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1909: Revision of the US Copyright Act
A major revision of the US Copyright Act was completed in 1909. The bill broadened the scope of categories protected to include all works of authorship, and extended the term of protection to 28 years with a possible renewal of 28. The Congress addressed the difficulty of balancing the public interest with proprietor’s rights:
“The main object to be desired in expanding copyright protection accorded to music has been to give the composer an adequate return for the value of his composition, and it has been a serious and difficult task to combine the protection of the composer with the protection of the public, and to so frame an act that it would accomplish the double purpose of securing to the composer an adequate return for all use made of his composition and at the same time prevent the formation of oppressive monopolies, which might be founded upon the very rights granted to the composer for the purpose of protecting his interests” (H.R. Rep. No. 2222, 60th Cong., 2nd Sess., p. 7 [1909]).
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1973: Williams and Wilkins Co. v. United States
Williams and Wilkins, publishers of specialized medical journals, sued the National Library of Medicine (NLM) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH)charging that the agencies had infringed copyright by making unauthorized photocopies of articles featured within their publications and distributing them to medical researchers. The US Court of Claims held that medicine, and medical research would be harmed by finding an infringement, and since the Copyright Act was under revision by Congress, it was better to allow the status quo to continue in the interim. In the decision, Judge Davis stated, “the court holds, based on the type and context of use by NIH and NLM as shown by the record, that there has been no infringement, that the challenged use is ‘fair’ in view of the combination of all of the factors involved in consideration of ‘fair’ or ‘unfair’ use enumerated in the opinion, that the record fails to show a significant detriment to plaintiff but demonstrates injury to medical and scientific research if photocopying of this kind is held unlawful, and that there is a need for congressional treatment of the problems of photocopying.”
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1976: Revision of the US Copyright Act
Copyright term extended to 50 years after the death of the author. Fair use of video in classrooms clarified
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1983: Encyclopedia Britannica Educational Corp. v. Crooks
Encyclopedia Britannica sued the Board of Cooperative Educational Services, a consortium of public school districts, for systematically taping educational programs that were broadcast on public television stations and making copies available to member schools. The court found that the actions of the school board would have a detrimental effect on the market of the commercially produced programs and that the use was not a fair use.
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1986: Maxtone-Graham v. Burtchaell
Maxtone-Graham wrote a book containing women’s stories of unwanted pregnancy and abortion in 1973. She denied Burtchaell’s request to use excerpts from her published interviews. He published them anyway. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals found that quoting 4.3% of an author’s work was not excessive and that Burtchaell’s use of the narratives was a fair use.
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1987: Salinger v. Random House
After an initial decision in favor of J.D. Salinger’s unauthorized biographer, Ian Hamilton, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals found that quoting or paraphrasing from unpublished materials (Salinger’s letters) in an unauthorized biography was not fair use and the book was never published.
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1988: Berne Convention
The United States became a Berne signatory in 1988. The major changes for the US copyright system as a result of Berne were: greater protection for proprietors, new copyright relationships with twenty-four countries, and elimination of the requirement of copyright notice for copyright protection.
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1990: Circulation of Computer Software
Congress amended the Copyright Act to prohibit commercial lending of computer software. The amendment noted that libraries could lend software provided the “copy of a computer program which is lent by such library has affixed to the packaging containing the program a warning of copyright.” The amendment was a modification of the first sale doctrine.
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1993: NII & Playboy
A Federal District Court in New York ruled that Kinko’s Graphic Corporation infringed copyrights, and did not exercise fair use, when it photocopied coursepacks that included book chapters, and then sold them to students for classwork. The court found that most of the fair use factors worked against Kinko’s in this case, especially given Kinko’s profit motive in making the copies. Additionally, the court found that the classroom guidelines did not apply to Kinko’s. The court did not rule that coursepacks cannot constitute fair use in other circumstances.
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Netcom, Scientology & The White Paper
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MDS, TRIPS, WIPO, Databases
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