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U
S A 16. COPYRIGHT IN NEWSPAPERS The Copyright Act of 1976 created a single federal system to
protect published and unpublished original works of authorship,
from articles and song lyrics to literary characters and dramatic
works. In 1988, the United States became a member of the Berne Convention
for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works. The Berne Convention
Implementation Act of 1988 amended the 1976 Copyright Act and eliminated
many of the act?s formal requirements, such as copyright notice,
recordation and registration. For example, for works published on or after March 1, 1989,
notice of copyright is permissive. A copyright owner no longer forfeits
copyright by failing to place a copyright notice on the publicly
distributed copies of the work. For publishers, copyright issues
often arise when seeking permission to print excerpts from an author?s
work or when granting that permission to another. Copyright also is a frequent issue with commissions and work
for hire. A publisher holds the copyright to a newspaper or magazine
article, for instance, if it was written by an employee within the
scope of his employment. If the article was outside the scope of
that employment, the employer must make other arrangements with
the employee. If the writer was not an employee, the publisher will
own the copyright to the article only if the work was specially
ordered or commissioned and both parties agree in writing that the
work is to be considered work made for hire. A copyright owner has
a statutory monopoly over the publication and use of the work. He
has the exclusive right to reproduce the work, to prepare derivative
works, to distribute copies of the work and to perform it publicly.
However, those exclusive rights often conflict with the First Amendment
and the public interest in free information. The act?s ?fair use
doctrine? balances those interests. The fair use doctrine, which is contained in Section 107 of
the act, provides that fair use shall be ?for purposes such as criticism,
comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research.?? In
determining whether such use is fair, a judge will consider the
following: the purpose and character of the use, such as whether
it is for commercial purposes; the nature of the copyrighted work;
the amount used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole;
and the effect of the use on the potential market for the copyrighted
work.
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