Re: Wash. Post Claims Copyright of Judge's Opinion

On Wed, 1 Apr 1998, Bruce Bertram <bmb[_at_]bmb.com> wrote:
>
> I downloaded a copy of the opinion issued by Judge Wright today. I
> downloaded the text file from the Washington Post's web site. The Post
> claims a copyright in the text. They also claim a copyright in an image
> of the one page order dismissing the case.
>
> Can they do that?

It is common these days for parties to claim copyright in HTML versions of public domain works. I believe Cornell even claims to have a copyright in an HTML version of the copyright act. I do not know of it being tested, however Feist indicates that the "purely mechanical" is not copr. and a lot of HTML-tagged text is mechanically generated. Works made by U.S. govt. employees within the scope of there employment are not protected by U.S. copyright. If Wash. Post. added any original expression their copr. would extend only to it.

Fraudulent placement of a notice of copyright is a *federal crime* (see 17 U.S.C. @ 506) but I doubt you'll find a U.S. atty that wants to bite. I believe some states unfair business practices laws (e.g. CA) allow private actions against businesses violating the law.

Last time I checked, West put a notice something like "Copr. <yr> West. . .. . No claim to orig. U.S. govt. works." on just about everything that comes out of WestLaw including the scanned pages of U.S. patents. This puzzled me because I had assumed copr. in the text and images of a patent are owned by the inventor/agent/assignee/draftsperson. While the scope of implied license and fair use is undoubtedly broad, I have wondered if they are broad enough to permit prepration and commercial distribution of a derivative work (what I guess West is doing by claiming a copr. in its pages).

[Unrelated query: who would own the copr. in the layout of a patent if USPTO operates as a govt. corporation?]

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