of Obama (copyrighted AP photograph)
• Andy Warhol
• Patrick Cariou v. Richard Prince- Prince used Patrick’s photograph for his paintings and collages. Court ruled that the majority of Prince’s work manifests an entirely different aesthetic from Cariou’s pictures.
doctrine of fair use 3
The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole
o Fan Fiction- Ian Hamilton wrote a biography of Salinger (catcher in the rye) and paraphrased the contents using Salinger’s actual words. INFRIGEMENT OF COPYRIGHT
o Harper and Row v Nation- The Nation pre-empted the publication of the late President Gerald Ford memoirs by publishing an article that contained paraphrases and quotes from the unpublished manuscript. Court rules against the Nation because amount used was small but took most vital parts.
o De Mimus doctrine (music)- some courts say no infringement if fleeting trivial use, others say one note is all it takes
doctrine of fair use 4
Effect on market
o Napster and MGM v. Grokster- file sharing services facilitating the free transfer of copyrighted music, giving music fans access to recorded music without having to purchase a CD. One by one these services were sued for copyright infringement. (stop piracy)
Digital Millennium Copyright Act
- Prohibits distribution of copyright circumvention devices or software
- Educators, film students can decrypt DVDs for small uses, if purpose is non commercial
- If ISP (internet service providers) receives take-down notice, must “expeditiously” remove content
- Must promptly notify user of take-down
- If user files counter-notification, thus mist be sent to copyright owner
- ISP must unblick material within 14 days unless copyright owner files a court action
