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In order to avoid the rocky shoals of copyright infringement, the veteran
net surfer is well served by an understanding of the basic tenets of
copyright law. This section covers the basics of the ubiquitous copyright
notice, what copyright protects, and how long it lasts.
The Copyright Notice
It used to be that in order to be afforded any copyright protection,
one needed to put the world on notice by attaching a copyright notice
to the work. While this is no longer the case, it is still customary
to attach a copyright notice on copyrighted works in order to be eligible
for certain types of damages. In the copyright notice below, notice
the four elements that include the copyright symbol, the term "Copyright",
the year of copyright, the name of the copyright holder, and the phrase
"All Rights Reserved".
lick on an element in the example copyright
notice below.
Copyright ©
1995 Ted-Kyte.com
All Rights Reserved
The term "Copyright" is technically not required in the copyright notice.
However, it should be noted that the term "Copyright" may now be used
in lieu of the © Copyright Symbol in the U.S.
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The © Copyright Symbol is generally the standard identifier of a Copyright
Notice. This symbol is required in many foreign countries in order for
copyright protection to attach.
However, in the United States, the term "Copyright" may now be used
in lieu of the Copyright Symbol. This makes notification on ASCII documents
much easier to accomplish.
Special Note for Web Usage: An astute reader of this Website,
has pointed out that HTML (both 2.0 and 3.0) uses the ISO 8879:1986
"Latin 1" character set by default, which includes the C-in-circle symbol
at position 169. In theory you are supposed to be able to use the numeric
entity reference © to display the C-in-circle. In practice, however,
a number of browsers (especially text-based ones like Lynx, operating
via terminals using the IBM PC character set, for example) will not
properly display the C-in-circle on screen in response to that entity.
Furthermore, HTML 3.0 proposes to add a symbolic © entity, and
Netscape (of course) has had its own nonstandard &copr; entity for a
while.
Consequently, the recommendation is that any Web copyright notice use
BOTH the numeric entity and the full word "Copyright" to avoid as many
of these problems as possible.
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Whenever a Copyright Notice is given, it is required that the year of
publication be included in the notice.
The Copyright Notice must also include the name of the owner of the
copyright. The legal owner of the copyright is not necessarily the author
or creator of the work. Works created by employees in the course of
their employment or independent workers who sign "Work for Hire" agreements
are considered to be creating the on behalf of the employer. Consequently,
these works are referred to as "Works for Hire", and the copyright is
vested in the person doing the hiring.
As an example, news stories that you receive through a news service
such as ClariNet are generally copyrighted by the news provider, whether
it be UPI, Reuters or Associated Press. The reporters who actually write
the stories are generally working under Work for Hire agreements.
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You can thank Bolivia and Honduras for this one. In order to gain copyright
protection in these countries, you must follow the requirements of the
Buenos Aires Convention. This Convention requires that the reservation
of rights phrase be included in the Copyright Notice in order for copyright
protection to attach.
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What Copyright Protects
Copyright protects expression. The Copyright Act of 1976 states that
the items of expression can include literary, dramatic, and musical
works; pantomimes and choreography; pictorial, graphic and sculptural
works; audio-visual works; sound recordings; and architectural works.
An original expression is eligible for copyright protection as soon
as it is fixed in a tangible form.
Consequently, almost any original expression that is fixed in a tangible
form is protected as soon as it is expressed. For example, a graphic
created in Photoshop is protected as soon as the file is saved to disk.
This Web page was protected as soon as I stopped typing and saved the
.html file. As you can see, most of the items that you are likely to
encounter on the net are eligible for copyright protection, including
the text of web pages, ASCII text documents, contents of email and Usenet
messages, sound files, graphics files, executable computer programs
and computer program listings.
However, not absolutely everything is eligible for copyright. These
are items that by their very nature are not eligible for copyright protection:
- Ideas
- Facts
- Titles
- Names
- Short phrases
-
Blank forms
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Duration of Copyright Protection
How long a copyright lasts depends in large part on
when the work in question was created. Depending on whether the work
was created before or after January 1, 1978 could have substantial affect
on the life-span of the copyright.
| Pre 1978 (Published) |
The copyright expires 75 years from the date
of publication (if the copyright was renewed). |
| Pre 1978 (Created, but not published) |
The copyright will expire on December 31,
2002. |
| 1978 to present (copyright owned by an
individual) |
The copyright will last for the life of the
author, plus an additional 50 years. |
| 1978 to present (copyright owned by employer
of author) |
The copyright will last 75 years from the
date of publication, or 100 years from the date of creation,
whichever occurs first. |
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