Common law copyright
Common law copyright is the legal doctrine that grants copyright protection based on
In part, it is based on the contention that
The "natural right" aspect of the doctrine was addressed by the courts in the
In the United States, common law copyright also refers to state-level copyrights. These are ordinarily
Battle of the booksellers (UK)
Until the enactment of the
When
The Lords agreed that an author had a pre-existing right "to dispose of his manuscript ... until he parts with it" (Lord Chief Justice De Grey), but that prior to the Statute of Anne the right to copy was "founded on patents, privileges, Star Chamber Decrees and the bylaws of the Stationers' Company" (Lord Camden). In any event, they determined, the Statute of Anne superseded any common law rights of the author which may have existed prior to the statute. The previous entry here maintained that the Lords found that "parliament had limited these natural rights in order to strike a more appropriate balance between the interests of the author and the wider social good," quoting Ronan.[5] However, the use of the phrase "natural rights" is not justified by the historical record. Lord Chief Baron Smythe stated that the Statute of Anne was "a compromise between authors and printers contending for a perpetuity, and those who denied them any statute right," but the Lords in no way accepted that such a common law or 'natural' right of the author in perpetuity ever existed or developed. Lord Chief Justice De Grey saw no evidence of any such right in the courts in the 300 years since the invention of the printing press and charged that "the idea of a common-law right [of the author] in perpetuity was not taken up till after that failure in procuring a new statute for an enlargement of the term."[6]
According to Patterson and Livingston there remains confusion about the nature of copyright ever since the Donaldson case. Copyright has come to be viewed as a natural law right of the author as well as the statutory grant of a limited monopoly. One theory holds that copyright's origin occurs at the creation of a work, the other that it origin exists only through the copyright statute.[7]
Wheaton v. Peters (US)
In 1834 the
State law copyright claims
Common law copyright is also the term used in the United States to refer to most state law copyright claims. In 1978, Section 301 took effect, preempting all state common law copyright claims that fall under subject matter in Section 102 (Subject matter of copyright: In general) or Section 103 (Subject matter of copyright: Compilations and derivative works) except for sound recordings fixed before February 15, 1972.[9] This leaves a sizable amount of work that still falls under a mixture of state statutes and common law copyright.[10]
Most state-law copyright claims are
Major changes to the federal laws of copyright for pre-1972 sound recordings were made in the 2018 enactment of the Music Modernization Act, including the CLASSICS Act. Such works are now covered by federal copyright law. Federal preemption over the state common law (and conflicting state statutes) implies that federal copyright for those works will now have definite scope and duration, as specified in the federal statutes. Potentially non-preempted common law rights may remain to be identified and addressed as further rulings unfold under the new statute.
See also
References
- ^ a b Capitol Records v. Naxos of America, 2005 NY Slip Of 02570 (NY Ct App April 5, 2005)
- ^ McGreal, Rory (2004). Stealing the Goose: Copyright and learning. The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning.
- ISBN 978-1-84542-282-0.
- ISBN 978-1-84542-282-0.
- ISBN 978-1-84542-282-0.
- ^ "The History of Copyright: Donaldson v. Beckett". Copyrighthistory.com. Retrieved 2012-07-18.
- ISBN 978-0-387-94832-4.
- ISBN 978-0-275-98883-8.
- ^ 17 U.S.C. ยง 301(c)
- ^ "Protection for Pre-1972 Sound Recordings". Retrieved 2010-06-25.
- ^ Klepper, David (December 20, 2016). "OWNERS OF 1967 HIT SONG 'HAPPY TOGETHER' LOSE COPYRIGHT CASE". Associated Press. Archived from the original on December 21, 2016. Retrieved December 20, 2016.