What Can be Copyrighted

What Can be Copyrighted

As the copyright law was amended, more and more items were added to the list of things that could be copyrighted.

Term/duration of Copyright

As the copyright law was amended , the number of years that copyright protection was available increase. After expiration of a copyright, a work enters the public domain and can be freely copied.

The copyright Law of United States (Title 17, United States Code)

Section 106. Rights of the Copyright Holder

The owner of copyright has the exclusive rights to do and to authorize any of the following:

1. to reproduce the copyrighted work in copies or phono records;
2. to prepare derivative works based on the copyrighted work;
3. to distribute copies or phono records of the copyrighted work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending;
4. in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and motion pictures and other audiovisual works, to perform the copyrighted work publicly; and
5. in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and pictorial, graphic, or sculptural works, including the individual images of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, to display the copyrighted work publicly.

Section 107. Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair Use

Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies...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 --

1. the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
2. the nature of the copyrighted work;
3. the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
4. the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors.

Classroom Guidelines

Libraries rely on Section 107 and the "Classroom Guidelines" (included in the House report accompanying the Copyright Act of 1976) to guide their procedures for copying copyrighted materials for class reserves. Multiple Copying for Classroom Use: Tests

1. Brevity
   • a complete poem, article, story or essay or less than 10% of the entire work
2. Spontaneity
   • copying is at the instance and inspiration of individual teacher
   • moment of the work's use for maximum teaching effectiveness is so close in time that it would be unreasonable to expect a timely reply to request permission
3. Cumulative effects
   • copying of materials for only one course in the school
   • not more than one poem, article, story, essay or two excerpts may be copied from the same author nor more than three from the same collective work or periodical volume during one class term.
   • not more than nine instance of such multiple copying for one course during one class term.
4. No charge beyond cost of copying
5. Notice of copyright