I. Statement of Purpose

The Copyright Act of 1976 amended the Copyright Act of 1909 and serves as the primary basis of copyright law in the United States[1]. The Act spells out the basic rights of copyright holders, codifies the previously patchwork doctrine of fair use and adopted a unitary term of copyright exclusivity based on the date of the author’s death instead of using a fixed number of years and renewal terms as was previously spelled out in the 1909 Act. The 1909 Act was the last major piece of copyright legislation, and Congress recognized that technology had changed to the point where several pieces of the Act were no longer fit to serve as the basis for interpretation. The 1976 Act was designed to address intellectual property issues raised by new innovations in technology that were previously unforeseen. The Act addresses to the legal practitioners and non-lawyers what kinds of rights they have based on the medium in which they have chosen to communicate an idea as what as what constitutes a copyrightable idea. The sine qua non of copyright is originality, however, the Copyright Act sets the standard for creativity extremely low. Rather than the completely novel ideas protected by the patent laws, copyright laws dictate that an idea only needs a minimal degree of creativity to be protected. The Copyright Act is seen as a compromise between the rights of the publishers and the rights of the authors. The extension protects the rights of the authors with respect to whether they can profit from their ideas, but the publishers now have certain rights that they can assert which they did not have before. II. Statement of Facts Prerequisite to Our Study

The Copyright Act of 1976 discusses several ideas which will help authors of ideas more effectively assert their rights in the public and private domain. It will help them to understand what a copyright is, as well as the rights they can assert to protect it. The following notes are not intended to be an exhaustive list, but provides a basic explanation of several term and issues under the Copyright Act of 1976. A. Copyright defined.

A copyright gives the creator of an original work exclusive rights for a certain time period in relation to the work, including but not limited to its distribution, publication and adaptation. It applies to any expression of an idea fixed in a tangible medium[2].

B. The necessity of copyright.

Copyright laws have been recognized since the Copyright Act of 1909 to the Copyright Act of 1976 and all subsequent amendments. The rights are meant to foster the creative expression of ideas and to give authors sufficient protection to benefit from their works.

C. Fair Use Doctrine.

The fair use doctrine sets four factors that determine whether or not a particular use of a copyrighted work can be allowed. It hinges upon the nature of the use, the nature of the copyrighted work, the amount of the work used in relation to the work as a whole and the effect of the use upon the market value of the copyrighted work.[3]

D. Addressing fair use.

Essentially the courts have tried to shy away from determining what is fair use. When pressed upon the issue, the general feeling is that fair use is appropriate for non-profit uses of a copyrighted work, such as for educational purposes, but that those who stand to commercially benefit from such use are usually considered to be copyright infringers.

E. The history of fair use.

Fair use has been a part of the law since the 1800s. Before 1976, fair use was not a statutory provision but was used on a case-by-case basis to determine if a use of a copyrighted work was appropriate. Not that the four factor test is perfect now, but before the codification, it led to a host of unpredictable results. III. Best Sources

This guide is intended to give current information to researchers in addition to clear and concise instruction in reference to how to locate issues within the sources that are mentioned.

A. Best Primary Source

The legislative history of the Copyright Act serves as the best primary source of the topic, because not only does it discuss the deficiencies of the 1909 Act, which Congress intended to improve upon, but also illustrates the fight to maintain a balance between the rights of authors and those that would seek to publish and distribute copyrightable works. In addition, the legislative history clears up many of the potential issues involved in copyright battles because it gives the reason for several of the compromises made in the Act and also provides the intention of the government in passing several of the statutes.

B. Best Statute

17 U.S.C. §§101 – 810, also known as the US Copyright Act of 1976, is the best statute for understanding the basis of copyright law. It serves as the basis for the majority of copyright related matters in the United States. In particular, the beginning text of the Act is highly recommended as a primary source because it defines the useful terms and concepts as the US Congress meant for them to be defined. IV. Primary Sources

Primary sources are authoritative statements of legal rules by governmental bodies. They include opinions of courts, constitutions, legislation, administrative regulations and opinions, and rules of courts. Because many primary sources are published in the order they are issued with little or nor subject access, secondary sources and index tools are needed to identify and retrieve them.

A. Federal Digest

The nature of copyright law is that it is still an ambiguous topic decided largely on a case by case basis. At the same time, the courts have tried to stay true to the doctrine of stare decisis, whereby cases with similar fact patterns are decided in a similar matter. To that end, researchers often rely upon the federal digest to stay current on copyright related matters. As an example, WEST’S FEDERAL PRACTICE DIGEST 4th holds a convenient index that directly supplements WEST’S FEDERAL PRACTICE DIGEST 3d. Topic keys numbers provided for many areas including copyright, fair use, and distribution infringement. WESTLAW FEDERAL PRACTICE DIGEST 4th provides very easy and quick access to the cases reported after the latest available digest supplementation, making it easy to use when researching. For instance, a researcher seeking the rules of the Copyright Act of 1976 on “fair use” would find the latest reported cases, making it easier to research rulings on that particular issue. Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976 sets out a four factor test to determine the nature of the copyright infringement with respect to certain types of use. While it explicitly applies it use of copyrighted work for criticism, news reporting, teaching, scholarship or research purposes, the defense is not limited to these areas. As seen in Love v. Kwitny, it can also be established as a defense to copyright infringement when unpublished materials are made public for commercial benefit.

B. State Digest

West Group publishes a Key number for almost every single state. [4] State digests consists of digest paragraphs for all reported appellate cases of that particular state, including some federal court cases. State digests have several key features that are unique to a particular state, such as references to law review articles from law schools within that state. Researchers should thoroughly examine their state digest and familiarize themselves with any special features. For example, a researcher utilizing the New York State Digest would see not only the four factor test for fair use but also a history of how the test would be applied. It references several cases in relation to the “doctrine of first sale,” the section of the Act that governs that particular topic, and continues on providing references to the “legislative history of cited statutes.”

C. Words and Phrases

Problems in legal research can sometimes involve definitions of words or phrases. Courts define the meaning of those Words and Phrases to add clarity to their opinion. Words and phrases contain judicial definitions also. The Words and Phrases is a multivolume set containing over 600,000 alphabetically arranged judicial definitions of legal and non-legal words or phrases. Say that a researcher is looking for the definition of “droit de suite” granted by the federal government. The researcher should look for the Words and Phrases in the corresponding book and a definition should appear. C.A 2 (C.A.) 2002. “Droit de suite.” The droit de suite doctrine gives the author of a work lf fine art and his heirs the opportunity to share in the appreciation in value when it is resold to subsequent transferees. Although not yet a federal exception to the doctrine of first sale, California requires that subsequent sales of an artist’s work to remit 5 percent of the sale price to the artist if the sale is over 41,000 and not between art dealers.

D. Decennial and General Digest

The Decennial Digest at its core is a massive set of materials from the American Digest System. The process of the Decennial Digest began with the General Digest. The General Digest is a published bound volume, which consists of headnotes taken from all of the National Reporter System. The headnotes are arranged alphabetically by Topic, and under each Topic is a Key Number. Now, the First Decennial was created to solve the problem of having to read over one hundred bound volumes under one particular Topic. So, all cases decided involving a point of law and decided during 1897 and 1906 can be easily located. The latest Decennial is published in the Eleventh Decennial Digest, Part 1, which covers 1996-2006. Thus, when a researcher is given a Topic and Key Number, one can proceed through the Eleventh Decennial to locate all cases on a point of law under a particular Topic and Key Number from 1996 to current.

E. ALR and Its Series The American Law Reports are in six series. a. A.L.R Federal. A.L.R Federal (A.L.R Fed) discusses only federal topics. This set includes references to West's Key Number System and West's Legal Encyclopedia entitled Corpus Juris Secundum (C.J.S), suggested electronic search engines compatible with Westlaw, LoisLaw and LexisNexis, and references to secondary sources such as law reviews, treatises, and looseleaf services from other publishers. b. Fifth Series. A.L.R 5th Series (A.L.R 5th) covers state topics only and comprises of numerous enhancements that are not found in a few of the earlier series. It also includes features contained in most A.L.R series such as illustrative cases, outlines, indexes, and references to other West Group publications. c. Fourth Series. The A.L.R 4th consists of 90 volumes that cover state topics only. It also includes traditional features of A.L.R series such as illustrative cases, outlines, Annotations, and indexes. d. First, Second, & Third Series. The A.L.R 3d covers both state and federal topics from 1965 to 1969. ALR 3d became limited to only state topics after the A.L.R Fed began in 1969. However, the A.L.R 2d contains 100 volumes that cover both the state and federal topics like the A.L.R 3d did. Though, the first series includes 175 volumes with the same coverage and features as A.L.R. 2d. When researching a particular issue, A.L.R Annotations spares researchers times and effort of having to find relevant cases, interpret them and then synthesizing them. Separate digest are published for A.L.R and A.L.R 2d. However, the digests for A.L.R 3d, A.L.R 4th, A.L.R Fed are combined into one set. The digest for all A.L.R series are classified into over 350 alphabetically arranged topics. Each topic precedes the digest paragraphs are called headnotes and lists cases that are reported in that particular A.L.R.

V. Statutes A statute is a positive statement of legal rules that have been enacted by the legislature. Statutes are arranged by subjects called codes and are very important in common law systems. Statutes are used to create new areas of law, to fill in gaps in the law, and to change court-made rules. However, there is no presumption that a statute will apply to every legal problem or tat codes are comprehensive statements of the law until researched with one of the statutory resources.

A. United States Statutes at Large

The United States Statutes at Large is the source authoritative text of federal laws. The United States Statutes at Large has no cumulating subject index, making it difficult to research. It is arranged in chronological order rather than by subject. Moreover, amendments to a law may appear in different volumes from the law being amended. To obtain a full and current text of such a law, the United States Statutes at Large volume containing the original law must be examined together with subsequent volumes in which amendments to that law appear. If one were to research “intellectual property” in the United States Statutes at Large, The Intellectual Property Act of 2008 may appear. This Act offers even more information to improve the procedures and provide remedies for violations of intellectual property laws. If a researcher were to compare to diction in this United States Statutes at Large to the U.S.C, he or she would notice that the wording is the exact same. Though, as stated before, in order to obtain the full and current text of this Act, it must be used together with the subsequent volumes.

B. United States Code (U.S.C)

The United States Code prepared under the support of special committees of the House and Senate includes all sections of the Revised Statutes of 1875 that had not been repealed and all public general laws still in forced included in the United States Statutes at Large volumes dated after 1983. The laws under the U.S.C are arranged under 50 Titles, in cumulated bound supplements. The U.S.C is the “official” codification of federal public laws of a general and permanent nature, which are in effect at the time of publication. Like the United States Statutes at Large, the U.S.C volumes each contain a popular name index and tables containing listings of the laws in that particular volume. However, should there be a conflict between the wording in the U.S.C and the United Statutes at Large, the latter will govern. The United States Statutes at Large citations and the date of the original law and of any amendments thereto are set forth after each section of the U.S.C. The U.S.C includes a multivolume general index, historical notes that provide information on amendments or their public laws effect on section of the U.S.C, cross-references to other sections of the U.S.C that contain related matters or that refer to the section for the U.S.C being researched. In the 2006 Edition of the U.S.C., Title-17 is Copyrights. Within this book, Section 101 discusses what the term “copyright owner” means. Following Section 101 are related terms to “copyright owner” such as “created” and “copies,” historical notes providing which provides detailed information on the public laws and amendments relevant to “copyright owner.”

C. United States Code Annotated (U.S.C.A)

Published by the West Group, USCA sets forth the text of legislation as it appears in the U.S.C. Enhancements such as Notes and Decisions, have been added to the USCA by West Group to supplement the features in the official version of the U.S.C. The Notes and Decisions is an alphabetical subject index that precedes the actual annotations and provides digests of cases that have interpreted a particular section of the Code. The U.S.C.A includes references to other West publications and to Topics and Key Numbers that can assist researchers in finding additional, a multivolume general index which is issued annually, and the “popular name table for Acts of Congress.

D. United States Code Services (U.S.C.S)

A set published by LexisNexis, unlike U.S.C.S, provides the same features of U.S.C. Unlike U.S.C.A, the U.S.C.S follows the text of public laws as they appear in the United States Statues at Large. Thus, if a Title has not been enacted into positive law, the user of the USCS will not have the language that is needed. The U.S.C.S. provides Interpretative Notes and Decisions that contains pertinent digests of court cases and federal administrative agency decisions that have interpreted a particular section of a public law. An “analytical” index, which precedes the actual digest cases and administrative decisions, enables users to focus their research.

E. Comparison of the Annotated Editions of The U.S.C.

Both the U.S.C.A and the U.S.C.S follow the same citation pattern as the official U.S.C. [5] The U.S.C.A uses text as it appears in the U.S.C while the U.S.C.S follows the text as it appears in the United States Statutes At Large. Therefore, when using the U.S.C.A, it may be necessary to check the text of the United States Statutes at Large for those Title that are still only prima facie evidence of the law. Both the U.S.C.A and U.S.C.S contain digests of cases interpreting section of the U.S.C. The U.S.C.A contains more annotations in the U.S.C.S. On the other hand, the U.S.C.S cross-reference to Annotations in ALR or to the United States Supreme Court Reporter. Each set is easier to use, more current, and better indexed than the U.S.C. However, when only the text of the Code is needed, it may be simpler to consult to the official, annotated edition.

F. United States Code Congressional and Administrative News (U.S.C.C.A.N)

USCCAN, published by West Group, is issued in monthly pamphlets during each session of Congress. It contains a finding aid list and the text of some documents relevant to a federal legislative history. Prior to the 99th Congress, USCCAN usually printed only a House report or a Senate report; and in the 110th Congress Second Session, the Intellectual Property Act of 2008 was reported as Public Law 110-403 as well.[6] It also now includes any statement that the President made upon signing the law. USCCAN is available at many libraries and provides a simple method of obtaining on e of the most important documents of a legislative history, the committee report. The committee report and President statements included in the USCCAN are also available through Westlaw.

VI. Administrative Law

Administrative agencies, which exist on the federal and state levels, are created by the legislative branch of government and are usually part of the executive branch. A number of independent agencies, establishments, and corporations exist within the executive branch but are not consider to be part of eh executive department. Administrative law can be a very complex area to research. Not only will researchers need to find, interpret, and update the rules, regulations, and decisions created by the administrative agency, they will need to find, interpret, and update the legislation the agency is administering and judicial opinions that interpret those rules, administrative adjudications, and legislation.

A. Code of Federal Regulations (C.F.R)

Code of Federal Regulations are a set of codification of rules and regulations that were first published in the Federal Register. It bears the same relationship to the Federal Register as the United States Code bears to the United States Statutes at Large. The C.F.R comprises of fifty Titles that are similar to the arrangement of United States Code.[7] Each year the C.F.R is published into a different colored binding from those of the previous year. The looseleaf services consist of documents published in the Federal Register and Code of Federal Regulations. Thus, when researching administrative law, discover if the looseleaf service that covers the topic being researched exists and the use that service as a starting point, as opposed to the official publications. Electronically, the Federal Register is available on LexisNexis, but not limited to, and the C.F.R beginning in 1981 is found here as well.

B. Federal Register (FR)

The Federal Register is published daily and its contents are required to be judicially noticed. [8] All issues in a given year constitute a single volume with consecutive pagination throughout the year. The rules are chronologically arranged and each year the Federal Register exceeded 70,000 pages. The Freedom of Information’s Act of 1966[9] requires agencies to publish in the Federal Register descriptions of their organizations, rules of procedure and general applicability, and policy statements and interpretations. The Federal Register also includes meetings of each agency and an agenda briefly detailing the subject area of any rule that the agency expects to propose would have significant economic impact, a summary of the rules, and a schedule for finishing action on rules for which the agency issued notices of proposed rulemaking.

VII. Secondary Sources

Secondary sources, such as encyclopedias, treatises, looseleaf services, and law review articles, site statutes, cite constitutional provisions, and administrative regulations. Secondary sources focus on the law of one state or on federal laws which are proved to be very valuable. Electronic versions of the secondary sources may be found on LexisNexis or Westlaw. It will not be easy all the time when researching relevant statutes at the beginning of a research project. Indexing problems makes it difficult to match concepts or issues with related indexing terms. Though, there are several sources to identify the statutes and constitutional provisions surrounding the issue being researched.

A. Treatises

Legal Treatises are expositions written by legal writers on case law and legislation regarding a particular subject and is published in book form. Legal Treatises treat a subject matter in greater depth than legal encyclopedias and are less comprehensive than the periodical articles. Legal Treatises are classified as critical, interpretive, textual for law students, practitioner-oriented, and translated into law for a non-lawyers. Legal Treatises include a table of contents, which sets forth the topical division of the treatise and are then arranged alphabetically. In the Treatise Patry on Copyright by William F. Patry, it provides a “Historical Background” to introduce the reader to the set of compromises that is copyright law, and an overview of Exclusive Rights that come with the granting of a copyright.

B. Legal Looseleaf

Looseleaf services are publication intended to provide timely and up-to-date access to legal information. Research in a tax problem using only the U.S.C, digests, Federal Register, C.F.R and federal case law would be incomplete and time-consuming. Looseleaf services correct the problem of inaccessibility and complexity. CCH and BNA are leading publishers of looseleaf services prepared by editorial staffs.

1. Bureau of National Affairs (BNA)

BNA, inc organizational principles differs from CCH. Unlike the CHH, the issues generally do not contain individual pages to be interfiled with existing text, but instead consist of pamphlet inserts numbered sequentially and filed chronologically. Thus, there are no provisions for revision of earlier issues. This format allows for the service to be issued quickly, at the expense of the comprehensiveness guaranteed by the interfiling system. One of BNA’s most comprehensive looseleaf services is BNA’s Patent, Trademark and Copyright Journal. This looseleaf volume contain relevant statutes, regulations, and court cases pertaining to Patent, Trademark and Copyright Law. Each series contains its own index and digest, in which the cases are classified according to BNA’s own classification scheme.

2. Commerce Clearing House (CCH)

CCH, inc publications pages are interfiled. Examples of these would include the Copyright Law Reporter, the Copyright Integrated Library and the Computer and Internet Law Integrated Library. CNN publications are exclusively on LexisNexis. Each publication begins with an introductory section that discusses the organization and the use of the service. To successfully research an issue, one must locate the topic or topics being researched by looking at the Topical Index to the service, read the materials carefully under the paragraph numbers referenced in the Topical Index, and confer with the appropriate index or indexes to current materials. These steps help the researcher to save time and frustration.

C. Legal Reviews

Law Reviews are periodicals published by law schools. Law Reviews play an important role in legal research. It consists of two sections: the first section is of articles usually written by professors and the second section is called Notes and Comment, which are written by law students: the Notes are critical analysis of current court cases and Decisions are surveys that critique selected subjects of importance.

D. Legal Encyclopedias

Legal encyclopedias are very useful sources for objective background information and as sources leads to other materials. Legal encyclopedias are written in narrative form and are arranged alphabetically by subject, containing footnote references to cases on point. Legal encyclopedias simply state general propositions of law. These publications are excellent guides to the law.

1. Corpus Juris Secundum (C.J.S)

Corpus Juris Secundum is published by West Group as it is aimed at citing all reported cases in its footnotes. C.J.S has a multivolume, soft-cover General Index that is issued annually. Each volume has a separate index to each of the topics contained in it. Replacement volumes and annual cumulative pocket supplements update C.J.S. Additionally, judicial and other definition of words and phrases are included alphabetically among C.J.S topics.

2. American Jurisprudence 2d (Am. Jur. 2d)

American Jurisprudence 2d was originally published Lawyers Corporation until West Group acquired that publisher. It contains 83 numbered volumes and approximately 430 topics. The footnotes in the Am. Jur. 2d refers to the treatment of the legal topics in other secondary source text. Like the C.J.S, Am. Jur. 2d can be researched using either topical or descriptive-word approach. Am. Jur. 2d has a multivolume, soft-cover index that is issued annually. Unlike the C.J.S, Am. Jur. 2d places greater emphasis on statutory law, federal procedural rules, and uniform state laws. The federal statutory law to a topic is noted, while statutory law is covered in a more general way. A separate annual volume, Table of Laws and Rules, relates to the United States Code Service, the Federal Rules of Procedure, the Federal Rules of Evidence, and other federal rules.

VIII. Electronic Sources

The Internet is continually growing and several law-related websites are emerging. The following highly selective sources are those among the best free source for use when locating various types of legal information. A. lEGAL ELECTRONIC SOURCES

1. Federal Register [http://www.access.gpo.gov:80/su_docs/aces/aces140]

It provides the full text of the Federal Register since 1994. Researchers can search through this website in various ways.

2. Code of Federal Regulations [http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/cfr-table-search.htm.]

This is a searchable text, Title by Title, of the Code of Federal Regulations for the current year and a few years previous. It also includes the standard C.F.R updating tools.

3. U.S. Copyright Office [http://copyright.gov]

Researchers can use this website to locate the latest enactments in the field of copyright law. They can also obtain the complete version of the US Copyright Act and various copyright related publications.

B. NON-LEGAL ELECTRONIC SOURCES

1. Google [http://www.google.com]

Google is a search engine that is claimed to have the world’s largest web index and is considered to be the best on the web by researchers.

2. Yahoo! [http://www.yahoo.com]

Yahoo is one of the largest portals on the web. It includes an extensive selection of non-law related links in its diverse directory. It is a great source for non-legal research.

IX. Analysis

As stated in the Statement of Facts Prerequisite to Our Study, a copyright is held when a person fixes an idea in a tangible medium of expression. Having done so, the author of such a work is given certain rights with regards to its exclusivity, especially in the context of publishing and distribution. Of course, the Act also serves as a balance between the authors, publishers and future uses, and provides that these rights are not absolute. The concept of “fair use” has been a part of the law for over 200 years, but became officially codified in the Copyright Act of 1976. The fair use doctrine makes certain that there are codified exclusions that allow copyrighted materials to be used for the benefit of all people. The doctrine sets a multi-factor test that establishes when fair use can be established as a defense to copyright infringement. Lawyers have to understand the balanced nature of the Copyright Act in trying to assert the rights of either side. Sometimes the decisions reached in a copyright case have less to do with the statute as it is written and more to do with the intention of the Act. While authors are protected in order to foster the creation of more works and to help them take part of the appreciation of their works, such as with the droit de suite, there are certain rights that come with ownership and criticism, for example, that are also meant to be protected under the concept of the doctrine of first sale and the issuance of compulsory licenses for certain types of organizations.

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[1] 17 U.S.C. § 101
[2] 17 U.S.C § 101.
[3] 17 U.S.C. §107.
[4] West Group publishes Key Numbers for all states excluding Delaware, Nevada, and Utah.
[5] A citation to the USC can be located in either of the two annotated sets.

[6] C.F.R is similar to but not identical to the arrangement of the U.S.C
[7] U.S.C § 1507 (1994)
[8] Pub. L. No. 89-487, 80 Stat 250 (1966) (codified as amended at 5 U.S.C $ 552 (2000))