Copyrights

The length of a copyright under the 1976 Copyright Act is Life plus 50 years. What this means is that if you copyright © your intellectual property, (song, poem, photo, text, software, etc) you own the rights for that material for the rest of your life plus fifty years after your death. Your heirs will reap the benefits of your intellectual property royalties for an additional fifty years, after which time the material becomes part of the “Public Domain”, free to use by all. This is contingent, however, on the proper filing of a copyright. The copyright office does not send notice of improper copyrights, and if a copyright is not executed correctly, it could fall into public domain. Consider the song “The Caissons Go Rolling Along”, which was filed with an incorrect copyright notice. The song was not copyrighted and its owners lost all royalties to it, due to the improper copyright notice. Many people in business will trademark a company logo, but not copyright the very information that the company generates (brochures, promos, ads, instruction booklets, flyers, etc) thus giving the competition plenty of opportunity to “steal their materials”. Many countries are signatory to “Copyright Conventions”, which means they all agree on protecting each other’s copyrights. Many European countries are members of the “Berne Convention”, in which agreements were made on both honoring copyrights, and the methods on which copyrights are established. Some Latin American countries are members of the “Buenos Aires Convention”, which is similar to the Berne Convention. Do you know the six things you cannot copyright? (Ideas, blank forms, facts, short phrases, titles, and names.)

Trademark

Do you know the difference between a Trademark and a Copyright? Well, first of all, a Trademark is a word, phrase, symbol, or design or a combination thereof, that identifies the the source of the goods or services of one party from those of another. A copyright protects an original artistic or literary work.

Secondly, a Trademark identifies a certain company’s logo or moniker that makes it stand out from all others. Under copyright law you cannot copyright a name; however, under Trademark law, you can register the name and logo of your business and the unique product or service it provides. So how does one Trademark a company? By simply using the name and logo of your company, followed by the symbol TM, you have begun the Trademark process. If you use it long enough, you will establish a Trademark by common usage. But it is still not a registered Trademark. The best way is to register it with the trademark office. The first thing involved in registering it is a Trademark search, in which databases are searched to see if anyone else already has that name, or one very similar. If you clear the name via a trademark search, then you register the trademark with the U.S. Trademark office, and the mark is represented by the symbol ®, which means it is a registered symbol. This gives your company added protection in case another company comes along, and tries to use a mark similar to yours to “cash in” on your fame, quality, or product uniqueness.

Cable TV

All Federal restrictions on pricing caps of cable TV (except for regular local broadcast channels and public TV) will be lifted by March 31st, 1999, according to the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Opponents say this will make cable TV rates skyrocket. Proponents claim this will create competition and free trade of cable channels, allowing greater selection with lower pricing due to this competition. Also, the 1996 Act clears the way for cable operators to offer local phone and cellular service, which will lower those costs by creating a more competitive market place.

Broadcast TV

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 has also had its effect on broadcasting rules and regulations. Until the 1996 law, a single broadcasting company could not own television stations serving more than 25% of the nation’s households. The new law permits TV networks and groups to own an unlimited number of stations as long as their signals do not reach more than 35% of all households. Also, the law allows cable companies to own TV stations, and broadcast networks to own cable systems, thus encouraging more competition. It also cleared the way for viewers to own small satellite dishes, called Direct Broadcast Systems, (DBS) which also preempts state laws or local ordinances that might forbid it.

Internet

Be careful what you do with the information you download from the internet. Most web sites and information on the internet is copyrighted. While it may be OK for you to download it for yourself, you might not want to incorporate it into part of your own web site or give it to others as part of your product. This has been a frequently contested issue. Some people feel that if you post it on the net, you have disseminated it to the public, like publishing or posting a poster, and the information is public for all to see and use. However, this has not proven to be the case. The owner of a BBS in Florida was sued by Playboy Enterprises when his subscribers uploaded copyrighted pictures owned by Playboy through his BBS. The court found the BBS operator at fault, as it was a public distribution of copyrighted material, and thus, a violation of Playboy’s copyright. Playboy Enterprises Inc. v. Frena, 839 F. Supp 1552 (M.D. Fla. 1993)

© 1997 J. Anello Jr. J.D./ All rights reserved
P.O. Box 80187
Rancho Santa Margarita, Ca 92688
(949) 766-1384 (tel)
(949) 766-1374 (fax)
Cexton Records
john@cexton.com