Re: Academics and coursepacks

From: Dan L Burk <BURKDANL[_at_]shu.edu>
Date: Wed, 15 Jul 1998 14:06:39 -0400

On 07/14/98, Joseph P. Riolo <riolo[_at_]voicenet.com> wrote:
>
> Say, person A finds four pieces of papers in an old cave and he
> labels them: A, B, C, and D. After he spends many hours studying
> these pieces, he determines that the order of the pieces should be
> B, C, A, and D. I think that he owns the copyright in that order
> but each of these pieces remains in the public domain.
>
> Person B comes and sees these pieces. He can copy each piece one
> at a time, separately from other pieces. That is, he takes piece A
> and goes to copy room and xerox it and gives back the piece A to
> person A. He then takes piece B and goes to copy room and xerox
> it and gives back the piece B to person A. And so on for pieces
> C and D.
>
> What person B cannot do is to take a binder of copies of the
> pieces B, C, A, and D in that order from person A and goes to
> copy room and xerox pieces B, C, A, and D in that order and
> gives back the binder to person A. Person B is infringing person
> A's copyright in that order.
>
> However, person B can spend many hours studying the pieces and
> determine that the order is B, C, A, and D. Person B then can
> own the copyright in that order. In that case, both persons A
> and B own separate copyrights in the same order of the pieces.
>
> To say in fewer words, it is OK to copy each public domain
> piece but it is not OK to copy the pieces in the order that
> the other person creates when he is reconstructing the pieces.
>
> But, correct me if I am wrong.

You're probably wrong, at least on the facts as you've presented them. If there is only one feasible order in which to arrange the pieces, there is no originality in the arrangement under Feist, and so no copyright. In that instance, person B can copy the arrangement because it lies in the public domain.

Indeed, something very like this happened with the Dead Sea Scrolls -- however, in that instance, there are thousands of pieces, and arguably more than one way to arrange them. Whether the alternatives comprise copyrightable arrangements is in part the subject of litigation.

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Dan L. Burk
Seton Hall University
burkdanl[_at_]shu.edu

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Received on Wed Jul 15 1998 - 18:01:25 GMT