Posted By smokingpen on July 23, 2009
For those reaching this post first, I am a graduate student at Fairfield University in the Master’s of Fine Arts in Writing program and as a part of that program we are having seminars and panels on specific aspects of publishing and law regarding publishing as well as editors, publishers, and etc.
Joe is one of the MFA students. He is telling us about copyright law since he is also a lawyer and some experience in property rights law. Currently, he is telling us about the different kinds of intellectual property.
Five types of IP (intellectual property): ideas, products, processes, expressions, and names.
These are manifested as: know how, developments, inventions, works of authorship, music and sounds, discoveries, and celebrity.
He says that everything he is presenting to us today is protected by copyright.
Protected property is any tangible medium of expression.
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Copyright is a form of protection provided by law to authors of “original works of authorship,” from the time the work subsists in fixed form.
He is talking about different applications of this and is specifically talking about Gone With the Wind and derivatives of the name.
There is a list of kinds of things that are protected. And now we are learning what is NOT copyrighted. Specifically, ideas. Ideas are hard to protect. Naturally, you want to place the idea on a piece of paper so the idea of the expression is put down on paper. The ideas for plots are not protected, but a specific plot is protected.
Having an idea is not the capture of its entirety or its essence. If you want to talk about your “idea” and someone has the potential for taking the idea and using it, you want to have some kind of a contract with the other person so they don’t steal or make a profit off of your idea. This is often called a confidentiality agreement – which is used frequently in business.
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Two divisions of law: pubic law and private law. Pubic law is designed to be protected by the government. Private law is contracts, non-disclosure, and etc. that is covered under private law.
Not protected words and slogans, but trademarks are and as a result trademarks can cover words and slogans.
Trademark law is more a matter of public law than private law. Governed by trademark statutes in Washington D.C. and most people use the federal method of filing trademarks.
Things having utility are not copyrightable, but that is what patent laws cover.
Copyright consists of no more than adding a copyright notice to the work.
Q) What if someone takes something that simply has a copyright notice that someone else takes?
A) You still own it. Now you have to show history of ownership before you can take it to court.
Copyrights are protected regardless of submission to copyright office.
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Q) Can’t I just mail it to myself?
A) Yes. But it doesn’t work in trial. There is a lot of stuff that has to happen (discovery) prior to going to court.
Q) Can I send my manuscript through email?
A) Yes. That is sufficient because it allows for an electronic record WITH a date and time stamp that is more reliable than using the regular mail.
Q) What about the date a file was created?
A) Depends. Not the only thing that will prove the case.
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Keep everything. Drafts. Paper copies. Etc. as a history of revisions and ownership.
Q) If you have a manuscript or proposal and submitting to agents is putting a copyright notice on the bottom sufficient?
A) Yes. We will get to that more. Also, add it to your header so that when you work on the manuscript it is always there.
United States now a signatory of the world copyright law and something copyrighted here is acknowledged around the world.
You can register copyright and it makes all the sense in the world to register it. The reason you want to do that is by registering you now get access to the courts. The question becomes one of enforcement. You don’t have to register early to register later on and get the same access. Registration is necessary for jurisdiction to open up the federal courts.
File prior to three months AFTER it is published allows someone to sue for more money. If you wait until after three months you can only sue for what you actually lost.
Q) Don’t publishers normally register copyright for you?
A) Hopefully.
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Copyright exists for a long time. It goes to heirs. Used the Mickey Mouse example.
He is talking about the lengths of time copyright lasts since 1978. Long periods of time, JSYK.
Q) What about multiple copyrights in a book?
A) Those cover revisions. Doesn’t change the end date for the original copyright.
Q) Does a new copyright exist from publication?
A) No. It’s recognized creation.
Q) Do you have to prove when it was created?
A) Only in an infringement lawsuit.
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Registration can be done in several ways. Prefered method is going online and registering electronically. Two copies and a fee depending on format of submission with paper submissions costing more.
TX = text form of copyright.
VA = visual arts form of copyright.
Q) What about changes to a work after several years on something already copyrighted?
A) Copyright both forms.
You can register both TX and VA for anything you write.
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Fair Use
Copyright doesn’t protect everything. This makes it possible for us to use things out in the world.
Allows public to use other work. This means we have to allow other people use our work as well. The law takes into consideration, “What is the use this work is being put?” e.g. the more you take, the less money can be made from that work.
Commercial interest is key to fair use. Am I making money or not? as well as amount, substance, and portionality of work being used.
What does copyright not protect?
Quotations, excerpts, use or parody, copy by a teacher or student, etc.
All government publications are not copyrighted – typically.
Works not fixed in a tangible form.
A massive list of things that are uncopyrightable.
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Works made for hire
Work created for someone else where work is owned by the corporation or business paying you to do the work :: work made for hire.
Contributions to a collective work, a part of a motion picture or other audio visual work, translation, suplimentary work, instructional texts, tests, answers, and etc.
There is an angle to who owns what under work for hire. His example is a lawyer being paid to be lawyer who creates software. Software is still owned by lawyer not company.
This gets into contract law.
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Transfer of Copyright
Copyright can be licensed exclusively or not-exclusively.
Assignment is the transfer of the copyright. Don’t sign an assignment of copyright. Tear it up.
Q) Have you copyrighted the powerpoint presentation?
A) Yes.
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The bulk of the material is done. Not too interesting, but definitely good info.
John Hattaway | smokingpen | Alicia Grey | Clockwork Princess | Cassandra West
Real Heroes Fly
Category: Fairfield University, Master's of Fine Art in Writing, On Writing, school |
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