Anyone who attempts a creative work should pay attention to copyright.
The intellectual property laws protect the artis, publisher in unauthorized uses of his work. In addition, the strict requirements prevent performing it in public, filming it, broadcasting it, or any adaptation of it.
In the late 15th century in Venice and in the 16th century in England, Royal patent grants gave government control over contents of creative work. These grants were used to generate government revenue.
In 1710, in England, the Statue of Anne, set the period of encroachment at 28 years, before it could pass into public domain.
During the Industrial Age, about 1852, France extended laws to the international domain. At the Berne Convention, in 1886, ten countries joined.
In 1988, the United States entered making it compatible with 140 countries as members.
It should be noted that the U.S. copyrighty laws is founded and limited by Article I, Section 8 of the Federal Constitution. In 1776, Congress declared any tangible medium of expression tht included the literary, musical, dramatic, pantomine, graphical, and sculptural inventions. Later, motion pictures sound recordings, computer programs were added.
In 1976, the period of copyright was generally recognized as the life of the author plus seventy years. For any anonymous works, the term was set at 95 years from first publication or4 120 years from date of creation of the work.
All members of the World Trade Organization are required to establish minimum levels of copyright protection.
Works for Hire, created by employees, are awarded to employers. The Fair Use Doctrine permitted copyrighted use material to education, news reporting, criticism, parody, and home consumption as long as those activities did not impair the copyright owners’ ability to exploit potential markets.
Now on the internet, self-published composers can present their material on a segnment, “My Space.”
They can sell songs directly to the public. Sno-Cap, a San Francisco based company manages a registry of copyrighted music. Sno-Cap was co-founded by Shawn Fanning. The company maintains a file of fair use copyrighted music.
irene g. lebow is the author of three recently published books. One is a romance, “Heartstrings to Strum,” the other is a children’s book
Tags: Distribute, Perform, protect, Reproduce
