Copyright Licenses - Case Study Example

Copyrights Bootleg CD’s, plagiarized books and illegal possession of contents have raised hackles among the owners of the work. In days of yore, the owners of the intellectual property were exposed to grave risks regarding their materials as there were no laws governing the unauthorized access of one’s work. When the printing press was introduced in British domain in 1476 there were no legal practices which would protect the rights of the printing industry. However as the time has turned over its pages, we have seen dramatic improvements in the realm of law. Copyright has now permeated in our lives and it has provided legal protections to the owners who were fretted about that someone would steal the fruits of their labour. Who is the first owner of the work in copyright? The first owner of copyright in a work is the author where the term “author” implies a person who creates a literary, dramatic, musical, recording or artistic work. However there are certain cases under which the author of work is not to be considered as the first owner of the copyright. These are the exceptions: If an employee works for an employer and he/she creates a literary, dramatic, musical, recording or artistic work during the course of employment than still the employer will be considered to be the first owner of work, unless otherwise mentioned in the contract of employment. If a work was created under a crown or government than the first owner of the work is not the author rather it will be the crown or parliament. If the work is created and published under an international organization such as United Nations than the first ownership of the work will belong to the organization, not the author. The commissioner of the work is considered to be the first owner of the work in many of the cases. A commissioner is a person who generally pays a fees or commission on the work created by other person. Rights enjoyed by the owner of the work Owner of the work generally enjoys two types of rights; economic rights and moral rights. Economic rights as the term economic connotes that the owner is entitled to gain financial incentives and rewards by utilizing its work. These rights mainly encompasses of the right to authorize and prohibit the reproduction, distribution, translation, adaptation (conversion of a written novel into a movie), public performance and broadcasting of the work in any form. Usually, if the author allows for exploiting his work than the economic rights can be transferred to the user by writing an agreement, in return for a compensation which can either be a lump sump payment or a percentage of revenue generated each time the work is utilized. Once the economic rights have been transferred, the owner would still enjoy the moral rights. The term “moral rights” has been translated from a French term “droit moral” and it means that the ability of author to control the eventual fate of their work (Rosenblatt, 1998). The first moral right for the author is to be identified as the owner or author of the created work whenever the work is published commercially, performed in front of a public or broadcasted through a media. Moreover, the identification made by the user should be explicit and clear. The second moral right is that his right should be boldly asserted on an assignment of the copyright in work. It can also be asserted through an instrument which shall be signed by the author of the work. In case if the author has granted a license to the user and the user holds a public exhibition of that work than he should place a licence so the public sees and becomes aware of the original owner of the work. Finally, the author of the work possesses the right to raise an objection to derogatory and unlawful treatment of his/her work. It is somewhat similar to attack and offend the honour of the author and that’s why it is also referred as the integrity right. In this context the term “derogatory treatment” refers to adding, deleting or modifying the work in a way that is detrimental to the reputation of the author thus he can object to the derogatory treatment of his work. Licenses and Implied License Licenses can be granted by the owner of the works for use of their work. Exclusive licenses issued by owners to the licensee warrant that the licensee can use the copyright of the work by excluding all others even the real owner of the work. The common license is although different from an exclusive license as it specifies all the terms and conditions for using the owner’s work and including all the compensation arrangements. If there are certain economic rights that are to be transferred through license than they should be clearly explained and elucidated in the agreement because otherwise it can give rise to fierce conflicts in the future. For instance, if the copyright license allows the translation of work than it should clearly specify to which languages the work can be translated and it should make it clear in the agreement. The implied copyright license is enforced by law when there is no written agreement between the parties. Implied licenses become apparent when the conduct of the parties indicates that some license is to be extended between the owner and the licensee but the parties themselves did not worried to create a written agreement of the license (Tysver 2008). The ultimate purpose of an implied license is to enable the licensee have some right to use the copyrighted work but to an extent that the owner of the copyright work would have allowed had the parties negotiated an agreement. These are circumstances in which an implied licence to use someone else’s copyright work might arise: An implied license can be issued in circumstances where the work is created by one company at the request of another company. For instance, if a special effects company is appointed a task by a licensee to create a comic effect for the film. The contract between the owner and the special effect company did not assign the copyright in effect, which means that they did not mention to what extent changes can be made in the work by the special effect company. Thus the court ruled out that the changes were made through an implied license because the comic effect were created with the motive that they shall be used and distributed in the film. The most common example where implied license are ordained to play a vital role is the internet. If a website is viewed by a user on the internet and it download to the computer screen of the user than it can be thought of as an infringement of copyright because the owner of the website has protected its site against unauthorized access and downloading through copyright law. But it would not make any sense for the website owner to institute a legal proceeding against the person who viewed his web page since he himself wanted that his website is seen by the users. Thus in this case the user has been granted an implied license to view the author’s work. Advice to a freelance consultant for how can he protect his research work The scenario that is to be considered is regarding a freelance IT consultant who has conducted an extensive research for his client and is unaware of how to protect the piece of his research work and safeguard it from unauthorized use. Here is the epitome of my advice. Firstly, he should include a copyright notice that should properly state and expound that the work belongs him and is properly governed by the copyright law. A copyright notice is a written statement that expresses the authority and desire of the owner about the work. The copyright notice normally consists of a word copyright with a symbol ©, name of the owner and the year of publication. In addition to that it also comprises of a written statement that describes who can use the work and who is prohibited to use and under what circumstances or conditions. He should clearly explain the rights of selling, distributing, and commercial using the work. For instance, if he wants to allow distribution of his work under the condition that he would be identified as the real owner and author of the work than he should elucidate this concern in the copyright statement. It can also contain information about acquiring a license for reproduction of the work. He should render this notice on the first page of his research work. Finally, the copyright notice should be succinct and to the point and it should not include any jargons. The research work should be properly registered from a copyright registration service provided by that country. The registration service would provide a registration number which proves that the research work belongs legally to you. Moreover, this would make your work legally protected by law. The owner of the work should keep supporting evidence that will make him legally strong and that will assist in proving that he is the sole owner of the work. Supporting evidence generally fall in two categories; one is evolution of ideas and other is footprints. “Evolution of idea” implies that the work was collected and developed over a period of time. It normally comprises of background research, draft versions, rough sketches and first recordings (The UK Copyright Service 2008). There are different systems available that allow in incorporating and saving the developed work. I would recommend the freelance IT consultant to use Version Control Systems which help users in documenting and tracking modifications to files and they also allow users to search for work that was developed earlier while they were conducting their research. The second type of supporting evidence that will help the consultant is footprints or watermarks. Footprints are intentional errors or concealed elements included in the research work by the owner of the work. Watermarks are algorithms embossed in the papers or file which can be understood and read by special software’s. Following the above two methods of supporting evidence will allow the freelance consultant to be the legal representative of the work. Over and above that I shall advice him to put his all contents in an envelope and then address it back to him. The back of the envelope should consist of a description of what the content is about and than it should be sent via a registered mail. After that, once the envelope arrives at his address than he should not open it and store it in a safe place. In the event that if someone violates his copyright than he should take that envelope to a lawyer to open it and prove its date of creation. There can be a possibility that there is another author with the consultant due to joint venture formed by the consultant and his partner. Hence there will be certain other implications in this scenario. In this case there should be a formal and legal agreement between both the authors which would clearly specify who will own the rights of the work and what will happen in the case if someone leaves. It shall also perspicuously state the share or commission of each partner in the case if the work is sold or published to the audience. In the event if it is recognized that the content has been copied and infringed copyright than the owner needs to take appropriate action and provide solid evidence. For instance, if the consultant found that his work has been used by a website without his permission than he should first find out who is the owner of that website and to which company the site is registered (known as Registrar). Registrars do provide help in stopping someone from stealing your material without your authority. After that stage, it is imperative to visit that website to identify their terms of service. The terms of service page will definitely include information about how to tackle with copyright violations. He should have a thorough investigation of the page and note down any legal email addresses for contact purposes. More importantly, he needs to take a snapshot of the material that has been stolen which he believes that belongs to him. After that, he should email the violator, the registrar and the law commissioner about the problem and he should also include sufficient evidences (even footprints and watermarks) to make him a strong candidate for the case. There are also some search engines such as Google and Yahoo which do not encourage keeping plagiarized material and they are adamant opposer of copyright violators. As Google’s intellectual property policy affirms “It is our policy to respond to notices of alleged infringement that comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act” (Joshua 2006). Works Cited Dorkin, Joshua. How to protect your websites copyright when someone steals your content. 2006. 04 Jan. 2009 . Rosenblatt, B. Moral rights basics. Cambridge: MA, 1998 The United Kingdom Copyright Service. What is supporting evidence? 2008. 02 Jan. 2009 . Tysver, Daniel A.. Copyright Licenses and Assignments. 2008. 03 Jan. 2009 . Read More