11/22/2009 10:00:00 AM
Steal this article
Legal-Ease
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| By Todd D. Wolfrum
Attorney-at-law |
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People are strange when you're a stranger. Faces look ugly when you're alone. Women seem wicked when you're unwanted. Streets are uneven when you're down.
If you've never heard of The Doors, you might think me poetic and insightful for the above paragraph. If you are a fan of The Doors, perhaps you broke into reflexive melody. In any case, by not giving Jim Morrison credit for his lyrics, I am guilty of copyright infringement.
Copyright laws are protecting this very sentence as I write it. Even if I edit and that last sentence is never published, it is still protected. (I did, by the way.) The copyright protection forms automatically at the moment a thought is reduced into a form of communication. Just think, you too are copyrighted a hundred times a day when you speak. That is also why you should never use clichés - there is a good chance you are infringing.
Copyright laws exist to allow artists to make money off their work. Without such laws, I could steal The Doors' profits by selling unauthorized copies of "L.A. Woman". (Although I would certainly make more by pirating Miley Cyrus, I'd never be able to live with myself for committing the mortal sin of perpetrating Miley Cyrus music.)
All copyright infringement is subject to civil litigation - you have to pay for using someone else's work or a court will make you pay. There also can be criminal penalties for such infringement. Those are most newsworthy now in the illegal internet traffic of music and videos.
A copyright infringement is subject to criminal prosecution if infringement is willful and for purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain. If the offense consists of the reproduction or distribution, during any 180-day period, of 10 or more copies having a retail value of more than $2,500, the offense is a felony; otherwise, the offense is a misdemeanor.
(I just copied and pasted that entire last paragraph off the internet, thus violating copyright laws in explaining copyright laws. Did I just break on through to the other side?)
Currently, artistic material has an automatic copyright that remains for seventy years after the death of the author. After that time, it enters the public domain and any one can use it. I could sell infinite sheet music to "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" if only someone would buy it.
Copyright law changes every so often, so you've gotta do some homework if you want to copy. Between 1964 to 1971, where Morrison's above lyrics originated, the copyright lasted 95 years after death. Morrison died in 1971, so in 2066, I could use his lyrics and give no credit.
If I'm still writing this column in 2066, it means three things, all of them good - first, I'm still alive; second, China allowed us to maintain our press after the collapse and takeover; and third, I've gotten a substantial raise, because that's the only way I'll be doing this at age 95.
There is no infringement when you pay someone to create on your behalf. I've learned from other professionals that columns like this one, for example, can be purchased from ghost writers. One can then attach one's own name to the column, gaining ill-deserved literary repute in the community. Real estate agents, doctors, financial planners - I've heard this from nearly every field, usually in the form of "You don't actually write that column, do you?"
I wish I would have known all that before I started, because it would have saved me a lot of time on the weekends over the last year and a half or so. My wife, who is further utilized as a proofreader, can attest to my authorship of this column, but if there are doubters, I will make any the same deal I made to my good friend Bill Straley, which is as follows:
Stop by my office and sign a contract. It will say that if you can find another source for the material that I pass off as my own herein, I'll give you five thousand dollars. If you can't, you owe me five hundred. It will be the first money I've made doing this, my request of a few months ago that readers voluntarily send in a couple hundred each having found no purchase.
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