by Vivienne Trulock
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".
Copyright © 2004 Your Name
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.
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.
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 work 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.
…the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include -
The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors.
This first factor looks at the new work takes into account the following three sub-factors.
This second factor acknowledges that fact that some works are simply more deserving of copyright protection than others. Consequently, this portion of the test looks at the original work and attempts to determine where that work is in the spectrum of worthiness of copyright protection.
The third factor looks at the amount and substantiality of the copying in relation to the work as a whole. However, the critical determination is whether the quality and value of the materials used are reasonable in relation to the purpose of copying. This is not a pure ratio test in that using a whole work may be fair use in some circumstances, whereas using a tiny fraction of a work may not qualify for fair use in other circumstances.
Therefore, the quantity, as well as the quality and importance, of the copied material must be considered. Some Justices have looked to see that "no more was taken than was necessary" to achieve the purpose for which the materials were copied.
The fourth factor considers the extent of harm to the market or potential market of the original work caused by the infringement. This takes into account harm to the original, as well as harm to derivative works
Copyrighted works on the Net include news stories, software, novels, screenplays, graphics, pictures, and even email. In fact, the frightening reality is that the vast majority of the items on the Net are protected by copyright law.
However, there are a lot of works on the Net that are in the public domain. The Public Domain is that repository of all works that for whatever reason are not protected by copyright. As such, they are free for all to use without permission. Works in the Public Domain include works with the following characteristics:
These are items that by their very nature are not eligible for copyright protection. These items include:
The public domain contains all works which previously had copyright protection, but which subsequently lost that protection due to pilot error. While it is all but impossible to lose copyright protection under today's laws, previous statutory schemes have not been so generous. For example, all works published before January 1, 1978 that did not contain a valid copyright notice may be considered to be in the public domain.
Owners of works published between 1978 and March 1, 1989 that did not contain a valid copyright notice were given a five-year grace period in which to correct the problem of publication without notice before their work was unceremoniously tossed into the public domain.
The public domain contains all works for which the statutory copyright period has expired. Additionally, you are free to copy any work published before 1964 in which the copyright owner failed to renew his copyright.
Federal documents and publications are not copyrighted, and therefore are considered to be in the Public Domain. Consequently, if you obtain a government document from the net, such as a law, statute, agency circular, federal report, or any other document published or generated by the government, you are free to copy or distribute the document.
Copyrightable works may also enter the public domain if the copyright owner grants the work to the public domain.