Re: Copyright Date

From: Paul Robinson <PAUL[_at_]TDR.COM>
Date: Mon, 7 Feb 1994 14:38:57 -0500 (EST)

From: Paul Robinson <PAUL[_at_]TDR.COM>
Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA

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In a message of Mon Jan 10, 1994 11:25 am EST, John Givens <jgivens[_at_]netcom.com>, writes in list cni-copyright[_at_]cni.org, as follows:

> > I do not believe that a wrong notice, as well as not having a
> > notice has any effect anymore (since the BCIA - 3/1/89) on
> > whether or not the work is protected by copyright. There is
> > frankly no way that such could operate to eject the work into
> > the public domain anymore. Copyright protection is now
> > automatic (in the US),
>
> ----------------------------------------------------
> Your reasoning sounds good -- unless Thaddeus wants to argue that
> saying "Copyright 1995" (in 1993) is equivalent to saying
> "This work is not currently copyrighted"
>
> Wouldn't that eject it into the public domain?

Here's my 2c understanding.

With the accession to the Berne Convention by the United States, copyright notices became optional for all works protected under the convention. As I am not certain if Berne encompases phonorecords, I would assume that one should rely on the Phonolog convention and use the (P) notice there, and in such a case it may be possible - outside of the U.S.

Works in the United States - including phonorecords - do not require copyright notices at all due to the implementation act. Erroneous notices on works published after 1988 are of no effect (unless the notice implies the work is public domain).

Whether works published before the U.S. became a signatory to Berne is a question which would have to be settled by the courts, as to whether a work which was, say, simultaneously published in the U.S. and Canada before 1988 and thus protected under Berne anyway, is entitled to be published without notice and still be protected.

In my opinion, if the treaty cannot be held to give protection to works published before it was ascended to by the U.S., then works first published prior to 1988 which lack notice except under the somewhat more lenient rules than the 1909 act, become part of the public domain.

If this is critical to someone here, they should see a lawyer. This is not settled law and the courts could go either way.

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Paul Robinson - Paul[_at_]TDR.COM
Voted "Largest Polluter of the (IETF) list" by Randy Bush <randy[_at_]psg.com>
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Received on Mon Feb 07 1994 - 19:52:31 GMT