Re: Aphorisms and Copyright

From: Timothy Phillips <hrothgar[_at_]telepath.com>
Date: Fri, 21 Aug 1998 09:13:29 -0500 (CDT)

Daniel J. Schaeffer <daniel_schaeffer[_at_]kirkland.com> wrote: 

>

> You can't be sure of that. If I own a copyright in a collection of
> my aphorisms, and you snag one of them for a T-shirt, I can make a
> prima facie case of copyright infringement -- you directly copied
> part of my copyrighted work. You may have a fair use defense, but
> it's not a lock. (You're not going to claim that the copyright in
> a book does not protect against partial copying, are you?)

Copyright only extends to the COPYRIGHTABLE features of the work. If the melody of "Old Hundredth" in a modern songbook is the same melody that appeared in the 16th-century metrical psalters, then it can be copied from the modern songbook just as it could be from an original copy of one of the 16th-century books. The public domain is public wherever it occurs, however fresh be the ink. The opposite conclusion stinks of the "sweat of the brow" concept which was rejected in cases like Suid v. Newsweek and finally ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in Feist v. Rural Telephone.

If aphorisms are not individually copyrightable, then placing them in a compilation doesn't protect them individually. Even the "Collections of Information Antipiracy Act" falsely so-called, if it becomes law, will not protect a SINGLE aphorism if single aphorisms are not copyrightable in themselves.

Disclaimer: Nothing in this post constitutes legal advice, or establishes a lawyer-client relationship, etc.

Timothy Phillips
<hrothgar[_at_]telepath.com> Received on Fri Aug 21 1998 - 14:13:21 GMT

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