As Judge Learned Hand put it, "Obviously, no principle can be stated as to when an imitator has gone beyond copying the 'idea,' and has borrowed its 'expression. Mere facts are not copyrightable. However, compilations of facts are treated differently, and may be copyrightable material. Copyright protection in compilations is limited to the selection and arrangement of facts , not to the facts themselves.
Rural Telephone Service Co. The Feist case denied copyright protection to a "white pages" phone book a compilation of telephone numbers, listed alphabetically. In making this ruling, the Supreme Court rejected the " sweat of the brow " doctrine. That is, copyright protection requires creativity, and no amount of hard work "sweat of the brow" can transform a non-creative list like an alphabetical listing of phone numbers into copyrightable subject matter. A mechanical, non-selective collection of facts e. Copyright protects artistic expression.
Copyright does not protect useful articles, or objects with some useful functionality. The Copyright Act states:. However, many industrial designers create works that are both artistic and functional. Under these circumstances, Copyright Law only protects the artistic expression of such a work, and only to the extent that the artistic expression can be separated from its utilitarian function. In , the U. Supreme Court granted certiorari in the case Star Athletica, L. First, one can identify the decorations as features having pictorial, graphic, or sculptural qualities.
And imaginatively removing the surface decorations from the uniforms and applying them in another medium would not replicate the uniform itself. Indeed, respondents have applied the designs in this case to other media of expression—different types of clothing—without replicating the uniform. The decorations are therefore separable from the uniforms and eligible for copyright protection. This produces a relatively low threshold for pictorial, graphic, or sculptural features on useful articles to be eligible for copyright protection, which one commentator clearly highlighted: Works created by the federal government are not copyrightable.
This restriction on copyright applies to publications produced by the United States Government, and its agents or employees within the scope of their employment. The specific language is as follows:. Copyright protection under this title is not available for any work of the United States Government, but the United States Government is not precluded from receiving and holding copyrights transferred to it by assignment, bequest, or otherwise. A "work of the United States Government" is defined in 17 U.
Note that government contractors are generally not considered employees, and their works may be subject to copyright. Likewise, the US government can purchase and hold the copyright to works created by third parties. The government may restrict access to works it has produced through other mechanisms. For instance, confidential or secret materials are not protected by copyright, but are restricted by other applicable laws.
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However, even in case of non-secret materials there are specific prohibitions against automatic access to work otherwise covered under 17 U. Federal statutes are in the public domain and no copyright attaches to them. The same is true of court decisions. It is not difficult to see the motivations behind this:. The citizens are the authors of the law, and therefore its owners, regardless of who actually drafts the provisions, because the law derives its authority from the consent of the public, expressed through the democratic process.
As a matter of longstanding public policy, the U. Copyright Office will not register a government edict that has been issued by any state, local, or territorial government, including legislative enactments, judicial decisions, administrative rulings, public ordinances, or similar types of official legal materials. Likewise, the Office will not register a government edict issued by any foreign government or any translation prepared by a government employee acting within the course of his or her official duties.
However, several states, such as Oregon and Georgia, have claimed that the annotated editions of their laws are copyrightable. Org , in Federal court in Atlanta for copyright infringement. Malamud had posted the Official Code of Georgia Annotated on his website. There are six basic rights protected by copyright. A violation of any of the exclusive rights of the copyright holder is a copyright infringement , unless fair use or a similar affirmative defense applies. The initial owner of the copyright to a work is the author, unless that work is a "work made for hire.
If a work is not a work for hire, then the author will be the initial copyright owner.
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The author generally is the person who conceives of the copyrightable expression and "fixes" it in a "tangible medium of expression. The first two, assignment and exclusive licenses, require the transfer to be in writing. Nonexclusive licenses need not be in writing and they may be implied by the circumstances. Transfers of copyright always involve one or more of the exclusive rights of copyright. For instance, a license may provide a right to perform a work, but not to reproduce it or to prepare a derivative work adaptation right.
The terms of the license is governed by the applicable contract law, however there is substantial academic debate about to what extent the Copyright Act preempts state contract law principles. An author, after transferring a copyright, can terminate the transfer under certain circumstances. This right to terminate the transfer is absolute and cannot be waived. Copyright is automatically granted to the author of an original work that otherwise meets the basic copyright requirements, discussed above. Registration is not necessary. However, registration amplifies a copyright holder's rights in a number of ways.
Registration is required before a lawsuit can be filed, and registration creates the possibility for enhanced "statutory" damages. A copyright can be registered online at the US Copyright Office's website. The Copyright Office reviews applications for obvious errors or lack of copyrightable subject matter, and then issues a certificate of registration. The Copyright Office does not compare the authors new work against a collection of existing works or otherwise check for infringement.
The United States Copyright Office requires a deposit copy of the work for which copyright registration is sought. This deposit requirement serves two purposes. First, if a copyright infringement lawsuit arises, the owner may prove that the material that is infringed is exactly the same material for which the owner has secured a registration. Second, this requirement helps the Library of Congress build its collection of works. Failure to comply with the deposit requirement, as modified by Copyright Office regulations, is punishable by fine, but does not result in forfeiture of copyright.
The use of copyright notices is optional. The Berne Convention , amending US copyright law in , makes copyright automatic. Copyright protection generally lasts for 70 years after the death of the author. If the work was a "work for hire", then copyright persists for years after creation or 95 years after publication, whichever is shorter. For works created before , the copyright duration rules are complicated. However, works created before have made their way into the public domain.
For works published or registered before , the maximum copyright duration is 95 years from the date of publication, if copyright was renewed during the 28th year following publication.
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Prior to , works had to be published or registered to receive copyright protection. Upon the effective date of the Copyright Act which was January 1, this requirement was removed and these unpublished, unregistered works received protection. However, Congress intended to provide an incentive for these authors to publish their unpublished works. To provide that incentive, these works, if published before , would not have their protection expire before All copyrightable works published in the United States before are in the public domain ; [38] works created before but not published until recently [ when?
The need for renewal was eliminated by the Copyright Renewal Act of , but works that had already entered the public domain by non-renewal did not regain copyright protection. Therefore, works published before that were not renewed are in the public domain. Before , sound recordings were not subject to federal copyright, but copying was nonetheless regulated under various state torts and statutes, some of which had no duration limit. The Sound Recording Amendment of extended federal copyright to recordings fixed on or after February 15, , and declared that recordings fixed before that date would remain subject to state or common law copyright.
Subsequent amendments had extended this latter provision until Although these could have entered the public domain as a result of government authorship or formal grant by the owner, the practical effect has been to render public domain audio virtually nonexistent. This situation has changed with the enactment of the Music Modernization Act , which extended federal copyright protection to all sound recordings, regardless of their date of creation, and preempted state copyright laws on those works.
Under the Act, the first sound recordings to enter the public domain will be those fixed before , which will enter the public domain on January 1, Recordings fixed between and February 14, will be phased into the public domain in the following decades. For this process to succeed, organizations need to be adequately prepared. At a minimum, preparation for a stress prevention program should include the following:. Bringing workers or workers and managers together in a committee or problem-solving group may be an especially useful approach for developing a stress prevention program.
However, when forming such working groups, care must be taken to be sure that they are in compliance with current labor laws. Employers should seek legal assistance if they are unsure of their responsibilities or obligations under the National Labor Relations Act. Low morale, health and job complaints, and employee turnover often provide the first signs of job stress.
But sometimes there are no clues, especially if employees are fearful of losing their jobs. Lack of obvious or widespread signs is not a good reason to dismiss concerns about job stress or minimize the importance of a prevention program. Step 1 — Identify the Problem. The best method to explore the scope and source of a suspected stress problem in an organization depends partly on the size of the organization and the available resources.
Group discussions among managers, labor representatives, and employees can provide rich sources of information. Such discussions may be all that is needed to track down and remedy stress problems in a small company. In a larger organization, such discussions can be used to help design formal surveys for gathering input about stressful job conditions from large numbers of employees.
Regardless of the method used to collect data, information should be obtained about employee perceptions of their job conditions and perceived levels of. The list of job conditions that may lead to stress page 9 and the warning signs and effects of stress page 11 provide good starting points for deciding what information to collect. Regardless of the method used to collect data, information should be obtained about employee perceptions of their job conditions and perceived levels of stress, health, and satisfaction.
Objective measures such as absenteeism, illness and turnover rates, or performance problems can also be examined to gauge the presence and scope of job stress. However, these measures are only rough indicators of job stress-at best. Data from discussions, surveys, and other sources should be summarized and analyzed to answer questions about the location of a stress problem and job conditions that may be responsible-for example, are problems present throughout the organization or confined to single departments or specific jobs?
Survey design, data analysis, and other aspects of a stress prevention program may require the help of experts from a local university or consulting firm. However, overall authority for the prevention program should remain in the organization. Step 2 — Design and Implement Interventions. Once the sources of stress at work have been identified and the scope of the problem is understood, the stage is set for design and implementation of an intervention strategy.
In small organizations, the informal discussions that helped identify stress problems may also produce fruitful ideas for prevention. In large organizations, a more formal process may be needed. Frequently, a team is asked to develop recommendations based on analysis of data from Step 1 and consultation with outside experts. Certain problems, such as a hostile work environment, may be pervasive in the organization and require company-wide interventions. Other problems such as excessive workload may exist only in some departments and thus require more narrow solutions such as redesign of the way a job is performed.
Still other problems may be specific to certain employees and resistant to any kind of organizational change, calling instead for stress management or employee assistance interventions. Some interventions might be implemented rapidly e. Step 3 — Evaluate the Interventions.
Evaluation is an essential step in the intervention process. Evaluation is necessary to determine whether the intervention is producing desired effects and whether changes in direction are needed. Short-term evaluations might be done quarterly to provide an early indication of program effectiveness or possible need for redirection. Many interventions produce initial effects that do not persist.
Long-term evaluations are often conducted annually and are necessary to determine whether interventions produce lasting effects. Evaluations should focus on the same types of information collected during the problem identification phase of the intervention, including information from employees about working conditions, levels of perceived stress, health problems, and satisfaction. Employee perceptions are usually the most sensitive measure of stressful working conditions and often provide the first indication of intervention effectiveness.
Adding objective measures such as absenteeism and health care costs may also be useful. However, the effects of job stress interventions on such measures tend to be less clear-cut and can take a long time to appear. The job stress prevention process does not end with evaluation. Rather, job stress prevention should be seen as a continuous process that uses evaluation data to refine or redirect the intervention strategy.
The following pages provide examples of actions some organizations have taken to help prevent stress in their workplaces. Example 1 — A Small Service Organization. A department head in a small public service organization sensed an escalating level of tension and deteriorating morale among her staff.
Job dissatisfaction and health symptoms such as headaches also seemed to be on the rise. Suspecting that stress was a developing problem in the department, she decided to hold a series of all-hands meetings with employees in the different work units of the department to explore this concern further. These meetings could be best described as brainstorming sessions where individual employees freely expressed their views about the scope and sources of stress in their units and the measures that might be implemented to bring the problem under control.
Using the information collected in these meetings and in meetings with middle managers, she concluded that a serious problem probably existed and that quick action was needed. Because she was relatively unfamiliar with the job stress field, she decided to seek help from a faculty member at a local university who taught courses on job stress and organizational behavior.
After reviewing the information collected at the brainstorming sessions, they decided it would be useful for the faculty member to conduct informal classes to raise awareness about job stress-its causes, effects, and prevention-for all workers and managers in the department. It was also decided that a survey would be useful to obtain a more reliable picture of problematic job conditions and stress-related health complaints in the department. The faculty member used information from the meetings with workers and managers to design the survey. The faculty member was also involved in the distribution and collection of the anonymous survey to ensure that workers felt free to respond honestly and openly about what was bothering them.
He then helped the department head analyze and interpret the data. Analysis of the survey data suggested that three types of job conditions were linked to stress complaints among workers:. Having pinpointed these problems, the department head developed and prioritized a list of corrective measures for implementation. Examples of these actions included 1 greater participation of employees in work scheduling to reduce unrealistic deadlines and 2 more frequent meetings between workers and managers to keep supervisors and workers updated on developing problems.
Example 2 — A Large Manufacturing Company. Although no widespread signs of stress were evident at work, the corporate medical director of a large manufacturing company thought it would be useful to establish a stress prevention program as a proactive measure.
As a first step he discussed this concept with senior management and with union leaders. Together, they decided to organize a labor-management team to develop the program. The consulting firm provided technical advice about program design, implementation, and evaluation. Financial resources for the team and program came from senior management, who made it clear that they supported this activity.
The team designed a two-part program. One part focused on management practices and working conditions that could lead to stress.
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The second part focused on individual health and well-being. The employee health and well-being part of the program consisted of 12 weekly training sessions. During these sessions, workers and managers learned about common sources and effects of stress at work, and about self-protection strategies such as relaxation methods and improved health behaviors. The training sessions were offered during both work and nonwork hours. The team followed up with quarterly surveys of working conditions and stress symptoms to closely monitor the effectiveness of this two-part program.
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