Law Commons^™

Copyright Use And Excuse On The Internet, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

1998 ended with voluminous copyright legislation, pompously titled the "Digital Millennium Copyright Act" [hereafter "DMCA"], and intended to equip the copyright law to meet the challenges of online digital exploitation of works of authorship. 1999 and 2000 have brought some of the ensuing confrontations between copyright owners and Internet entrepreneurs to the courts. The evolving caselaw affords an initial opportunity to assess whether the copyright law as abundantly amended can indeed respond to digital networks, or whether the rapid development of the Internet inevitably outstrips Congress' and the courts' attempts to keep pace.

In titling this Article "Copyright Use and …

Copyright Legislation For The "Digital Millennium", Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

In October 1998, Congress passed two major copyright bills, the "Digital Millennium Copyright Act" [DMCA], and the "Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act." Moreover, the Senate ratified U.S. accession to the WIPO Copyright and Performances and Phonograms Treaties. The DMCA implements the obligations set forth in articles 11 and 12 of the WIPO Copyright Treaty [WCT] (and articles 18 and 19 of the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty [WPPTI) to protect technological measures against circumvention, and to protect "copyright management information" against removal or alteration that facilitates infringement. The DMCA also includes a chapter on the liability of online service …

Copyright And Intermediate Users' Rights, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

The impending "Digital Millennium" has amplified the assertion of users' rights in U.S. copyright law. Copyright has been reimagined as a "law of users' rights" whose acolytes caution copyright owners not to stand as piggish impediments to the progress of learning and culture in the Digital Age. Proponents advance a variety of arguments in support of a user rights construct of copyright law, from the historical to the philosophical to the pragmatic. I propose to address some of these. But first it is important to specify what I mean by "users' rights" in U.S. copyright law today.

User rights in …

Ownership Of Electronic Rights And The Private International Law Of Copyright, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

When, in response to a French decision upholding the rights of employee journalists to prevent the publisher's unauthorized licensing of electronic rights in the journalists' articles, French newspaper publishers yearn for "American-style copyright," they must imagine a work-made-for-hire nirvana in which publishers dispose of all rights in contributions to their periodicals, heedless of (and legally shielded from) authors' pesty claims for payment or control. To the extent that the work-made-for-hire doctrine applies, the publishing paradise conjured up by these French fantasies of law "reform" is very real indeed. Under U.S. copyright law, employee creators are not statutory "authors;" their employer …

Electronic Rights In Belgium And France: General Association Of Professional Journalists Of Belgium V. Central Station (Brussels Court Of First Instance, October 16, 1996; Brussels Court Of Appeals, October 28, 1997); Union Of French Journalists V. Sdv Plurimedia (Strasbourg Court Of Grand Instance, February 3, 1998) Symposium On Electronic Rights In International Perspective, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

Like many national presses in Europe, the Belgian press divides ideologically. Each daily newspaper represents the views of a political party, or expresses the perspective of a political or religious belief. Newspaper readers therefore tend to select the newspaper that most closely corresponds to their world-view. Ten publishers of Belgian dailies and weeklies formed a consortium, Central Station, to operate a website that would offer a crossection of all the participating periodicals' articles on a variety of subjects. The articles would appear in print in their separate newspapers in the morning, but would be available that evening on the Central …

Symposium On Electronic Rights In International Perspective: Introduction, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

Recent litigation in the U.S., Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France has placed at issue the electronic publishing rights of employee and freelance journalists, contributors to print periodicals. In all five national controversies, the proprietors of the print publications, without securing the writers' express authorization, disseminated their articles in a variety of electronic media, including CD-ROM, third-party databases, and websites. Judicial resolution of the disputes required parsing the respective rights, under local copyright law (and in some cases, labor law as well), of the authors of the contributions to the periodicals, and of the copyright owners of the collective works …

Exploiting The Artist's Commercial Identity: The Merchandizing Of Art Images, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

"Merchandizing properties" are not a recent arrival on the copyright and trademark scene. As early as the 1930s, the Walt Disney Company foresaw the substantial economic gains from licensing the images of its animated motion picture characters in a variety of consumer media, from publications, to soft toys, clothing and household items. Most recently, the World Intellectual Property Organization has prepared a substantial comparative law study of "Character Merchandising." The merchandizing of fine arts images, however, is a more recent development, and is one that has so far received less attention from academic commentators. This article offers some preliminary observations, …

Authors And Exploitations In International Private Law: The French Supreme Court And The Huston Film Colorization Controversy, Jane C. Ginsburg, Pierre Sirinelli

Faculty Scholarship

On May 28, 1991, France's Supreme Court, the Cour de cassation, rendered its long-awaited decision in Huston v. la Cinq, a controversy that opposed the heirs of film director John Huston against the French television station Channel 5 and its licensor, Turner Entertainment. Defendants sought to broadcast a colorized version of Huston's black and white film classic, The Asphalt jungle. Plaintiffs, John Huston's children and Ben Maddow, who collaborated with Huston on the film's screenplay, asserted that broadcast of a colorized version violated Huston's and Maddow's moral right of integrity in the motion picture. The central question before the Cour …

Copyright In The 101st Congress: Commentary On The Visual Artists Rights Act And The Architectural Works Copyright Protection Act Of 1990, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

In the Visual Artists Rights Act, Congress has for the first time included moral rights within the U.S. copyright statute. Well-known in continental European copyright doctrine, and secured by the Berne Convention, moral rights afford protection for the author's personal, non-economic interests in receiving attribution for her work, and in preserving the work in the form in which it was created, even after its sale or licensing. These rights of attribution (sometimes infelicitously labeled the "right of paternity") and of integrity are conceptually distinct from the economic rights of exploitation set forth in section 106 of the 1976 Copyright Act. …

One Hundred And Two Years Later: The U.S. Joins The Berne Convention, Jane C. Ginsburg, John M. Kernochan

Faculty Scholarship

In historic votes on October 5 and October 12, the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives unanimously approved legislation designed to bring U.S. law into compliance with the Berne Convention. The legislation was signed by President Reagan on October 31, 1988. Also signed by the President was a Senate Resolution of October 20 of Ratification of the Berne Convention. Following deposit of the requisite instruments with the World Intellectual Property Organization in Geneva, U.S. adherence to Berne took effect on March 1, 1989.

For the U.S., this momentous step is the culmination of decades of struggle, including many failed attempts …

Reforms And Innovations Regarding Authors' And Performers' Rights In France: Commentary On The Law Of July 3, 1985, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

Following thirteen months of parliamentary deliberations, on July 3, 1985, France enacted a law which brings major reforms and additions to its copyright act of March 11, 1957. The new law becomes effective on January 1, 1986. Among the French modernizations and innovations discussed in this Article are the new law's provisions regarding: computer software protection and ownership; royalties for home taping of audio and audiovisual works; and the recognition and regulation of "neighboring rights." These provisions extend statutory protection for the contributions of performing artists, and also accord reproduction and performance rights to the producers of phono- and videograms. …

Authors' Rights In France: The Moral Right Of The Creator Of A Commissioned Work To Compel The Commissioning Party To Complete The Work, André Françon, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

The French law protecting authors' rights incorporates two distinct regimes of rights, "pecuniary" rights, and "moral" rights. As the denomination indicates, pecuniary rights pertain to the author's economic interests, and provide the author a monopoly in the reproduction and public performance of his work. Moral rights safeguard the author's "personality" interest in his work. Despite the appellation "moral" rights, the author's claims under French law to the security of his personality as expressed in his work are not precatory: moral rights entail several distinct and enforceable interests. These are: the right to make the work known to the public "droit …