Re: Assignment of Copyright in Cyberspace

I wrote
>
> In the United States ... a signed writing is required to transfer
> ownership of copyright.

The Merc <themerc[_at_]gte.net> responded:
>
> And a reasonable person could not construe that an e-mail message
> (held numerous times to bind a contract AS A WRITING) cannot
> constitute a "writing" pursuant to the law? The assignment/transfer
> could be written on the back of a cocktail napkin, why not an e-mail?

It isn't the "writing" part that's a problem... it's the "signed" part. You can sign a cocktail napkin; but the law is still unclear (and varies from state to state) as to what sort of digital signature or other document validation technology will satisfy the signature requirement. UCC 2b may change all that. But copyright law is still federal law, and some uniform statutorially-recognized type of signature will have to be codified into the copyright law to make an email acceptable as a signed writing.

Bob Cumbow
<cumbr[_at_]perkinscoie.com> Received on Wed Apr 08 1998 - 22:30:29 GMT