Speaker 1: So, let's begin with Part 1, Copyright Basics. I've got this picture here, both for community purposes and to keep your attention. Today, we're going to be bridging some issues here, but there are a lot of complicated issues, much like carrying something across the bridge over an overpass or a deep gully, and particularly if you're carrying a zebra. We'll also use this picture to go through some of the concepts of copyright law today. So, first, what is copyright? Copyright protects original works of authorship that are fixed in a tangible medium. These include literary, dramatic, music, artistic, sculptural, and other types of creative works, both published and unpublished. It's important to note, and as we go through this today, that it protects the form of the expression rather than the subject matter itself. So, in the picture that we have of the man carrying the zebra, the fact that he is carrying a zebra is not in and of itself protectable, but the way the author, the creator of this picture, put the images together to create the image of a man carrying the zebra. So, copyrights are significant. They are a type of property right, albeit an intangible property right, that can belong to someone. They give you the right to make copies of the work, to prepare derivative works. So, if we took the zebra photo, if we added an elephant to the top of that, that would be a derivative work, the top of that, and only the creator or owner of the work would have the right to create that. They have the right to distribute. The right to distribute is commonly known as copying or reproducing the work. In the context of literary, musical, dramatic, and other types of theatrical works, they have the right to perform the work. You also have the right to display the work publicly. So, if that's a picture, a painting, something of that nature, or to perform the work, in the case of sound recordings, publicly by digital audio transmission. Things that are copyrightable, and I've included this picture of this angel for some of these, are literary works, musical works, as you can see by the angel playing the music, dramatic works, and if this was a person standing there pretending to be a statue, that would be an example of a dramatic work, pantomimes, pictorial works, which this itself is a pictorial work, it's a picture, motion pictures and other audiovisual works, sound recordings, and even architectural works. Copyright does not protect logos, titles, slogans, those sort of short forms that you would see on a website to fill in your email address and your place of business and so forth. They also, copyright also does not protect works consisting entirely of information that is in the public domain that has no original authorship. So, simply a listing of all of the members of your church or all of your sponsors would not be something that would be copyright protectable. Copyright also does not protect ideas, and so if I come up with the idea of a balloon carrying the man with the elephant, the idea itself is not protectable. However, if I drew it out or I used a computer to draw it or I took a picture and photoshopped that together, that would be protectable. Recipes, procedures, systems, principles, discoveries, those basic utilitarian artistic elements are not in and of themselves subject to copyright protection. So, if I came up with the idea of gravity, gravity is not something that can be copyrighted. So, as we apply that here, we can see that the idea again of being a man walking across a gully carrying the zebra wouldn't be protectable, but the way that this picture is put together has original work of authorship to it, and it's fixed in a tangible medium, and that means that it is actually recorded in some way. It's on the screen. It is handwritten in your notes. It is pen to paper.

Speaker 2: Sam, on a similar note, is a YouTube video, what sort of protections does that have? Is it something that I can get in trouble for showing at either my youth group or in the middle of a sermon?

Speaker 1: That's a good question. A video, if it is an original work, so it's something that we've created and we've fixed in a tangible medium, as in it's been recorded, is subject to copyright. And so, if you are not the person that recorded it or someone who has purchased the rights to it, you actually would be infringing. You'd be violating one of those exclusive rights to reproduce it, to display it, to copy it.

Speaker 2: Even if it's not a professional video, it's not like a clip of a movie. It's just me filming my kids or something.

Speaker 1: Correct. If there is a cat video that you pulled off of YouTube and wanted to show in a sermon, to show how cats bring joy to the world, that is something that very well could be protected by copyright, probably is, and that you shouldn't use without permission.

Speaker 2: Thanks.

Speaker 1: Yeah. Copyrights last for a long period of time. And so, if you're an individual, when you create a work and record that cat video, it's 70 years beyond your lifetime. And that will increase over time, is my personal belief. The company that backs this is one of the cartoon companies, you know, that begins with Diz and ends with E, that wants to protect Mickey Mouse and other types of characters. And so, they want to see the life of copyrights extended. If you're a corporation or an organization that owns the rights, it's 95 years from publication or 120 years from creation, whichever expires first. And I tend to believe that that will be expanded over time as well. So, you should assume for the purposes of us today, given science and lifetimes today, that copyrights last well beyond any time you or I will live. The expiration of the term is important. Copyrights are something that was actually set forth in the Constitution, the notion of copyrights and protection of intellectual property. And so, the bargain, the societal bargain, is that we will protect the copyrights for a certain period of life for the author or the organization. And in exchange, at some point in time, those creative works, those expressions, will go into the public domain and be free for everyone. And so, certain works that were created in the 1920s when the copyright laws were slightly different are now in the public domain. If you think of Handel's Messiah, that would be something that is in the public domain. The arrangement by a particular composer may be different, but that is something that originally would be in the public domain.

Speaker 2: Can you explain to me exactly what public domain means?

Speaker 1: The public domain means that anyone in the public can use it. So, it is out there for the world to share for the betterment of society or for the use of society. And we'll talk about some limitations on that and how the internet is not necessarily the public domain.

Speaker 2: Thanks.

Speaker 1: A copyright, again, is a right that can be owned. And so, a copyright comes into existence at the moment of creation. It is when pen goes to paper, when you hit record on the recorder, or the video equipment, or whether you're recording an audio, the minute you press record. So, it comes into existence at that moment. It immediately vests in the owner of the copyright. And the owner of the copyright is the person that created it, or if there's some sort of written transfer of that ownership at the front end, or if someone is doing or creating a work within the course and scope of their employment, as that's commonly known. So, if I am at my job, and they ask me to create logos, and I am in the marketing department responsible for creating logos, and they provide me a computer, that's within the course and scope of my employment. However, if I have a contest at my church to design the logo, not the logo, but a picture, or a work, or a design, and the person who's responsible for janitorial services comes up with the winning design, and we use that on the cover of our church hymnals, or something of that nature, the janitorial worker is not within the course and scope of his employment to create that. And so, you'd have to have a written assignment from that person. So, there are some nuances to ownership. You'll often hear people refer to a copyright registration, and that's particularly true in the U.S. Again, copyright is created at the moment of creation, and it vests in the author immediately. You don't have to file for a copyright registration, but a copyright registration gives you certain benefits. The copyright, and we'll go through some of those, the copyright registration memorializes this agreement between you and the government, saying that, here's the date that I published it, here's who created it so the government can track it, and here's when it will exactly go into the public domain. Registration is fairly easy. You file a registration with the U.S. Copyright Office. You fill out the application, you pay a fee, and you deposit one, two, or more materials, depending on the materials, with the Copyright Office. Those materials are provided to the Library of Congress, and if you actually went to the Library of Congress, you could look up all of these, what they're called, deposit copies that go with your registration, so you can actually see them in a centralized place. You can have an attorney do this for you, or you can do it, but it's certainly not required to have an attorney, and it's a relatively straightforward form. Again, why do we care about registration? One is what we'll talk about later, which is a significant one, which is if someone steals or copies your work without your permission, you have to have a registration on file in order to file a lawsuit. You can't simply go into court without that registration, or without having filed that registration, that application for registration, and file a lawsuit. The second part of it is, it gives you the right to statutory damages and attorney's fees if you file within a certain period of time, and for our purposes today, we'll just keep it that simple. Statutory damages are important, because if someone takes your work, say, takes your picture, and distributes it on the internet for free, and doesn't charge anyone for it, there's really no money that you can recover. There's no profits from that. Statutory damages give you the ability to collect between $750 and $30,000 per work, so per picture. In the case of incidental infringement, or non-wilful infringement, in the case someone is a wilful infringer, and intentionally tries to destroy the value of your picture, for example, this gives you an opportunity to increase those statutory damages to $100,000 per work. It also gives you the ability to recover your attorney's fees, which is an expensive part of any litigation. Finally, it gives you the ability to really enforce that Circle C that you provide on once it's registered to provide notice to others. It's not required for you to use that Circle C. Once you get a registration, you can use it beforehand, but it really gives you some strength to that notice, and really puts other people on notice, because once they see that Circle C, they should know. So, that's it for today. I hope you found this helpful.

Speaker 2: Sam, do I need to register pamphlets that I provide for my church, or things like that, or is it automatically protected, or what would be the timing if I wanted to do registration?

Speaker 1: When you file a registration, it's necessary to protect things from infringement. It gives you that ability to sue. So, unless someone is stealing your pamphlets on a regular basis and copying them, and you don't want that to occur, you don't need to file the registration. The copyright, again, comes into existence from the moment pen goes to paper, from the moment of creation, and it's best in the owner. So, those rights exist regardless of whether you file a registration. Now, if you are concerned about registrations and think that someone's going to steal, the first 90 days is the critical period for you to file that application, because after you wait 90 days from that initial 90 days period from creation and publication, again, I'm keeping it very simple, you lose some of those rights to claim statutory damages and attorney's fees. So, that's a significant point. If I'm a small church and I put out pamphlets every week, I may not want to register, simply because I'm paying that filing fee every time, and it'll add up, and it'll take time away from other ministries and other administrative duties that may not be as significant if someone's not always copying.

Speaker 2: Right. And if I post these publications online, is that putting them in the public domain, or you sort of touched on this, but I guess I just want to confirm that by posting them online, I'm not doing that. I have the copyright even when I do something like that.

Speaker 1: Correct. By posting something online, you're not giving up any rights to it. You're not allowing others to copy it without your authorization. If you allow other people to copy it and you don't go after them after a while, there may be a concern that you have given up some rights. But for the most part, just by publishing it on the internet or posting it in your church or posting it in your community, you're not giving

Speaker 2: up rights. Sure. And if I give someone permission to copy it, am I giving up any rights at that

Speaker 1: point? No. You're simply giving them the permission within the scope of what you tell them to do. So if you say, you can copy it for this event, they can copy it only for that event and cannot go beyond that. If you tell them they can copy it for whatever they want, as much as they want, as often as they want, then that's the extent of their rights. Great. And if I do that,

Speaker 2: I'm not essentially wiping it out and putting it into public domain. That's my ownership rights.

Speaker 1: Correct. And that's a critical point, not only for you giving up those rights, for understanding that the reciprocal of that of other people's rights as well.