Copyright

This lesson examines the scope of one of the exclusive rights belonging to a copyright owner -- the right to create derivative works based on the copyrighted work, under 17 U.S.C. § 106(2).

This lesson explores the protection of architectural works (building designs) both under the 1976 Copyright Act and after adoption of the Architectural Works Copyright Protection Act of 1990.

This lesson addresses the protection afforded to compilations (including collective works) under United States copyright law.

This lesson will introduce you to the GNU/Linux operating system and its interaction with Copyright Law.

You can complete this lesson without any exposure to the law of copyrights, but the other CALI lessons on copyright will explore basic copyright concepts.  This lesson will be helpful to students studying concepts of ownership in the copyright context. After this lesson and the model answers to the essay questions, you will understand the interaction between current copyright and licensing law and the open source movement's freedom.

This lesson deals with copyright duration, an arcane, technical and somewhat laborious subject that is not always covered in depth in copyright law or intellectual property law courses.

This lesson covers some of the basic formalities of copyright: notice, registration, and deposit. Attention is given to changes wrought by the 1976 Act and the Berne Convention Implementation Act.

Copyright Law may seem shrouded in mystery: how can you create, transfer, and protect property interests in something intangible? This lesson provides an overview of how it is done, focusing on copyright protection for music. This focus takes advantage of the multimedia capacity of the program; for example, you can listen to two musical works to determine whether one infringes the other, and you can listen to the parody version of "Pretty Woman" that figured in a decision of the United States Supreme Court.

This lesson introduces the user to the copyright issues that pertain to sound recordings.

This lesson provides an introduction to one of the Copyright Act's section 106 exclusive rights, the distribution right.

This lesson explores the application of the fair use doctrine, a defense to copyright infringement, in the special context of parody, based on the guidance provided by the Supreme Court in Campbell v. Acuff Rose Music, 510 U.S. 569 (1994).

This lesson discusses the requirement that a work be "fixed in a tangible medium of expression" as a condition to obtaining copyright protection. Although it assumes a basic familiarity with copyright law and terminology, it is designed to stand alone. It can, therefore, be used either as an introduction to the fixation requirement or as a review of those concepts after a class discussion.

Because copyright creates ownership rights in original expression, the private property interests of copyright owners sometimes come into conflict with the public's interest in disseminating knowledge, expressing ideas, or simply enjoying, sharing, and building upon the protected expression. This lesson introduces the basic concept of fair use in copyright law, and offers numerous examples to test the student's ability to apply the balancing test of 17 U.S.C. § 107.

This lesson explores the concept of a "joint work" in copyright law, including the legal standards which determine whether a work has been jointly authored as well as the legal consequences that attach to this characterization.

This lesson follows the Distribution Right lesson, CPY16. This lesson can best be characterized as the Limitation on the Distribution Right.

This lesson reviews the threshold principles of ownership by analyzing the "works made for hire" doctrine codified in the Copyright Act of 1976.

This lesson is an introduction to the principles governing copyright infringement. After completing this lesson, you will be familiar with the standard used to determine liability for copyright infringement. Specifically, the lesson will introduce the elements necessary to support a claim of copyright infringement, which include assessments of copying, access, probative resemblance, striking similarity, improper appropriation, and substantial similarity.

This lesson explores a copyright holder's right to control the performance and display of the related work of authorship.

This lesson introduces the student to the doctrine and processes involved in interpreting state and federal statutes. Statutes are a critical part of every substantive area of the law, so this is important background for every student, legal professional, lawyer and judge.

This lesson deals with the "useful article" limitation on protection of pictorial, graphic and sculptural works under copyright law.

Prof. Lind teaches Copyright, Trademark, Entertainment Law, Mass Media law, and Museum and Art Law at Southwestern. He is also the author of several CALI lessons on copyright and trademark law. In this podcast, he explains the confusion that arises from the use of the term "song." Prof.