comment on copyright case?

I haven't seen any commentary about this case:

> Publisher's Copyright of Magazine Issue Won't Protect Individual Authors
>
> Copyright registration of an entire issue of a magazine does not
> extend protection to the individual articles within the magazine,
> a federal court in New York ruled. The U.S. District Court for
> the Southern District of New York found that an author's failure
> to obtain copyright registration of her columns left her without
> a remedy for "abject and reprehensible" copying by another
> publisher. (IP Law Weekly -- For complete story, see
> http://www.lawnewsnetwork.com/stories/A21143-2000Apr13.html)

Although I'm just a lowly 1L, it seems to me that the summary judgment order was wrong in this case. Failure to register copyright prohibits statutory damages, but isn't the copyright owner still entitled to actual and consequential damages? What's the point of the 1976 change removing the need to register if registration is still required for protection?

Laureen C. Urquiaga
Access Services/Copyright Librarian
Howard W. Hunter Law Library
<urquiagal[_at_]lawgate.byu.edu> Received on Mon Apr 24 2000 - 18:44:28 GMT