CN FORUMS ARCHIVE Telescope Reviews: Copyright, Your Sketches, and Historic Sketches

I figured maybe we could have a copyright discussion about our sketches, as well as historic sketches here, instead of bogging down the ASOD thread any further.

Erika kindly posted a link to the US government's Copyright information site here:

http://www.copyright.gov

A sketch that you create is copyrighted the moment it is created and fixed in some tangible form.

It is not necessary under US law to place a notice of copyright "© date" on your work, but it can be very beneficial. First of all, it makes it plainly clear to others that you intend to protect your sketches. Second, in the event you did want to bring legal action against an infringer, no weight will be given to "innocent infringement" arguments if that mark was visible on the original work.

You do not have to register your copyright, however registration is required if you wish to bring an infringement lawsuit.

Here is the University of North Carolina's summary of copyright/public domain timeframes. It's a nice reference:

http://www.unc.edu/~unclng/public-d.htm

Works copyrighted in the US before 1923 are now in the public domain; their copyrights have expired and it is legal to copy such works. However, if an old sketch published prior to 1923 is reprinted in a more current journal, it would be a breach of copyright to scan the sketch from that publication and reproduce it, since they own the rights to that 'print' of the image. You would have to find a way to access the original art in that case, or get permission from the publisher.

Works published between 1923 and 1978 are a bit more of a mess.

Works published after 1978 are protected for the life of the author plus 70 years.

Works published by a corporate authorship are protected for the shorter of 95 years from publication, or 120 years from the actual creation of the work.

Here is a flowchart from Bromberg & Sunstein LLP that describes the process of determining copyright expiration:
http://www.bromsun.com/practices/copyright-portfolio-development/flowchart.htm

All of the above describes US copyright law. Below is a link that contains international copyright treaties and the countries that participate in them:

http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ38a.html

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Edited by Jeremy Perez (02/10/07 05:47 PM)