Re: A Little Linguistic Playground

On Wed, 24 Mar 1999, Rod Dixon <rod[_at_]cyberspaces.org> wrote:
>
> On Tue, 23 Mar 1999, Jessica Litman <litman[_at_]mindspring.com> wrote:
> >
> > Actually, in one signficant respect, it is. Section 103(a) withholds
> > copyright protection from any portion of a derivative work or
> > compilation that uses copyright-protected material unlawfully.
>
> If your point is that section 103(a) is self-executing, then I am
> unclear how so. Secton 103(a) qualifies the subject matter of
> copyright in a compilation, but if the copyright owner of the
> preexisting, subsisting material does nothing, that would seem to
> end the matter for practical purposes.
>

I think Jessica's point (correct, as always) is that if you infringe someone else's material in preparing your derivative work, you *do not own copyright* in your own original work intermingled with the infringing stuff. They don't need to sue you and win to cause this to happen; the infringement has prevented you from owning copyright in your own creations.

Mark Lemley
<mlemley[_at_]mail.law.utexas.edu> Received on Thu Mar 25 1999 - 22:46:50 GMT