"I. Fred Koenigsberg - Copyright Primer" - читать интересную книгу автора (Koenigsberg I Fred)

American Law Institute
American Bar Association Continuing Legal Education
ALI-ABA Course of Study
March 22, 2001

Trademarks, Copyrights, and Unfair Competition
for the General Practitioner and the Corporate Counsel

*341 COPYRIGHTS

I. Fred Koenigsberg
White & Case LLP
New York, New York


Copyright (c) 2001 The American Law Institute;
I. Fred Koenigsberg




*343 In recent years, copyright has been grouped with other forms of legal protection under the general term "intellectual property." Copyright is a means of protecting that particular form of creativity which has been variously referred to as "originality of authorship," "expression of ideas," or "writings of an author." It is distinct from other forms of intellectual property which do not protect original expression of authorship, such as patents (which protect novel inventions or discoveries), trademarks (which protect terms identifying the source of origin of goods and services) and trade secrets (which protect confidential, proprietary information).


Historical Background

Although there is considerable scholarly speculation on ancient precursors of
copyright, the fact is that no significant copyright protection existed in
theory or practice until the technological development of a means of mass
duplication of creative works -- the printing press. The law did not need a
coherent protective structure for written and graphic works when the only
means of copying them, by hand, was so labor-intensive as to require an
investment potentially far in excess of the worth of the copy.

The invention of the printing press meant that written and graphic works could
be duplicated and disseminated in vast numbers. Hence, the necessity of
protecting the right to copy -- the "copyright" -- arose. Interestingly,
copyright protection in England emerged in the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries as a means of censorship and control, rather than as a means of
encouragement of authorship. The Crown feared the dissemination of treasonous
writings; the Church feared the spread of heretical writings. And so, no work
could be published other than through the Stationers' Company -- the printers'
trade guild, which was under the control of the Crown. Those who were allowed
to publish through the Stationers' Company gained copyright protection for
their works.

That was the case until the late 17th century, when the exclusive grant of
copyright through the Stationers' Company expired. In 1710, Parliament enacted
the first true copyright statute, the Statute of Anne. This law was noteworthy
in two respects. First, and perhaps most significantly, it granted copyright