Showing posts with label copyright. Show all posts
Showing posts with label copyright. Show all posts

May 31 – Copyright!

Posted on May 31, 2019

Andy Warhol
May 31 is the anniversary of the first copyright law in the United States.

Signed into law on this date in 1790, the copyright law was mostly copied from Britain's copyright law, the Statute of Anne. 




Copyright is a way of protecting "products of the mind" - aka "intellectual property": poems, stories, articles, books, paintings, photographs, drawings, movies, songs, symphonies, choreography, and more. Actually, the Copyright Law of 1790 didn't cover all of these items explicitly, and later copyright laws had to be written to expand protections of all the different sorts of intellectual property.

Copyright is important and good - people who write, make art, compose, and choreograph SHOULD be able to profit from their work and creativity, and should be able to sue if someone blatantly copies their work and sells it as their own. 

However, copyright is also a bit confusing...especially as technology has made copying easier and easier. Is it wrong to use someone else's photo in your school report or blog? Are you in legal danger if you xerox a short story and pass out copies to your bookclub? Is it against the copyright law to sample five songs and create a new song from the samples? Is it okay to quote the entirety of a poem as you write a report about it? Is it fine to sing popular songs and then sell your own versions on CDs? Does it harm a photographer if you download one of her photos and then make lots of changes to it before printing T-shirts with the new digital print?


It matters whether or not the copy is being used for commercial purposes. For example, using someone else's poem on a poster you then produce and sell is very different than quoting the poem in a paper for school. Showing some friends a movie at your house is very different than making bootleg copies of the movie that you then sell. Sketching your favorite Disney characters in the privacy of your own home is very different than teaching kids to draw Disney characters within a paid, private art class.

It also matters whether or not the use of the intellectual property is likely to cheat the creator out of possible earnings, or if it is likely to drive more people to know about, care about, and want to buy stuff from the creator. For example, if you decorate mugs with the chorus of a popular song, even if you don't sell the mugs, but instead give them to ten of your friends, you are still denying the songwriter the opportunity to sell his words on a mug to those ten people. And if you claim that you wrote a little known song as you perform it at paid gigs, you are definitely doing wrong to the actual songwriter. On the other hand, if you quote a verse of the little known song on your blog as you rave about how much you like that song, and you include the song title, the name of the singer/songwriter, and a link to purchase the song - well, that's likely to help the songwriter rather than hurt her. 

Artist Shepard Fairey made a lot of money for his
HOPE poster - and the graphic from that poster being
printed on T-shirts and buttons and a lot of other things -
BUT he was sued for copyright infringement by the
Associated Press, because he based the picture of
Obama on a photo taken by an AP photographer.

Fairey argued that he had changed the image enough
to qualify his graphic as "fair use," but he and the AP ended
up settling the matter out of court, so nobody is sure what
the court would have ruled about the fair use question.

Here is a fascinating fact about copyright: the song considered to be the most widely known in the English-speaking world (and perhaps in the world, period) is "Happy Birthday to You." And even though this super simple song was "written" by unknown folks, possibly children, at least a century ago, it's probably still protected by copyright law!!! Check out the full story here!




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April 10 - Anniversary of the Statute of Anne

Posted on April 10, 2017

 I imagine that, at first glance, you might have misread this and thought I was going to talk about a sculpture (statue) of a woman named Anne. Perhaps Queen Anne of England:


But "statute" is a word for "law." And, even though it has Queen Anne's name on it, this British law has nothing to do with the queen.

 Instead, it's one of the world's first copyright laws in which the government, rather than private companies and individuals, regulates the rights to owning the products of one's mind, such as writings, pieces of art, and other "intellectual property."

 It was also an important step to safeguarding rights for authors and artists rather than publishers and printers.

 On this date in 1710, the Statute of Anne became the law of the land, that land being England, Wales, and Scotland; later, when Ireland (now just Northern Ireland) became part of the country, the copyright law held there, as well. A new copyright law was passed in 1842.

 The Statute of Anne influenced other nations' copyright laws, including the law in the U.S.

Check out this website to learn the basics of copyright.




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June 27, 2012 - “Happy Birthday to You” Day



Once upon a time (in 1893), a pair of sisters wrote a simple song for their nursery school and kindergarten students. Mildred J. Hill wrote a simple tune, and Patty Smith Hill wrote some equal simple, repetitive words:
Good morning to you,
Good morning to you,
Good morning, dear children,
Good morning to all.
The two sang the catchy song with their young students, but they also published it in a songbook for children.

The song caught on. (That's the thing about catchy songs, isn't it? They catch on!)

In many classes, the young students sang the song to the teacher, so the words were changed a little – “good morning to all” became another repetition of “good morning to you,” and “dear teacher” was sung in place of “dear children.”

And somebody, somewhere, changed the song again to be a birthday song. Perhaps you have heard it somewhere?
Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday dear so-and-so [insert name here],
Happy birthday to you.
Well, this latest version really caught on! It is by far the most well-known song in the English-speaking world—maybe the entire world!—and it's been used in millions of music boxes, watches, musical greeting cards, and other for-profit products. It's been sung on TV and on Broadway and in movies, in space and underwater living spaces, in homes and schools, businesses and hospitals.

(By the way, many people think that students who sang the Good Morning song spontaneously changed the lyrics at birthday parties. Which would mean that the most widely known song in the world was “written” by a bunch of five- and six-year-old kids whose names we do not know!)

Okay, here's the weird part...this super-simple, almost ubiquitous (heard everywhere) song—this song that was written in the 1800s, maybe by a bunch of kids—is still protected by copyright!

Wh-wh-what???

My sources are unclear about who filed copyright on “Happy Birthday to You,” when, on whose behalf. Some sources say that another Hill sister sued and received copyright protection for Patty and Mildred Hill, and that the Hill Foundation collects royalties even to this day, but another source says that the publisher of the Hill's original “Good Morning” song filed for copyright on the birthday version.

Whatever the case, it seems that some of the profit-making enterprises that use the popular birthday song do pay royalties—adding up to perhaps two million dollars worth of royalties per year! It's totally fine to sing the song in private, with small groups at birthday parties, for example, but it is technically a violation to sing it in profit-making venues with a lot of people. This is why a lot of restaurants use original songs or other birthday songs—they want to avoid any copyright lawsuits! Many movies and television shows show people singing just a few notes (apparently this is “fair use” and doesn't cost anything), but those who show people singing the entire song have to pay $10,000 for the privilege! Yikes!

By the way, copyright laws differ from nation to nation. The song will become “public domain” (free for anyone to use, even for-profit or large groups) in Europe in 2016, and it will move to public domain status in the U.S. in 2030. And, here's one more fact to confuse you: some lawyers think that the song is already in public domain, right now, because the actual “authors” of the song (who, remember, might be a bunch of kids) weren't the ones who filed for copyright.

Also on this date:











Djibouti's Independence Day





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