Re: derivative work

On 1/27/00, Calle Ostergaard <info[_at_]troll-company.dk> wrote:
>
> Can anyone explain to me the difference between a "copy" of an original
> work and a derivative work -- in case of for instance a sculpture?
>
> Will it be sufficient to change minor details in the original work
> or does the derivative work have to appear clearly different from
> the original? -- e.g. if I paint new eyebrow and/or moustache on
> Donald Duck eventually give him a new shirt -- have I then created
> a derivative work?
>
> What is case law on this?

When you ask "will it be sufficient to change minor details..." I wonder if you are laboring under the misapprehension that you cannot reproduce copies of an original work, but that you can make derivatives. However the Copyright Act reserves to the author of the original the exclusive right to make derivatives as well as to reproduce the work. If you put a mustache on Donald Duck you may have created a derivative, but you have still infringed the copyright. In the case of a sculpture, you can put arms on Aphrodite -- but only because its in the public domain.

So the question only makes sense if you have been authorized to make a derivative, but not a copy, in which case the terms of the license from the author will establish whether it is "sufficient to change minor details", and ordinarily the license will authorize the derivative in terms that avoid a misunderstanding. E.g., you might be authorized by Disney to create a sculpture of Donald Duck, which would be a derivative of the cartoon graphic with or without the mustache.

John Noble
<jnoble[_at_]dgsys.com> Received on Fri Jan 28 2000 - 15:08:27 GMT