Exam 6: Intellectual Property

Performing rights societies. Why are performing rights societies, such as the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) and Broadcast Music, Inc (BMI), important to radio stations, webcasters and copyright owners?

The unauthorized posting of a copyrighted sound recording, in its entirety, on a noncommercial Web site is a fair use as long as users are not charged to access the recording.

Sony Corporation of America v. Universal City Studios (the Betamax case). Explain the significance of the Betamax case. Is it precedent for students to claim fair use when downloading copyrighted music and video?

In AFP v. Morel, Agence France Presse and Getty Images disseminated photos taken by Daniel Morel of the Haiti earthquake, photos that were tweeted from the island. A federal court ruled:

Fair use is a privilege in copyright law to allow society to learn about, and comment upon, original copyrighted expression.

An Internet Service Provider has a legal duty to search carefully and remove postings containing unauthorized copyrighted content.

A court concluded Shepard Fairey's famous Hope poster was a transformative fair use of an Associated Press news photo.

It is a fair use for a company to print copies of online magazine articles for employees of a department.

For human (not corporate) authors, copyright in a work created today will last for 50 years.

A trademark infringes another mark if it confuses consumers about the origin of the product.

To sue successfully for copyright infringement, the plaintiff must establish that:

When determining fair use, courts often look to see if the copier "transformed" the copied excerpts into a new and original creation.

When a crew of KBMX-TV tapes fire footage for the 6 p.m. news, copyright in the tape belongs to the news crew.

Students sometimes proclaim, "Let information be free." The argument goes something like this: It is so easy and inexpensive to acquire and trade information on the Internet that the information ought to be free. Music and video, too. Those gargantuan music and film companies have ripped people off long enough, making consumers buy a 15-song CD for $18 in order for buyers to acquire the one song they want. Yet the Recording Industry of America sues some of its own customers-even high school students-who illegally download copyrighted music and videos. Regardless of your view, argue on behalf of RIAA, Disney, SONY and other copyright owners. Make the case for (l) why widespread free downloading of music and video is not a fair use to the corporate owners and songwriters, and (2) why copyright owners say society will benefit, serving the purpose of the copyright law, if free downloading is stopped.

Filmmakers and videographers wishing to include a recording of Adele singing "Take It All" need:

The main purpose of copyright is to encourage creative expression benefiting society by allowing authors of copyrighted works exclusive rights for a limited time to exploit-or not exploit-their work.

A news story cannot be copyrighted because it contains newsworthy facts.

The Nation magazine lost its fair use copyright case to Harper & Row for several reasons, including the fact that the Nation "scooped" Harper & Rows' right to first publish excerpts of the Ford memoirs in Time magazine, thus diminishing the value of the original work.

To avoid lawsuits over copyright infringement, radio stations negotiate performing rights licenses from organizations such as ASCAP and BMI.

Works published without copyright notice pass into the public domain immediately.