Copyright Law –Ronald W. Staudt

Class 6February 9, 2009

Idea/Expression Dichotomy

102(b) In no case does copyright protection for

an original work of authorship extend to any idea, procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle, or discovery, regardless of the form in which it is described, explained, illustrated, or embodied in such work.

Idea/Expression Dichotomy

Baker v. Selden Central doctrine –

ideas/systems/recipes- are out—copyright protects only expression.Merger re “methods and diagrams”

Secondary themesExplain v. use

• “…not given for the purpose of publication in other works explanatory of the art, but for the purpose of practical application.” still the law?

“Blank account books are not the subject of copyright…”

Idea/Expression Dichotomy

Morrissey v. Procter & GambleThin v. Merger

merger doctrine extended – contest rules out

Continental CasualtyLegal form in but thin

Blank Form Cases

Baker v. SeldenAccount books out

MorrisseyContest rules out

Continental CasualtyLegal form in but thin

Bibbero SystemsSuperbill out

ABR Benefits Services v. NCO GroupCopyrightability - Q of Fact re innovative

arrangement

Compilations and derivative works

§ 103.  Subject matter of copyright: Compilations and derivative works

(a) The subject matter of copyright as specified by section 102 includes compilations and derivative works, but protection for a work employing preexisting material in which copyright subsists does not extend to any part of the work in which such material has been used unlawfully.   (b) The copyright in a compilation or derivative work extends only to the material contributed by the author of such work, as distinguished from the preexisting material employed in the work, and does not imply any exclusive right in the preexisting material. The copyright in such work is independent of, and does not affect or enlarge the scope, duration, ownership, or subsistence of, any copyright protection in the preexisting material.

Compilations

§ 101.  Definitions

***  A "compilation" is a work formed by the collection and assembling of preexisting materials or of data that are selected, coordinated, or arranged in such a way that the resulting work as a whole constitutes an original work of authorship. The term "compilation" includes collective works.

Today’s assignment

Feist Publications, Inc v. Rural Telephone Service Rockford Map gloss

Nash v. CBS Wainwright Securities Questions p. 130

Bleistein v. Donaldson188 U.S. 239 (1903)

Justice Holmes:

“The least pretentious picture has more originality in it than directories and the like, which may be copyrighted.”

Jeweler’s Circular Publishingand Rockford Map

“The man who goes through the streets of a town and puts down the names of each of the inhabitants, with their occupations and their street number, acquires material of which he is the author…” Jeweler’s Circular, 1922.

“All concede, …that "a second compiler may check back his independent work upon the original compilation." The right to "check back" does not imply a right to start with the copyrighted work. Everyone must do the same basic work, the same "industrious collection." "A subsequent compiler is bound to set about doing for himself what the first compiler has done." … The second compiler must assemble the material as if there had never been a first compilation; only then may the second compiler use the first as a check on error. “ Rockford Map, 1985. 

Feist black letter facts are not copyrightablecompilations of facts generally are100 uncopyrightable facts do not magically

change their status when gathered together in one place

To qualify for copyright protection, a work must be original to the author independently created by the author (as opposed to

copied from other works), and at least some minimal degree of creativity

two poets, each ignorant of the other, compose identical poems. Neither work is novel, yet both are original and, hence, copyrightable.

Feist black letter (cont.) Originality is a constitutional requirement.

facts do not owe their origin to an act of authorship.

choices as to selection and arrangement, so long as they are made independently by the compiler and entail a minimal degree of creativity, are sufficiently original that Congress may protect such compilations through the copyright laws.

Originality remains the sine qua non of copyright; accordingly copyright protection may extend only to those components of a work that are original to the author.

This inevitably means that the copyright in a factual compilation is thin

Feist black letter (cont.) The primary objective of copyright is not to reward the

labor of authors, but "to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts

The "sweat of the brow" doctrine had numerous flaws, the most glaring being that it extended copyright protection in a compilation beyond selection and arrangement -- the compiler's original contributions -- to the facts themselves.

to make clear that the copyright in a compilation did not extend to the facts themselves, Congress enacted § 103.

The statute identifies three distinct elements and requires each to be met for a work to qualify as a copyrightable compilation: Collection and assembly of preexisting material Selection coordination and arrangement, and Creation, by #2, of an “original” work of authorship

Feist application

… did Feist, by taking 1,309 names, towns, and telephone numbers from Rural's white pages, copy anything that was "original" to Rural? Certainly, the raw data does not satisfy the

originality requirement. Rural may have been the first to discover and report the names, towns, and telephone numbers of its subscribers, but this data does not "'owe its origin'" to Rural.  

In preparing its white pages, Rural simply takes the data provided by its subscribers and lists it alphabetically by surname. The end product is a garden-variety white pages directory, devoid of even the slightest trace of creativity.

copyright rewards originality, not effort

Questions p. 123

What is not “obvious” or “commonplace”adding new categories to phone book?all Warhol museums

Is “sweat of the brow” necessary even if not sufficient?

Rockford Map?

                                              

People viewing the dead body of John Dillinger (Associated Press)

Nash

FactsAuthors as creators and borrowersNash as novelist v. historianToskvig and HoehlingNash holding v. Nash language

Wainwright Securities Nihon Keizai Shimbun

Questions p. 130Selection, coordination & arrangement of

historical factsWashington Post Pulitzer Prize hoax