Copyright Law Part 1 - Introduction

by Terry Carroll

This FAQ originally began as a general-purpose FAQ for the Usenet misc.legal newsgroup. After working on that broad FAQ for several months, it became apparent that such a FAQ was too monumental a task to be undertaken by a single FAQ maintainer. The person who succeeded me in the effort agreed.

I've noticed that copyright questions seem to come up constantly on usenet, not only in misc.legal, but in many newsgroups, from comp.fonts to rec.classical.music. It also happens to be my favorite area of law, so when I abandoned the misc.legal FAQ, I decided to retain the portions dealing with copyright law, and to fashion that into a Copyright Law FAQ. This document is the result.

This FAQ betrays its misc.legal origin. On misc.legal, it's very common, and indeed preferred, for assertions of law to be accompanied by citations to the relevant legal authorities. This serves as a check against erroneous or misleading interpretations of the authorities. It also allows the reader to verify the authorities, and provides an enthusiastic reader with starting points for further research into the subject. In trimming the former misc.legal FAQ to discuss only copyright law, I've decided to retain these citations. This is not only for the reasons stated above, but also because this FAQ, like any other static document, is in danger of being made out of date by future developments in the law. By providing sources for the answers to the questions, an inquisitive reader will be able to investigate the source and determine, for example, if a particular appellate case has been overruled or has been declined to be followed by other appellate courts. I have included an appendix at the end of the FAQ to assist newcomers in understanding the legal notation used in citing references.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I'd like to acknowledge the following people who reviewed early drafts of this FAQ and made valuable suggestions for modifications, or otherwise contributed to the FAQ:

Thomas Deardorff <[email protected]>

Stuart P. Derby <[email protected]>

Mary Jensen <cnicopy@charlie.usd.edu>

David Lassner <[email protected]>

George Mitchell <[email protected]>

Ronald Naylor <[email protected]>

Carol Odlum <[email protected]>

Laura A. Pitta <[email protected]>

Hank Roth <[email protected]>

Craig A. Summerhill <[email protected]>

Peter Stott <[email protected]>

David W. Tamkin <[email protected]>

Glenn S. Tenney <[email protected]>

Marina ___ [full name unknown] <[email protected]>

CHANGE LOG

V1.0 (Jul. 12, 1993) - Initial release.

V1.0.1 (Jul. 20, 1993) - Modified Q32 to add information on ftp from charon.amdahl.com

V1.1.0 (Aug. 05, 1993) - Reorganized into six parts; minor editorial changes.