[CNI-COPYRIGHT] Re: Framing in a.k.a. Branding outsideWebResources

>>> tochoa[_at_]law.whittier.edu >>> wrote: " So long as the complete display
can be seen by scrolling up and down or right and left, the fact that it is framed by another site should, in my opinion, be a matter of unfair competition law, not copyright."

>>> lawlists[_at_]bodi.com 04/08/03 12:13AM >>> replied:
Why isn't it covered by copright's derivative works provisions? I think that it is. - Bodi
<<<<<

Apparently you didn't read my message of April 6 very carefully. Here is what I wrote about the copyright/derivative work argument:

>>> tochoa[_at_]law.whittier.edu 04/06/03 05:10PM >>> wrote:
[T]here are certainly precedents that would suggest otherwise. Lee v. ART Co. (7th Cir. 1997) suggests that adding a frame to a picture without modifying the picture itself does NOT create a derivative work. [There is a conflict with Mirage Editions v. Albuquerque ART Co. (9th Cir. 1988), which holds the other way.] So, I think this issue is far from settled.
<<<<<

In other words, the argument is that framing doesn't modify or change the original work at all. It's still the same work it always was; it's just that you can't see all of it at once (which is true of many websites in an ordinary browser without framing). Surely if I own the copyright in a painting, displaying it in a different frame does not create a derivative work. I don't see why online framing should be any different, UNLESS it creates a likelihood of confusion (becuase it isn't clear that it was framed by another) or otherwise constitutes unfair competition (because it obscures ads that would otherwise be seen). But those are unfair competition arguments. I don't see it as a copyright issue, but I do recognize that others may have a different opinion.

Tyler T. Ochoa
Professor and Co-Director
Center for Intellectual Property Law
Whittier Law School
3333 Harbor Blvd.
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
(714) 444-4141, ext. 243
(714) 444-1854 (fax)
tochoa[_at_]law.whittier.edu Received on Thu Apr 10 2003 - 08:03:47 GMT