Copyrights For Your Business -- Are You Safe or Sorry?  I
recently attended a talk on copyright law given by Bill Rambo,
an attorney practicing intellectual property law in Cincinnati
and Mike Reed with the Porter Wright Law Firm. To follow are my
condensed notes of the issues that I found most interesting.
Just
remember, I am not a lawyer. Be sure to consult a specialist
in this area if you
have questions. Who is the Copyright Owner?
You may be surprised to find that your business
only owns the rights to the work outright if it is done by an employee.
If done by an independent contractor, the right to the work belongs
to the contractor (regardless of whether money is involved or not) and
can
only be transferred by a written agreement that spells out the
terms. How is Something Copyright Protected?
Copyrights are in effect automatically,
and the works are protected even without the presence of a copyright
statement on the work. The filing of formal copyright applications
are not necessary. The only value to filing formally is the entitlement
to
statutory damages and attorney's fees, should you successfully
win your case against someone who infringes on your copyright.
Do "Copyright Police" Monitor for Misuse?
No. There is
no agency that works on your behalf for monitoring copyright
infringement. You must be on the look out for and police misuse
yourself.
Is Anything Copyright Free?
Yes. Federal works are not copyright
protected. You may use them freely.
Limited vs Unlimited Use
Be aware that if you are granted the right
to use a photo or other item, it may be for limited use, such
as for a brochure. That does not mean that you can also use it for a
Web
site.
You must ask and obtain permission for each specific use.
Oh! It was nice to hear that it is OK to make a copy of a purchased
CD for personal use!
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