On 12/28/07, David Mishkin <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> I would like to respectfully disagree with Pam's information.  You do
> NOT need to register your work to have any copyright protection.  The
> law states that "if it is created, it is copyrighted"

Except that in this case, the film was created before the 1978 change
in the law. Works prior to 1978 that do not have a copyright notice
generally are not protected by copyright. One wrinkle to this is that
the work must have been "published"; if it wasn't "published", then a
lack of copyright notice is irrelevant and the work is considered
protected in perpetuity. Of course, the arguments then become "what
does 'published' mean?"

(For more on this, see http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ22.html, How
to Investigate the Copyright Status of a Work.)

To be safe, I would register a copyright for this film. This will
provide more substantial proof that the work was, in fact, abandoned.

I'm not so clear on Pam's "donation" vs. "sell" argument. I don't
think you could successfully argue that giving something away is "fair
use". The idea behind copyright is to not only protect profit, but
potential profit. So even if you don't technically charge for an item,
providing "free" copies destroys the potential future sale of copies,
and therefore is not fair use.

At any rate, proper copyright registration should make it clear who
has claim to the rights, and therefore licensing, of the material.
There are a lot of pitfalls in this area, so perhaps the best course
of action is to consult an attorney that specializes in this area. I
am not an attorney, so please do not take my statements as such.

-- 
Margaret
[log in to unmask]

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