Copyright Law Flashcards
What are copyrightable works?
Copyrightable works are literary and artistic works or are original artistic creations in the literary and artistic domain which are protected from the moment of their creation.
What is the principle of automatic protection?
Copyrightable works are protected by the sole fact of their creation, irrespective of mode, form, expression, content, quality or purpose.
What are the rights vested to authors?
The rights afforded to copyright owners may be classified into either economic rights or moral rights.
Economic rights pertain to the right of the owner to derive some sort of financial benefit from the use of the work, while moral rights refer to the non-economic interests of the owner of a copyright.
What are the specific economic rights of copyright owners as provided by law?
Part of the economic rights of an owner is the exclusive right to carry out, authorize, or prevent the following acts:
(a) Reproduction of the work or substantial portion of the work
(b) Dramatization, translation, adaptation, or other transformation of the work
(c) The first public distribution of the original and each copy of the work by sale or some other form of transfer of ownership
(d) Rental of the original or a copy of the work
(e) Public display of the original or a copy of the work
(f) Public performances of the work
(g) Other communications to the public of the work
What is the idea/expression dichotomy?
This limits the scope of copyright protection by differentiating an idea from the expression or manifestation of that idea.
What are the enumeration of protected works?
(a) Original literary or artistic works such as books, musical compositions, drawings, photographic works and cinematographic works.
(b) Derivative works which are dramatization, translations, or adaptations of literary or artistic works, as well as collections of works or compilations of data which are original by reason of the selection or arrangement of their contents.
(c) Published edition of work, which is vested on a publisher who has the right to reproduction of the work.
What are non-copyrightable works?
(a) Any idea, procedure, system, method, operation, concept, discovery, or mere data are not protected by copyright.
(b) No copyright shall subsist in any work of the Government of the Philippines. However, prior approval of the government agency wherein the work is created shall be necessary for the exploitation of such work for profit.
What are the rules with regards to the ownership of copyright?
The copyright shall belong to:
(a) The author on his original literary and artistic works.
(b) In case of joint ownership, the authors are co-owners of the copyright.
(c) In case of a work done while in the course of his employment, if the work is done not in his regular duties despite using the facilities of his employment, the copyright belongs to the employee.
If the work is done in his regular duties, the copyright belongs to the employer, unless there is an agreement to the contrary.
(d) In cases of commission, the person who commissioned the work has ownership over the work, but the copyright shall remain with the creator, unless there is a written stipulation to the contrary.
What is the rule regarding useful articles?
Generally, useful articles with an intrinsic utilitarian function is not copyrightable.
However, a feature of the useful article may be protected by copyright if it can be identified and imagined apart from the useful article and it would qualify as a pictorial, graphic, or sculptural work either on its own or when fixed in some other tangible medium.
Can a photographer acquire copyright over the subject matter of his photograph?
No, he can’t.
A photographer’s copyright is limited to the particular selection and arrangement of the elements expressed in the copyrighted image, such as the framing, shutter speed, or the timing.
With regards to the economic rights of a copyright holder, what is the rule on the right to distribute copies of the work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership?
Generally, a copyright owner is afforded the right to distribute copies of the work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership.
However, this right is subject to limitations, such as the fair use doctrine and the first sale doctrine.
What is the fair use doctrine? What are its requirements?
The fair use doctrine is the privilege in others than the owner of the copyright to use the copyrighted material in a reasonable manner without the owner’s consent.
It’s requirements are:
(1) Purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial or non-profit nature.
(2) Nature of the copyrighted work.
(3) Amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole.
(4) The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.
What is the first sale doctrine?
The owner of a particular copy lawfully made is entitled to dispose the possession of that copy without authority from the copyright owner. In other words, the first sale must be authorized by the copyright owner.
As one of the economic rights of a copyright owner, what is the right to public performance?
The recitation, playing, dancing, acting, or performing of a work, either directly or indirectly by means of any device.
As one of the economic rights of a copyright owner, what is the right to communication to the public?
The broadcasting, rebroadcasting, retransmitting by cable/satellite, making of a work available to the public by wire or wireless means in such a way that the public could access it from a place and time of their choosing.
