Justification and scope of Copyright

Is a copyright really necessary and what kind of rights does it actually confer

Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;}

Justification

The first act to directly protect the rights of authors was the British Statute of Anne, full title “An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by vesting the Copies of Printed Books in the Authors or Purchasers of such Copies, during the Times therein mentioned”. Copyright is considered - Since its creation - a property right and attempts to balance the rights of the producer with the rights of society at large. Intellectual property laws according to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), which include industrial property and copyright, exist for primarily two reasons:

"One is to give legal expression to the ethical and economic rights of creators in their creations and to the rights of the public in accessing those creations. The second is to encourage creativity, and the dissemination and application of its results, and to promote fair trade, which would contribute to economic and social development."

Under US copyright law, the justification can be found in the constitutional provision authorizing Congress to enact copyright laws: Article I, section 8, clause 8 provides that "Congress shall have Power ... To promote the Progress of Science ... by securing for limited Times to Authors ... the exclusive Right to their ... Writings." The term "science" has been used to refer to human knowledge in general. The justification for US copyright is thus seen to be that the prospect of copyright grants encourages authors to make public their writings, which will then become a part of the public rights after a limited period. The theory that copyright is a natural property right of authors has been rejected in a series of decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court beginning with Wheaton v. Peters (1834).

Scope

Issued by State Department of Intellectual Property of Ukraine, A copyright certificate for proof of the Fermat theorem may apply to a wide range of creative, intellectual, scientific, or artistic forms, or "works". Specifics vary by jurisdiction, but these can include poems, theses, plays, other literary works, movies, dances, musical compositions, audio recordings, paintings, drawings, sculptures, photographs, software, radio and television and broadcasts.

Copyright does not protect ideas and information themselves, only the form or manner in which they are expressed. For example, the copyright to a Mickey Mouse cartoon restricts others from making copies of the cartoon or creating derivative works based on Disney's particular anthropomorphic mouse, but it allows the creation of other works about anthropomorphic mice in general, so long as they're not copies or adaptations of Disney's mouse. In many jurisdictions, copyright law makes exceptions to these restrictions when the work is copied for the purpose of commentary or other related uses (See Fair Use, Fair Dealing). On the other hand, other laws — such as trademark and patent law — may impose additional restrictions that copyright does not.

Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com

ABOUT THE AUTHOR