Re: Kinko's and Ticketmaster

On Thu, Jul 22, 1999, Steven D. Jamar <sjamar[_at_]law.howard.edu> wrote:
>
> On Wed, 21 Jul 1999, Nick Zales <zales[_at_]execpc.com> wrote:
> >
> > Kinko's once made me sign a release to copy portions of the
> > Wisconsin Statutes! Needless to say I never went back there again.
> > They have gone too far!
>
> You expect underlings or even managers at Kinko's to make such subtle
> distinctions? Why not sign a statement that makes it clear to them
> that you are taking the risk?
>
> > I notice that at Ticketmaster's web site, they show seating charts
> > of the venues where concerts are performed. I also notice they are
> > claiming copyrights to all the drawing of these venues. As many of
> > these venues are publicly owned, and the seating charts are probably
> > copies of the venue's own chart, how can they get away with this?
>
> Umm, what is the problem? If the charts are those of the venue itself,
> then whoever made them would have the copyright -- a chart or map is
> copyrightable. The owner of the venue doesn't matter one bit for who
> would have the copyright in a map of it. The federal government may
> own the interstate roads (well, most of them), but it doesn't own a
> map made by someone else of them.
>
> Only (so far as I know) the federal government has explicitly disclaimed
> any copyright in official documents. I'm not sure a map of a
> performance hall owned by a city would be non-copyrightable by the city
> or by whomever made it.
>
> If the charts are someone else's, then they are improperly claiming
> copyright in the graphic itself. But there some claim a separate
> copyright in the html or other image format as a derivative work -- this
> is a bit problematic -- when you just change medium and still keep the
> graphic as essentially the same it is not really a derivative work, but
> just a copy -- and likely to be infringing.
>
> If the work is public domain, then claiming copyright is improper --
> though perhaps the copyright would be in the collection and organization
> of them all.
>
> This is but one small, but good, example of the copyright problems
> created by the internet and computers.

My sister works for Kinko's and explained to me that these days the "co-workers" are not even given a copy of the Kinko's policy on reproduction of copyrighted works, for fear that they may interpret it.

Instead, the workers are basically told that written permission or proof of owning a copyright are required in order to reproduce large portions or multiple copies of smaller portions of ANY printed work. There is no stipulation for public domain government documents (due, again, to the company's belief that the burden of interpreting public domain vs. copyrighted works should not fall on the lowly co-worker).

How are these same, untrained individuals expected to recognize "authentic" written permissions or proof of authorship. I bet I could make a nice, signed permission letter from (ostensibly) a publisher AT KINKO's in the computer and self serve areas, and then bring it to the counter to "authorize" illegal reproduction.

Michael R. Juhre
AIG Law Dept.
70 Pine Street, 28/70
New York, NY 10270
tel (212) 770-3446
fax (212) 480-6310
<michael.juhre[_at_]aig.com> Received on Tue Jul 27 1999 - 18:51:31 GMT