Copyright and Intellectual Property in Architecture - Term Paper Example

Copyright and Intellectual Property in Architecture. Copyright falls under an area of law known as intellectual property which is the general name given to the laws covering patents, designs, circuit layouts, trade marks, plant breeders rights and copyright. This legal protection is designed as a reward to creators to encourage further intellectual creativity and innovation, as well as enabling access by the community to the products of intellectual property. In a certain case an architect brings a copyright breach suit against a customer who was a project owner who had resulted to ending the agreement with the architect before the architect completed the task. The trial court used the three year statute of limitations to terminate the grievance on the grounds that the architect should have learnt the basis for its grievance and marched in to the courts much earlier than it had done. On petition, this ruling was overturned. The court established that there was no steadfast evidence hence convincing the trial judge to decide that the architect was on notification of the supposed copyright infringement preceding the passing of the legal period. Moreover , the court revised the AIA contract treaty and ruled that there were no grounds for establishing that the architect’s ideas were “work for hire” or that the development proprietor had any under contract founded copyright importance in the architect’s ideas. A closure agreement among the parties also considered the usage of the ideas and was a vital contemplation by the court. In Warren Freedenfeld Associates, Inc. v. McTigue et al., 531 F.3d 38 (1st Cir. 2008), a veterinarian hired an architect to scheme the design of a veterinary hospital. The contractual agreement that was applied for this purpose was an AIA deed. Even though the court does not outline which specific AIA document was applied, it is probable that it was B 141 (1987) meanwhile the court refers to Article 6 as relating to tenure of documents. When it comes to architectural documents Copyright can be described as property that is founded on a person’s creative skill and labour. The copyright law was created to protect the original architect’s work from unauthorized use and to ensure the the originality of the creation is maintained at all times. Copyrights are physically intangible however they grant an unoriginal user the rights to copy or to publish the original work to facilitate communication to the public. Architectural copyrights are governed by certain Copyright acts. Architects who own Copyrights have exclusive economic rights that vary according to the different types of works and other subject-matter protected by copyright. This differentiates the various forms of works which are normally protected by copyrights. For instance in the literary, dramatic or musical works category the rights granted to the creator may include the right to reproduce the work e.g. making recordings like films or albums. They might also be granted the right to publish their work and also the right to perform their work in public through concerts. In the case of artistic works the creator has the right to reproduce the work in material form or can communicate the work to the public via electronic forms. Besides the economic rights, there exists moral rights which apply to all works and are derived from the French droit moral which include the right to integrity of authorship, the right to attribution of authorship and the right against false attribution of authorship. Moral rights endure for the term of the copyright but it should be noted though, that an authors right of integrity of authorship in respect of a film is limited to the authors lifetime. Transmission of copyrights Copyright can be dealt with in the same way as other forms of personal property. It can be assigned, licensed, given away, sold, left by will, or passed on according to the laws relating to intestacy or bankruptcy. This does not apply to moral rights which are personal and which creators cannot transfer or assign. After the creators death their moral rights are exercisable by the executors of their estate. It is always best to obtain written evidence of permission to use copyright, rather than rely on oral statements. In the assignment of copyright must be in writing and signed by or on behalf of the copyright owner to be legally effective. Depending on what the assignor and the assignee can agree upon, the assignment may be in whole or part. It may be also limited to one or more of the exclusive rights. The aspects of them may also be limited to time or to the geographical area. All these factors depend on the assignor’s wishes. In testamentary disposition; the owner leaves his copyrights as a gift or as form of inheritance to someone of his choice in his will. In operation of law it indicates that a right or liability is created for a party, irrespective of the intention because of the already existing legal principles that are in place . In the event of death where a will was not in place, the law has a way in which the property of the deceased will be shared among his loved ones. In the same way, even a copyright owner who does not leave a will behind in the event of death, the law will intervene in the deciding who will retain the rights until the expiry date. A transmission of copyright may be partial meaning it can be limited so as to apply to one or more, but not all, of the things the copyright owner has the exclusive rights to. If the owner is an author and has many published books, he can give out the rights to use some of his books and not the whole collection. At times the owner might assign to someone else some rights only for a period within the years his rights are valid. Transfer of ownership Copyright owners may exercise any of the above rights themselves or may give permission to other people to do so. Such permission is referred to as a licence. Copyright owners may grant a license that is subject to certain conditions such as the payment of a fee or royalty or limit the license as to time, place or purpose. For more information about licensing or assigning copyright. Due to the personal nature of moral rights, they may not be assigned or licensed to another person however, it is possible for an author to provide a written consent in relation to certain treatment of his or her work that might otherwise constitute an infringement of moral rights. A range of remedies is available for an infringement of moral rights. These include an order for damages, an injunction or a public apology. The Act provides a general reasonableness defence to actions for infringement of the right of integrity of authorship and the right of attribution of authorship. It also provides specific defences to actions for infringement of the right of integrity of authorship in relation to certain treatment of buildings and moveable artistic work Only transfer of exclusive rights An exclusive license grants specified rights to the licensee with a guarantee that those rights will be granted to no other person. This shows that unlike non-exclusive licenses they are more serious and should not be taken lightly. An exclusive licensee can sue and take certain other actions as though he or she were the exclusive copyright owner. Exclusive licenses are almost similar to assignments they therefore should be written and signed by all the parties involved in it. Total or partial The Copyright Act does not require the completion of formalities (such as publication, registration or the payment of fees) in order to obtain protection in Architects, or any other country which is also a party to an international copyright treaty. This is unlike the position with patents, trade marks, designs and plant breeders rights where registration is a precondition to protection. Copyright protection is granted automatically from the time an original work is created. The copyright rights can be either partial or total as explained in the transmission of copyrights. This simply means that they can be assigned for half the period of the time they are still valid or part of them can be assigned by the owner to the other party if they are partial. However if it is total transference, the owner signs over the exclusive rights of the copyright rights to the new party and depending on whether it was exclusive licensing, his rights are signed completely over to the new party. However, if it is non-exclusive licensing, there is no formality in the process and the owner still has a say in the rights. Licence express/implied An implied copyright licence arises where all the circumstances suggest that the copyright owner expected their copyright material to be used in the way contemplated.  Some people are of the opinion that anything which is published on the web can be used without having to worry about whether the information is infringing on copyrights because as it is the information is already available to all on the internet and if downloaded thee person cannot be held accountable for piracy making him the subject of an implied licence.  This is not the legal position.  It is only possible to argue that an implied licence exists where all the circumstances suggest the copyright owner expected the copyright material to be used in the way contemplated. It is not necessary to approach the copyright holder(s) if an express or implied licence has been granted.  Often material is made available to the public with an attached copyright notice stating precisely the ways in which the work may be used without the need to contact the copyright holder.  Such statements are particularly common in Internet sites and are express licences. Where copyright material has been placed on the Internet legally, you may be able to argue you have an implied licence to use the material in certain ways although this is rarely easy to demonstrate and so is not often successfully relied upon. It is important to be very weary of the information put on the internet because much copyright material has been put on the Internet without the permission of the copyright owner i.e. illegally, and any further use of this, including downloading it, is likely to be illegal too. The search engines have become more sophisticated with the improving technology therefore tracking of information by the original owners has become easier. Owner maintains control Provided the owner is still within the duration of ownership within the copyright rights, he is still considered t maintain full control of the rights.The duration of copyright protection is dependent on a number of factors such as: the nature of the work; in this case the nature refers to the form of the creation. It can be literary, artistic, dramatic or musical works. It also depends on the time when the work was made, i.e. the year in which the original creator made the original piece. Finally it also depends on whether the work has been published; whether it is the first publication or just a rendition of the first publication. Published in this case means whether the works have been made available to the public. The duration of protection for copyright works that have been published generally lasts for 70 years after the death of the creator however, there are some exceptions to this general rule. In the event that the dramatic or musical work has never been published through either being broadcast or performed for an audience during the time when the author was alive, the copyright subsists or continues to exist indefinitely. In another instance, if the author’s work was published after his demise yet it had never been made public while he was alive, the copyright loses its indefinite rights and will terminate at the end of 70 years after the event when it was made public. This is different where artistic works, other than engravings are concerned. The copyright protection will also lasts for 70 years after the end of the year in which the artist dies whether or not it has been published. The term of copyright in an engraving is similar to that for a literary work in that, just like the literary works, the engraver’s failure to publish the work warrants the engraved piece to have copyright rights that exist indefinitlely. This however changes if the engraved piece is published after the death of the engraver and the copyright ceases to be indefinite but lasts for only after publication. All photographs taken before 1955 have their copyright protection already expired whether or not the artist is alive or dead. They are not catered for in the new Act that provides for all other photographs taken after 1955. For all the other photographs, they are considered just like other artists works and the life span of 70 years also applies to all photographs taken after that time. The duration of copyright protection for sound recordings made after 1954 and films made after 1 May 1969 is generally 70 years from the end of the year of first publication however, if the film or sound recording is unpublished, the protection period is indefinite until it is published. The duration of copyright in radio and television broadcasts is 50 years from the making of the broadcast. Copyright in the published editions of works by authors e.g. poets or novelists last for 25 years from the year of first publication of the edition. It should be noted that the Copyright Act has specific works of joint authorship, anonymous and pseudonymous works in which the Government owns copyright foreign works and works made by international organizations. The author loses control of the copyright when the expiry date is reached. The Act stipulates that the copyright protection that had already expired before the date of commencement of the present Act i.e.1 May 1969 cannot be revived. However, the provisions of earlier copyright legislation are still relevant in relation to works in copyright immediately before the commencement of the present Act. through partial or full licencing by the owner to an entirely different party the owner may also lose some control over the copyright. References Bernstein, Fred A. “Hi, Gorgeous. Haven’t I Seen You Somewhere?” New York Times 28 Aug. 2005. 19 Apr. 2008 . Brown, Jeffrey C. “Too Close for Comfort.” Architect (Washington, D.C.). 96.13 (2007). New York, NY. 19 Apr. 2008 . Dunlap. David W. “Freedom Tower’s ‘Unique’ Corners Found on Other Drawing Boards.” New York Times 25 Aug. 2005. 26 Apr. 2008 . Giovannini, Joseph. “Architectural Imitation: Is it Plagiarism?” New York Times 17 Mar. 1983. Factiva. Columbia U Lib., New York, NY. 26 Apr. 2008 . Read More