Copyright law of the United States

The copyright law of the United States grants monopoly protection for "original works of authorship".^[1]^[2] With the stated purpose to promote art and culture, copyright law assigns a set of exclusive rights to authors: to make and sell copies of their works, to create derivative works, and to perform or display their works publicly. These exclusive rights are subject to a time and generally expire 70 years after the author's death or 95 years after publication. In the United States, works published before January 1, 1929, are in the public domain.

United States copyright law was last generally revised by the Copyright Act of 1976, codified in Title 17 of the United States Code. The United States Constitution explicitly grants Congress the power to create copyright law under Article 1, Section 8, Clause 8, known as the Copyright Clause.^[3] Under the Copyright Clause, Congress has the power "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries."^[3]

The United States Copyright Office handles copyright registration, recording of copyright transfers, and other administrative aspects of copyright law.^[4]

Literary

Musical

Dramatic

Pantomimes and choreographic works

Pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works

Audio-visual works

Sound recordings

Derivative works

Compilations

Architectural works

[6]

To reproduce the work in copies or phonorecords;

To prepare derivative works based upon the work;

To distribute copies or phonorecords of the work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending;

To publicly perform the work, in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and motion pictures and other audiovisual works;

To publicly display the work, in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and pictorial, graphic, or sculptural works, including the individual images of a motion picture or other audiovisual work.

To digitally transmit sound recordings by means of digital audio transmission.

[26]

Copyright applies only to certain copyrightable subject matter, codified within § 102. Works that are not "original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression" are not subject to copyright. 17 U.S.C. § 102(b) codifies that copyright protection does not extend to ideas, procedures, processes, systems, etc. Facts may not be copyrighted. "Useful articles" may not be copyrighted. Useful articles includes typeface designs (Eltra Corp. v. Ringer), fashion designs, blank forms, titles, names, short phrases, slogans, lists of ingredients and contents, domain names and band names.^[56]

17 U.S.C.

Statutory damages are not available if the work is unpublished and the infringement began before the effective date of its .

registration

Statutory damages are not available if the work is published but the infringement commenced after the first publication and before the effective date of its registration, unless registration is made within three months after the first publication.

Copyright reform[edit]

Critics of copyright assert that copyright protections last too long before copyrighted works are allowed to enter into the public domain. For works published after 1977, the copyright lasts for the life of the author plus 70 years.^[116] However, if the work is a work for hire (that is, the work is done in the course of employment or has been commissioned) or is published anonymously, the copyright lasts between 95 and 120 years, depending on the date the work is published.^[116] In 2022, legislation introduced by Senator Josh Hawley, entitled the Copyright Clause Restoration Act of 2022, seeks to reduce the protection from 70 years after the creator's death (post-1978) and 95 years (pre-1978) to 28 years, with the option to renew it at the end of that term for a limit of 56 years total.^[117] These same terms were in place from 1909 up until 1976.^[118] A similar bill was also introduced in 2023.^[119]

(US Copyright Office, 2011).

Copyright Law of the United States

Prof. Robert Gorman (Federal Judicial Center, 2006).

Copyright Law, Second Edition

Archived March 13, 2016, at the Wayback Machine (First Edition, 2014) James Boyle and Jennifer Jenkin.

Intellectual Property: Law & the Information Society. Cases & Materials

. Pierre N. Leval (103 Harvard Law Review 1105 (1990)).

Toward a Fair Use Standard

United States Copyright Office

Copyright Office—Searchable Fair Use Index

Cornell University: Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States

to determine copyright status of a work

Digital copyright slider

. The Online Books Page. University of Pennsylvania.

"How Can I Tell Whether a Copyright Was Renewed?"

Copyright Timeline: A History of Copyright in the U.S.

for 1909 to the present