History of inventions and copyright protections: Difference between revisions

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(New page: 1776: *The power to enact copyright law is granted in Article I, Section 8, Clause 8, also known as the Copyright Clause, which states: "The Congress shall have Power [. . .] To promote ...)
 
 
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1776:
===Terry Fischer Disaggregation Speech===
*The power to enact copyright law is granted in Article I, Section 8, Clause 8, also known as the Copyright Clause, which states: "The Congress shall have Power [. . .] To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries." This clause forms the basis for U.S. copyright law ("Science", "Authors", "Writings") and patent law ("useful Arts", "Inventors", "Discoveries"), and includes the limited terms (or durations) allowed for copyrights and patents ("limited Times"), as well as the items they may protect ("exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries"). In the U.S., copyright is administered by the United States Copyright Office, a part of the Library of Congress.  
*Thomas Paine's pamphlet "Common Sense" published - 500,000 copies published its first year in 25 editions. "Common Sense" was highly influential in rallying public opinion to the side of United States independence.
Federal Copyright Law originates in a 1790 statute, adopted under the auspices of Article I, Section 8, Clause 8 of the Constitution
Only 3 kinds of works were protected under the original statute:  “Books, maps, charts”
[later subsumed in general category of “all the writings of an author” (1909)
Over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth century, Congress and the courts cooperated in expanding the set of protected creations
“Prints” are added by statute in 1802
“Musical Compositions” in 1831
“Dramatic Works”
In effect, were added to the galaxy by an 1856 statute granting the owners of copyrights in books the right to control public performance of their works – the only form of protection truly valuable to playwrights
An extension confirmed in subsequent statutes
“Photographs” were added by statute 1865
*In the 1883 Burrow-Giles case, the SCt rejected a constitutional challenge to this provision, but only because the posed, studio photo of Oscar Wilde at issue in the case was, in the court’s judgment a “useful, new, harmonious, characteristic, and graceful picture.”
Gradually the aesthetic standard implicit in this judgment was softened, and copyright protection was tacitly extended to photos of all sorts
So nowadays, not only is xeroxing a landscape photograph clearly illegal, but even taking a substantially similar photo may give rise to an infringement claim
*Arguably, for example, Ansel Adams famous photograph of the snake river is infringed by this recent calendar picture
Photographs can even be infringed by copies in other media
For example, in the judgment of the Second Circuit,  
*this photo was infringed by
*this sculpture, despite the mockery plainly evident in the latter
“paintings; drawings; and chromos” were added to the statute in 1870
as were “statues”;
meaning 3-dimensional works of fine art
and “artistic models or designs” (1870)
later subsumed in the broader category of “works of art” and “reproductions of works of arts” (1909)
Around the turn of the century, Advertisements were accepted into the fold (1903)
During the 19th c., courts had generally been hostile to the extension of copyright to ads – on the ground that they did nothing to “stimulate original investigation whether in literature, science or art, for the betterment of the people.”: 
[Bracha:  “In J.L. Mott Iron Works, for example, the court stated that the copyright law “sought to  It found that plaintiff’s “work” was “a mere priced catalogue illustrated with pictures of wares offered for sale” --L. Mott Iron Works v. Clow, 82 F. 316, 318-19 (7th Cir. 1897); See also: Baker v. Selden, 101 U.S. 105-107
*This position is famously rejected by Justice Holmes in Bleistein (1903), which extended copyright protection to a circus poster: 
Holmes reasoned:  “A picture is none the less a picture, and none the less a subject of copyright that it is used for an advertisement.”
Motion Pictures are invented by Thomas Edison in the late 19th c.
By 1903, an intermediate appellate court had recognized them as copyrightable subject matter
Edison v. Lubin, 122 F. 240 (3d Cir. 1903).
“Lectures, sermons & addresses” are added to the list by statute in 1909


1790:
*Growth continues in the 20th century
*Copyright Act of 1790 - established U.S. copyright with term of 14 years with 14-year renewal
“Fictional characters” and “plots” are recognized by judicial decisions as objects of protection
The U.S. Congress first exercised its power to enact copyright legislation with the Copyright Act of 1790. The Act secured an author the exclusive right to publish and vend "maps, charts and books" for a term of 14 years, with the right of renewal for one additional 14 year term if the author was still alive. The act did not regulate other kinds of writings, such as musical compositions or newspapers and specifically noted that it did not prohibit copying the works of foreign authors. The vast majority of writings were never registered — between 1790 and 1799, of 13,000 titles published in the United States, only 556 works were registered.
*William Blake publishes The Marriage of Heaven and Hell; Mary Wollstonecraft publishes A Vindication of the Rights of Men; Edmund Burke  publishes Reflections on the Revolution in France;
1802:
*Prints added to protected works
*Washington Irving makes his first appearance in print at age nineteen, submitting observational letters to the New York Morning Chronicle under the name Jonathan Oldstyle
*The Journal of the Royal Institution records one of the first experiments in photography.


1831:
An 1948 Copyright Office regulation, construing a provision of the 1909 statute abandoning the restriction to “fine art,” upheld by the SCt in Mazer (1954) extended copyright protection to useful objects, so long as their aesthetic and functional aspects were “conceptually separable”
*First general revision of the copyright law. Music added to works protected against unauthorized printing and vending. First term of copyright extended to 28 years with privilege of renewal for term of 14 years.
“Sound recordings” – as distinct from the compositions they embody – were added in 1972
*William Lloyd Garrison begins publication of the Liberator, an abolitionist periodical.
*Edgar Allan Poe publishes his collection Poems


1837:
Pantomimes and Choreographic works were formally added as part of the 1976 general reform of the statute
*Samuel F.B. Morse develops a design for the electrical telegraph. America's first telegram was sent by Morse on January 6, 1838, across two miles of wire at Speedwell Ironworks near Morristown, New Jersey. The message read "A patient waiter is no loser." On May 24, 1844, he sent the message "What hath God wrought" (quoting Numbers 23:23) from the Old Supreme Court Chamber in the Capitol in Washington to the old Mt. Clare Depot in Baltimore.
Software, formally, in 1978


1856:
Finally, Architecture was grudgingly given special protection by statute in 1990, in response to the United States’ belated accession to the Berne Convention
*Dramatic compositions added to protected works.
*Harriet Beecher Stowe publishes Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp; Herman Melville publishes The Piazza Tales and I and My Chimney


*Two gradual conceptual shifts underlie this steady expansion of the zone of coverage
The first, nicely traced by Oren Bracha in his dissertation in progress, is a movement from a conception of copyright as “trade specific regulation” to a conception that sees copyright as founded on the general principle of the right of creators to control their original works
A change partially completed in the 1909 general reform of the Copyright Statute and fully completed in the 1976 Reform
The second, emphasized by Peter Jaszi, is a change in what copyright is thought to protect:  from the text to the “work”
At the start of the 19th c., lawyers and Js thought that copyright law protected the sequence of words used in a book against verbatim reproduction
By the early 20th century century, they thought it shielded the market value of the underlying work no matter how expressed
The effect of this reconceptualization was to render illegal many forms of unauthorized use – including translations, abridgments, and motion-picture adaptations
===Digital Media Timeline (INCOMPLETE)===
First Video Game Invented 1948 CE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2E9iSQfGdg


1865:
Software Code circa 1950sCE http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/Html-source-code.png
*Photographs added to protected works.  
*Mark Twain's story "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" is published in the New York Saturday Press.
*P. T. Barnum publishes The Humbugs of the World


1867:
Videotape Machine Invented 1956 CE http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4e/Ampex-avr3.jpg
*Christopher Latham Sholes invents the first successful manual typewriter


1870:
ARPANET comes online 1969 CE http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6e/Arpnet-map-march-1977.png
*Second general revision of the copyright law. Copyright functions centralized in the Library of Congress under the direction of the Librarian of Congress, and which all authors are required to deposit in the Library two copies of every book, pamphlet, map, print, and piece of music registered under copyright in the United States. Works of art added to protected works. Act reserved to authors the right to create certain derivative works including translations and dramatizations. Indexing of the record of registrations began.
*In New York City, the first pneumatic-subway is opened.
*Jules Verne publishes Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea


1876:
Copyright Act of 1976 1976 CE X
*Alexander Graham Bell invents the telephone


1891:
First Cell Phone in U.S. 1983 CE http://www.bignet.org/regional/program/2005ISSC/StephanGardner/bigcellphone.jpg
*First U.S. copyright law authorizing establishment of copyright relations with foreign countries. Records of works registered, now called the Catalog of Copyright Entries, published in book form for the first time in July 1891.  
*Thomas Hardy publishes Tess of the d'Urbervilles; Oscar Wilde publishes Salome
*Recording companies are mass-producing phonograph records


1897:
Berne Convention 1988 CE X
*Copyright Office established as a separate department of the Library of Congress.
*Music protected against unauthorized public performance.
*Bram Stoker publishes Dracula
*John Philip Sousa publishes "Stars And Stripes Forever"   


1908:
Tim Berners-Lee invents Web 1989 CE http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:First_Web_Server.jpg]
*The Chicago Cubs win their second consecutive World Series. They have not won one since.


1909:  
GPL Introduced 1989 CE http://www.fsfeurope.org/projects/gplv3/GPLv3-logo-red.png
*Copyright Act of 1909 - third general revision of the copyright law. Admission of certain classes of unpublished works to copyright registration. Term of statutory protection for a work copyrighted in published form measured from the date of publication of the work. Renewal term extended from 14 to 28 years.
*L. Frank Baum publishes The Road to Oz; William James publishes A Pluralistic Universe
1912:
*Motion pictures, previously registered as photographs, added to classes of protected works.
*The Musketeers of Pig Alley, directed by D.W. Griffith, debuts as the first gangster film.


1920:
Uruguay Round 1994 CE X
*KDKA in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania receives its license and goes on the air as the first US licensed commercial broadcasting station.


1930:
Netscape Navigator 1.0 1994 CE http://techluver.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/netscape_logo.jpg
*New York Times article, March 17, 1930: "Whalen to Be Asked to War on Song Pirates; Publishers Say They Face $15,000,000 Loss" - Reporting that the music publishing industry faced a loss of $15,000,000 nationally in the ensuing year, a committee of publishers will ask Police Commissioner Whalen today to wage a war on the song-sheet racket and its sponsors.
http://icanhaz.com/timepirate


CD-ROMs Standardized 1995 CE http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/CD-ROM.png


1941:
AOL introduces Instant Messenger 1997 CE http://www.exit-reality.net/screenshots/aim17.gif
*WCBS and WNBC begin broadcasting out of New York as the first commercially-licensed TV stations in the United States
*Joe DiMaggio records his 56-game hitting streak, still the longest in baseball history


1953:  
Sonny Bono Copyright Act 1998 CE http://www.unc.edu/~unclng/bono.jpg]
*Recording and performing rights extended to nondramatic literary works.  
*The UNIVAC 1103 is the first commercial computer to use random access memory.


1969:
Digital Millennium Copyright Act 1998 CE X
*ARPANET, the predecessor to the Internet, makes the first networked connection between computers


1971:
Google Launches 1998 CE http://library2go.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/google.jpg
*Ray Tomlinson creates what was to become the standard Internet e-mail address format, using the @ sign to separate user names from host names.


1973:
Napster Starts 1999 CE http://www.pocketpicks.co.uk/latest/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/napster4_logo_270x242.jpg
*Vydec is the first manufacturer to produce a word processing system using floppy disks for storage [History of Word Processing Through 1986: http://www.stanford.edu/~bkunde/fb-press/articles/wdprhist.html]


1975:
iPod Released 2001 CE http://guides.macrumors.com/Image:Ipod1_2.jpg
*Bill Gates founds Microsoft


1976:
Napster Shuts Down 2001 CE X
*Copyright Act of 1976 - extended term to either 75 years or life of author plus 50 years, eliminated renewal option and registration requirement
*Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak found Apple Computer
*Wings' "Silly Love Songs" is Billboard's top record of the year


1983:
Creative Commons Launches 2002 CE http://mirrors.creativecommons.org/presskit/icons/cc.large.png
*Motorola DynaTAC 8000X is the first cellular phone to receive FCC approval in the U.S.


1985:
MySpace.com launches 2003 CE http://img183.imageshack.us/img183/3013/screenafterbqa1.png
*Microsoft Windows 1.0 released
*Steve Jobs leaves Apple Computer


1988:  
iTunes Music Store launches 2003 CE http://images.apple.com/ca/itunes/store/images/index_hero20070905.png
*Berne Convention Implementation Act of 1988 - established copyrights of U.S. works in Berne Convention countries
*George Michael's Faith is the top-selling album in the United States


1989:
Flickr.com launches 2004 CE http://www.aoddesign.com/blog/resources/flickr-logo-icons/
*Tim Berners-Lee develops the structure for the World Wide Web at CERN in Switzerland
*Richard Stallman releases the first version of the General Public License (GPL) for software, which allows free distribution and modification of the code under the proviso that derived works be available under the same license


1994:
Family Entertainment and Copyright Act 2005 CE X
*Uruguay Round Agreements Act (URAA) of 1994 - restored U.S. copyright for certain foreign works
*Netscape Navigator 1.0, the first widely distributed Web browser, released


1997:
YouTube.com launches 2005 CE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHjFxJVeCQs
*Apple Computer buys NeXT and Steve Jobs returns to Apple
*AOL introduces Instant Messenger


1998:  
===Notable Dates in US Copyright===
*Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998 - extended terms to 95/120 years or life plus 70 years
from [http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1a.html US Government Copyright Site]
*Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 - criminalized some cases of copyright infringement
August 18, 1787
*Google.com launches
    James Madison submitted to the framers of the Constitution a provision “to secure to literary authors their copyrights for a limited time.”
*Apple Computer introduces the first iMac
*Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On" is the top single in almost the entire world


1999:
June 23, 1789
*Napster, the first widely-popular music-sharing service, launches
    First federal bill relating to copyrights (H.R. 10) presented to the first Congress.


2001:
May 31, 1790
*First iPod released, with 5GB of storage, and Apple begins opening retail stores
    First copyright law enacted under the new U.S. Constitution. Term of 14 years with privilege of renewal for term of 14 years. Books, maps, and charts protected. Copyright registration made in the U.S. District Court where the author or proprietor resided.
*Napster shuts down after U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled Napster liable for copyright infringement in A&M Records v. Napster


2002:
June 9, 1790
*Creative Commons releases its first set of copyright licenses free for public use that apply the "some rights reserved" option to creative works.  
    First copyright entry, The Philadelphia Spelling Book by John Barry, registered in the U.S. District Court of Pennsylvania.


2003:
April 29, 1802
*MySpace.com launches
    Prints added to protected works.
*iTunes Music Store launches


2004:
   
*Flickr.com launches
February 3, 1831
    First general revision of the copyright law. Music added to works protected against unauthorized printing and vending. First term of copyright extended to 28 years with privilege of renewal for term of 14 years.  


2005:
August 18, 1856
*Family Entertainment and Copyright Act of 2005 - criminalized more cases of copyright infringement, permitted technology to "sanitize" works
    Dramatic compositions added to protected works.  
*YouTube.com launches


2006-2008:
March 3, 1865
*Remix culture
    Photographs added to protected works.  
*Lawrence Lessig steps down as head of Creative Commons [VIDEO]
*As of June 2008, iTunes Music Store has sold 5 billion songs, accounting for more than 70% of worldwide online digital music sales, and in 2008 became the leading music retailer in the United States.
*As of November 2007, 3.3 billion cell phone subscriptions


2008:
July 8, 1870
*Bill Gates retires from day-to-day operations at Microsoft
    Second general revision of the copyright law. Copyright activities, including deposit and registration, centralized in the Library of Congress. Works of art added to protected works. Act reserved to authors the right to create certain derivative works including translations and dramatizations. Indexing of the record of registrations began.
 
March 3, 1891
    First U.S. copyright law authorizing establishment of copyright relations with foreign countries. Records of works registered, now called the Catalog of Copyright Entries, published in book form for the first time in July 1891.
 
January 6, 1897
    Music protected against unauthorized public performance.
 
February 19, 1897
    Copyright Office established as a separate department of the Library of Congress. Position of Register of Copyrights created.
 
July 1, 1909
    Effective date of third general revision of the copyright law. Admission of certain classes of unpublished works to copyright registration. Term of statutory protection for a work copyrighted in published form measured from the date of publication of the work. Renewal term extended from 14 to 28 years.
 
August 24, 1912
    Motion pictures, previously registered as photographs, added to
    classes of protected works.
 
July 13, 1914
    President Wilson proclaimed U.S. adherence to Buenos Aires Copyright Convention of 1910, establishing convention protection between the United States and certain Latin American nations.
 
July 1, 1940
    Effective date of transfer of jurisdiction for the registration of commercial prints and labels from the Patent Office to the Copyright Office.
 
July 30, 1947
    Copyright law codified into positive law as title 17 of the U.S. Code.
 
January 1, 1953
    Recording and performing rights extended to nondramatic literary works.
 
September 16, 1955
    Effective date of the coming into force in the United States of the Universal Copyright Convention as signed at Geneva, Switzerland, on September 6, 1952. Proclaimed by President Eisenhower. Also, date of related changes in title 17 of the U.S. Code.
 
September 19, 1962
    First of nine special acts extending terms of subsisting renewal copyrights pending Congressional action on general copyright law revision.
 
February 15, 1972
    Effective date of act extending limited copyright protection to sound recordings fixed and first published on or after this date.
 
March 10, 1974
    United States became a member of the Convention for the Protection of Producers of Phonograms Against Unauthorized Duplication of Their Phonograms, which came into force on April 18, 1973.
 
July 10, 1974
    United States became party to the 1971 revision of the Universal Copyright Convention as revised at Paris, France.
 
October 19, 1976
    Fourth general revision of the copyright law signed by President Ford.
 
January 1, 1978
    Effective date of principal provisions of the 1976 copyright law. The term of protection for works created on or after this date consists of the life of the author and 50 years after the author's death. Numerous other provisions modernized the law.
 
December 12, 1980
    Copyright law amended regarding computer programs.
 
May 24, 1982
    Section 506(a) amended to provide that persons who infringe copyright willfully and for purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain shall be punished as provided in Section 2319 of title 18 of the U.S. Code, "Crimes and Criminal Procedure."
 
October 4, 1984
    Effective date of Record Rental Amendments of 1984. Grants the owner of copyright in a sound recording the right to authorize or prohibit the rental, lease, or lending of phonorecords for direct or indirect commercial purposes.
 
November 8, 1984
    Federal statutory protection for mask works became available under the Semiconductor Chip Protection Act with the Copyright Office assuming administrative responsibility. Copyright Office began registration of claims to protection on January 7, 1985.
 
June 30, 1986
    Manufacturing clause of the Copyright Act expired.
 
March 1, 1989
    United States adhered to the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works.
 
November 15, 1990
    Section 511 added to copyright law. Provided that states and state employees and instrumentalities are not immune under the Eleventh Amendment from suit for copyright infringement.
 
December 1, 1990
    Effective date of the Computer Software Rental Amendments Act of 1990. Grants the owner of copyright in computer programs the exclusive right to authorize or prohibit the rental, lease, or lending of the program for direct or indirect commercial purposes.
 
December 1, 1990
    Protection extended to architectural works. Section 106A added to copyright law by Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990. Granted to visual artists certain moral rights of attribution and integrity.
 
June 26, 1992
    Renewal registration became optional. Works copyrighted between January 1, 1964, and December 31, 1977, automatically renewed even if registration not made.
 
October 28, 1992
    Digital Audio Home Recording Act required serial copy management systems in digital audio recorders and imposed royalties on sale of digital audio recording devices and media. Royalties are collected, invested, and distributed among the owners of sound recording and musical compositions, certain performing artists, and/or their representatives. Clarified legality of home taping of analog and digital sound recordings for private noncommercial use.
 
December 8, 1993
    North American Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act (NAFTA) extended retroactive copyright protection to certain motion pictures first fixed in Canada or Mexico between January 1, 1978, and March 1, 1989, and published anywhere without a copyright notice; and/or to any work embodied in them; made permanent the prohibition of sound recordings rental.
December 17, 1993
 
 
    Copyright Royalty Tribunal Reform Act of 1993 eliminated the CRT and replaced it with ad hoc Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panels administered by the Librarian of Congress and the Copyright Office.
 
December 8, 1994
    Uruguay Round Agreements Act restored copyright to certain foreign works under protection in the source country but in the public domain in the United States; repealed sunset of the Software Rental Amendments Act of 1990; and created legal measures to prohibit the unauthorized fixation and trafficking in sound recordings of live musical performances and music videos.
 
November 16, 1997
    The No Electronic Theft Act defined “financial gain” in relation to copyright infringement and set penalties for willfully infringing a copyright either for purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain or by reproducing or distributing, including by electronic means phonorecords of a certain value.
 
October 27, 1998
    The Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act extended the term of copyright protection for most works to the life of the author plus 70 years after the author's death.
 
October 28, 1998
    The Digital Millennium Copyright Act provided for the implementation of the WIPO Copyright Treaty and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty; limited certain online infringement liability for Internet service providers; created an exemption permitting a temporary reproduction of a computer program made by activating a computer in the course of maintenance or repair; clarified the policy role of the Copyright Office; and created a form of protection for vessel hulls.
 
November 2, 2002
    The Technology, Education, and Copyright Harmonization (TEACH) Act of 2002 provided for the use of copyrighted works by accredited nonprofit educational institutions in distance education.

Latest revision as of 15:07, 17 December 2008

Terry Fischer Disaggregation Speech

Federal Copyright Law originates in a 1790 statute, adopted under the auspices of Article I, Section 8, Clause 8 of the Constitution Only 3 kinds of works were protected under the original statute: “Books, maps, charts” [later subsumed in general category of “all the writings of an author” (1909) Over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth century, Congress and the courts cooperated in expanding the set of protected creations “Prints” are added by statute in 1802 “Musical Compositions” in 1831 “Dramatic Works” In effect, were added to the galaxy by an 1856 statute granting the owners of copyrights in books the right to control public performance of their works – the only form of protection truly valuable to playwrights An extension confirmed in subsequent statutes “Photographs” were added by statute 1865

  • In the 1883 Burrow-Giles case, the SCt rejected a constitutional challenge to this provision, but only because the posed, studio photo of Oscar Wilde at issue in the case was, in the court’s judgment a “useful, new, harmonious, characteristic, and graceful picture.”

Gradually the aesthetic standard implicit in this judgment was softened, and copyright protection was tacitly extended to photos of all sorts So nowadays, not only is xeroxing a landscape photograph clearly illegal, but even taking a substantially similar photo may give rise to an infringement claim

  • Arguably, for example, Ansel Adams famous photograph of the snake river is infringed by this recent calendar picture

Photographs can even be infringed by copies in other media For example, in the judgment of the Second Circuit,

  • this photo was infringed by
  • this sculpture, despite the mockery plainly evident in the latter

“paintings; drawings; and chromos” were added to the statute in 1870 as were “statues”; meaning 3-dimensional works of fine art and “artistic models or designs” (1870) later subsumed in the broader category of “works of art” and “reproductions of works of arts” (1909) Around the turn of the century, Advertisements were accepted into the fold (1903) During the 19th c., courts had generally been hostile to the extension of copyright to ads – on the ground that they did nothing to “stimulate original investigation whether in literature, science or art, for the betterment of the people.”: [Bracha: “In J.L. Mott Iron Works, for example, the court stated that the copyright law “sought to It found that plaintiff’s “work” was “a mere priced catalogue illustrated with pictures of wares offered for sale” --L. Mott Iron Works v. Clow, 82 F. 316, 318-19 (7th Cir. 1897); See also: Baker v. Selden, 101 U.S. 105-107

  • This position is famously rejected by Justice Holmes in Bleistein (1903), which extended copyright protection to a circus poster:

Holmes reasoned: “A picture is none the less a picture, and none the less a subject of copyright that it is used for an advertisement.” Motion Pictures are invented by Thomas Edison in the late 19th c. By 1903, an intermediate appellate court had recognized them as copyrightable subject matter Edison v. Lubin, 122 F. 240 (3d Cir. 1903). “Lectures, sermons & addresses” are added to the list by statute in 1909

  • Growth continues in the 20th century

“Fictional characters” and “plots” are recognized by judicial decisions as objects of protection

An 1948 Copyright Office regulation, construing a provision of the 1909 statute abandoning the restriction to “fine art,” upheld by the SCt in Mazer (1954) extended copyright protection to useful objects, so long as their aesthetic and functional aspects were “conceptually separable” “Sound recordings” – as distinct from the compositions they embody – were added in 1972

Pantomimes and Choreographic works were formally added as part of the 1976 general reform of the statute Software, formally, in 1978

Finally, Architecture was grudgingly given special protection by statute in 1990, in response to the United States’ belated accession to the Berne Convention

  • Two gradual conceptual shifts underlie this steady expansion of the zone of coverage

The first, nicely traced by Oren Bracha in his dissertation in progress, is a movement from a conception of copyright as “trade specific regulation” to a conception that sees copyright as founded on the general principle of the right of creators to control their original works A change partially completed in the 1909 general reform of the Copyright Statute and fully completed in the 1976 Reform The second, emphasized by Peter Jaszi, is a change in what copyright is thought to protect: from the text to the “work” At the start of the 19th c., lawyers and Js thought that copyright law protected the sequence of words used in a book against verbatim reproduction By the early 20th century century, they thought it shielded the market value of the underlying work no matter how expressed The effect of this reconceptualization was to render illegal many forms of unauthorized use – including translations, abridgments, and motion-picture adaptations

Digital Media Timeline (INCOMPLETE)

First Video Game Invented 1948 CE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2E9iSQfGdg

Software Code circa 1950sCE http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/Html-source-code.png

Videotape Machine Invented 1956 CE http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4e/Ampex-avr3.jpg

ARPANET comes online 1969 CE http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6e/Arpnet-map-march-1977.png

Copyright Act of 1976 1976 CE X

First Cell Phone in U.S. 1983 CE http://www.bignet.org/regional/program/2005ISSC/StephanGardner/bigcellphone.jpg

Berne Convention 1988 CE X

Tim Berners-Lee invents Web 1989 CE http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:First_Web_Server.jpg]

GPL Introduced 1989 CE http://www.fsfeurope.org/projects/gplv3/GPLv3-logo-red.png

Uruguay Round 1994 CE X

Netscape Navigator 1.0 1994 CE http://techluver.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/netscape_logo.jpg

CD-ROMs Standardized 1995 CE http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/CD-ROM.png

AOL introduces Instant Messenger 1997 CE http://www.exit-reality.net/screenshots/aim17.gif

Sonny Bono Copyright Act 1998 CE http://www.unc.edu/~unclng/bono.jpg]

Digital Millennium Copyright Act 1998 CE X

Google Launches 1998 CE http://library2go.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/google.jpg

Napster Starts 1999 CE http://www.pocketpicks.co.uk/latest/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/napster4_logo_270x242.jpg

iPod Released 2001 CE http://guides.macrumors.com/Image:Ipod1_2.jpg

Napster Shuts Down 2001 CE X

Creative Commons Launches 2002 CE http://mirrors.creativecommons.org/presskit/icons/cc.large.png

MySpace.com launches 2003 CE http://img183.imageshack.us/img183/3013/screenafterbqa1.png

iTunes Music Store launches 2003 CE http://images.apple.com/ca/itunes/store/images/index_hero20070905.png

Flickr.com launches 2004 CE http://www.aoddesign.com/blog/resources/flickr-logo-icons/

Family Entertainment and Copyright Act 2005 CE X

YouTube.com launches 2005 CE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHjFxJVeCQs

Notable Dates in US Copyright

from US Government Copyright Site August 18, 1787 

   James Madison submitted to the framers of the Constitution a provision “to secure to literary authors their copyrights for a limited time.”

June 23, 1789 

   First federal bill relating to copyrights (H.R. 10) presented to the first Congress.

May 31, 1790 

   First copyright law enacted under the new U.S. Constitution. Term of 14 years with privilege of renewal for term of 14 years. Books, maps, and charts protected. Copyright registration made in the U.S. District Court where the author or proprietor resided.

June 9, 1790 

   First copyright entry, The Philadelphia Spelling Book by John Barry, registered in the U.S. District Court of Pennsylvania.

April 29, 1802 

   Prints added to protected works.


February 3, 1831 

   First general revision of the copyright law. Music added to works protected against unauthorized printing and vending. First term of copyright extended to 28 years with privilege of renewal for term of 14 years.

August 18, 1856 

   Dramatic compositions added to protected works.

March 3, 1865 

   Photographs added to protected works.

July 8, 1870 

   Second general revision of the copyright law. Copyright activities, including deposit and registration, centralized in the Library of Congress. Works of art added to protected works. Act reserved to authors the right to create certain derivative works including translations and dramatizations. Indexing of the record of registrations began.

March 3, 1891 

   First U.S. copyright law authorizing establishment of copyright relations with foreign countries. Records of works registered, now called the Catalog of Copyright Entries, published in book form for the first time in July 1891.

January 6, 1897 

   Music protected against unauthorized public performance.

February 19, 1897 

   Copyright Office established as a separate department of the Library of Congress. Position of Register of Copyrights created.

July 1, 1909 

   Effective date of third general revision of the copyright law. Admission of certain classes of unpublished works to copyright registration. Term of statutory protection for a work copyrighted in published form measured from the date of publication of the work. Renewal term extended from 14 to 28 years.

August 24, 1912 

   Motion pictures, previously registered as photographs, added to 
   classes of protected works.

July 13, 1914 

   President Wilson proclaimed U.S. adherence to Buenos Aires Copyright Convention of 1910, establishing convention protection between the United States and certain Latin American nations.

July 1, 1940 

   Effective date of transfer of jurisdiction for the registration of commercial prints and labels from the Patent Office to the Copyright Office.

July 30, 1947 

   Copyright law codified into positive law as title 17 of the U.S. Code.

January 1, 1953 

   Recording and performing rights extended to nondramatic literary works.

September 16, 1955 

   Effective date of the coming into force in the United States of the Universal Copyright Convention as signed at Geneva, Switzerland, on September 6, 1952. Proclaimed by President Eisenhower. Also, date of related changes in title 17 of the U.S. Code.

September 19, 1962 

   First of nine special acts extending terms of subsisting renewal copyrights pending Congressional action on general copyright law revision.

February 15, 1972 

   Effective date of act extending limited copyright protection to sound recordings fixed and first published on or after this date.

March 10, 1974 

   United States became a member of the Convention for the Protection of Producers of Phonograms Against Unauthorized Duplication of Their Phonograms, which came into force on April 18, 1973.

July 10, 1974 

   United States became party to the 1971 revision of the Universal Copyright Convention as revised at Paris, France.

October 19, 1976 

   Fourth general revision of the copyright law signed by President Ford.

January 1, 1978 

   Effective date of principal provisions of the 1976 copyright law. The term of protection for works created on or after this date consists of the life of the author and 50 years after the author's death. Numerous other provisions modernized the law.

December 12, 1980 

   Copyright law amended regarding computer programs.

May 24, 1982 

   Section 506(a) amended to provide that persons who infringe copyright willfully and for purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain shall be punished as provided in Section 2319 of title 18 of the U.S. Code, "Crimes and Criminal Procedure."

October 4, 1984 

   Effective date of Record Rental Amendments of 1984. Grants the owner of copyright in a sound recording the right to authorize or prohibit the rental, lease, or lending of phonorecords for direct or indirect commercial purposes.

November 8, 1984 

   Federal statutory protection for mask works became available under the Semiconductor Chip Protection Act with the Copyright Office assuming administrative responsibility. Copyright Office began registration of claims to protection on January 7, 1985.

June 30, 1986 

   Manufacturing clause of the Copyright Act expired.

March 1, 1989 

   United States adhered to the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works.

November 15, 1990 

   Section 511 added to copyright law. Provided that states and state employees and instrumentalities are not immune under the Eleventh Amendment from suit for copyright infringement.

December 1, 1990 

   Effective date of the Computer Software Rental Amendments Act of 1990. Grants the owner of copyright in computer programs the exclusive right to authorize or prohibit the rental, lease, or lending of the program for direct or indirect commercial purposes.

December 1, 1990 

   Protection extended to architectural works. Section 106A added to copyright law by Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990. Granted to visual artists certain moral rights of attribution and integrity.

June 26, 1992 

   Renewal registration became optional. Works copyrighted between January 1, 1964, and December 31, 1977, automatically renewed even if registration not made.

October 28, 1992 

   Digital Audio Home Recording Act required serial copy management systems in digital audio recorders and imposed royalties on sale of digital audio recording devices and media. Royalties are collected, invested, and distributed among the owners of sound recording and musical compositions, certain performing artists, and/or their representatives. Clarified legality of home taping of analog and digital sound recordings for private noncommercial use.

December 8, 1993 

   North American Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act (NAFTA) extended retroactive copyright protection to certain motion pictures first fixed in Canada or Mexico between January 1, 1978, and March 1, 1989, and published anywhere without a copyright notice; and/or to any work embodied in them; made permanent the prohibition of sound recordings rental.

December 17, 1993 


   Copyright Royalty Tribunal Reform Act of 1993 eliminated the CRT and replaced it with ad hoc Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panels administered by the Librarian of Congress and the Copyright Office.

December 8, 1994 

   Uruguay Round Agreements Act restored copyright to certain foreign works under protection in the source country but in the public domain in the United States; repealed sunset of the Software Rental Amendments Act of 1990; and created legal measures to prohibit the unauthorized fixation and trafficking in sound recordings of live musical performances and music videos.

November 16, 1997 

   The No Electronic Theft Act defined “financial gain” in relation to copyright infringement and set penalties for willfully infringing a copyright either for purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain or by reproducing or distributing, including by electronic means phonorecords of a certain value.

October 27, 1998 

   The Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act extended the term of copyright protection for most works to the life of the author plus 70 years after the author's death.

October 28, 1998 

   The Digital Millennium Copyright Act provided for the implementation of the WIPO Copyright Treaty and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty; limited certain online infringement liability for Internet service providers; created an exemption permitting a temporary reproduction of a computer program made by activating a computer in the course of maintenance or repair; clarified the policy role of the Copyright Office; and created a form of protection for vessel hulls.

November 2, 2002 

   The Technology, Education, and Copyright Harmonization (TEACH) Act of 2002 provided for the use of copyrighted works by accredited nonprofit educational institutions in distance education.
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