Re: Aphorisms and Copyright

I would just add to Terry Carroll's lucid description of the limited role of the Copyright Office the observation that the CO has, at various times, evinced some confusion or frustration with that limited role, particularly on certain subjects such as the copyrightability of computer programs or "layout" and "format" issues (going back to the "art of the book" debate). This has sometimes been related to the individual personalities in positions of influence at the CO and what might broadly be described as "political" factors. Realize that the CO is one of very few "legislative" agencies, falling under the Library of Congress, as opposed to the PTO, which (until recently) was within the Executive Branch. Understanding this may help to explain why, in a number fo threads concerning CO practices or actions in a particular case, people have had difficulty in finding crisp logic and uniformity in CO actions over time. I think it is also fair to say that the courts and others tend to assign greater weight to the views or actions of the CO than is, strictly speaking, necessary.

Kerry L. Konrad
<k_konrad[_at_]stblaw.com> Received on Fri Aug 28 1998 - 16:34:50 GMT