Re: 17 U.S.C. section 102. Subject Matter of Copyright: In General
Relax people, I welcome the legal threats.
Originally posted by The Crimson King
DISCLAIMER: The information in this post is not legal advice. Do not rely on it to be correct, do not act upon it, just read it like some cheap porno novel and throw it away. Can I be any clearer here? THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE!
For anyone who's interested, here are some choice bits of the statute governing copyrights on photographic works in the USA: (I would format this according to The Bluebook, 17th Ed., but dealing with the HTML to get the margins right isn't worth the effort and nobody would care anyway.)
17 U.S.C. section 102. Subject Matter of Copyright: In General
(a) Copyright protection subsists . . . in original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression . . . from which they can be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated either directly or with the aid of a machine or device. Works of authorship include the following categories . . . (5) pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works;
Authorship is never taken away since no claim is made between the persona and the picture connected to it. What's missing here is the person's name. Sorry, subspace nicknames aren't enough in a court of law.
Section 101 of the Copyright Act defines "pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works" to include photographs.
Section 106 states that the copyright owner has (1) the exclusive right to "reproduce the copyrighted work. . ." Further, the copyright owner has exclusive rights to prepare derivative works based on the copyrighted work; to distribute copies of the work to the public by sale, rental, lease, etc.; and to display the copyrighted work publicly. See section 106(1), (2), (3) and (5).
And, in to conclude this summary, copyright law protects "original works of authorship," 17 U.S.C. section 102.
Yes but the owner gives up that copyright ownership when the picture is uploaded to a place viewable by 40 million users: the internet. If you put your picture in Time magazine (which has a huge audience), and then someone cuts it out and pastes it in their private project, is that a law suit?
Now, I'm not drawing any conclusions from the statute as I've reproduced it here, but one might interpret the statute to say that posting a copyrighted photo on your website (reproduction and public display, cough cough) violates those exclusive rights, if one were a lawyer (which I'm NOT).
The copyright is long gone once the picture is put in a public place and acknowledged to be you by YOU. Perhaps some action could be taken if the picture is officially copy-righted with the government.
BUT . . it's never that simple. As CoL pointed out correctly, use of a copyrighted work may fall under the "fair use" exception of -->
17 U.S.C. section 107. Limitations on Exclusive Rights: Fair Use:
". . . the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by [section 106], for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching . . . scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use, the factors to be considered shall include --
(1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
(2) the nature of the copyrighted work;
(3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
(4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work. . . "
No money was ever made of the Goddess's tits. Trust me on that. I wouldn't call this an education purpose by any chance but the site is made and maintained for the community without any personal profit to my self or staff besides acknowledgement
Well, there's the statute. I can't say what it means, but there it is (in freaking black and white with distracting sections omitted). I hope this has been as enjoyable as a cheap porno novel.
Very enjoyable. Thank you.
Oh, and one other little thing: I don't know shit about tort law, but this Emmanuel Law Outline hornbook I found on my shelf (hmm wonder where that came from?) says that the tort of Invasion of Privacy is (in most jurisdictions) made up of four sub-torts, one of which is called Misappropriation of Identity. According to the book, Plaintiff can sue if her name or picture has been misappropriated by the defendant for his own financial benefit. (Was that a pop-up ad I saw just now?)
Psst, the pop-up is because I have the URL mask. The http;//run.to people are the ones making a profit. Not me. The actual site is located at http://www.priestcult.com/~vortex/pic/ If you feel like typing out the longer URL to not be bothered by the ad - go for it.
And one more point about tort suits: even if plaintiff cannot prove actual damages, the court may order nominal damages and punitive damages in cases of intentional torts.
What? Punitive damages are based on the pain suffered by the plaintiff as a direct cause of the defendant's behaiviour. If you claim that the plaintiff can't prove actual damages, they are definetly not receiving any punitive awards. The phrase "extraordinary pain and suffering" comes up when punitive damages are mentioned in negligence case. Without proving that basic damage has been done to the user, they are definetly not collecting anything extra. And I don't know what nominal damages are. They sound made up.
Well, I'd post more but I'm running out of books to cite from, and since I'm not a lawyer I can't tell you any of what this law stuff means. Maybe if someone on this board is a lawyer (or maybe a law clerk at a law firm, perhaps?) he can post a reply and explain what all this gobbledygook rhetoric of angry old white legislators means if you translate it into layman's english.
I'm a law clerk in training and it doens't pay well. The book mainly relied on Common Law which is what most statues are based on. It's pretty accurate although does need an update and a simpler translation maybe.
CK
DISCLAIMER: The information in this post is not legal advice. Do not rely on it to be correct, do not act upon it, just read it like some cheap porno novel and throw it away. Can I be any clearer here? THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE!
For anyone who's interested, here are some choice bits of the statute governing copyrights on photographic works in the USA: (I would format this according to The Bluebook, 17th Ed., but dealing with the HTML to get the margins right isn't worth the effort and nobody would care anyway.)
17 U.S.C. section 102. Subject Matter of Copyright: In General
(a) Copyright protection subsists . . . in original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression . . . from which they can be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated either directly or with the aid of a machine or device. Works of authorship include the following categories . . . (5) pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works;
Authorship is never taken away since no claim is made between the persona and the picture connected to it. What's missing here is the person's name. Sorry, subspace nicknames aren't enough in a court of law.
Section 101 of the Copyright Act defines "pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works" to include photographs.
Section 106 states that the copyright owner has (1) the exclusive right to "reproduce the copyrighted work. . ." Further, the copyright owner has exclusive rights to prepare derivative works based on the copyrighted work; to distribute copies of the work to the public by sale, rental, lease, etc.; and to display the copyrighted work publicly. See section 106(1), (2), (3) and (5).
And, in to conclude this summary, copyright law protects "original works of authorship," 17 U.S.C. section 102.
Yes but the owner gives up that copyright ownership when the picture is uploaded to a place viewable by 40 million users: the internet. If you put your picture in Time magazine (which has a huge audience), and then someone cuts it out and pastes it in their private project, is that a law suit?
Now, I'm not drawing any conclusions from the statute as I've reproduced it here, but one might interpret the statute to say that posting a copyrighted photo on your website (reproduction and public display, cough cough) violates those exclusive rights, if one were a lawyer (which I'm NOT).
The copyright is long gone once the picture is put in a public place and acknowledged to be you by YOU. Perhaps some action could be taken if the picture is officially copy-righted with the government.
BUT . . it's never that simple. As CoL pointed out correctly, use of a copyrighted work may fall under the "fair use" exception of -->
17 U.S.C. section 107. Limitations on Exclusive Rights: Fair Use:
". . . the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by [section 106], for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching . . . scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use, the factors to be considered shall include --
(1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
(2) the nature of the copyrighted work;
(3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
(4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work. . . "
No money was ever made of the Goddess's tits. Trust me on that. I wouldn't call this an education purpose by any chance but the site is made and maintained for the community without any personal profit to my self or staff besides acknowledgement
Well, there's the statute. I can't say what it means, but there it is (in freaking black and white with distracting sections omitted). I hope this has been as enjoyable as a cheap porno novel.
Very enjoyable. Thank you.
Oh, and one other little thing: I don't know shit about tort law, but this Emmanuel Law Outline hornbook I found on my shelf (hmm wonder where that came from?) says that the tort of Invasion of Privacy is (in most jurisdictions) made up of four sub-torts, one of which is called Misappropriation of Identity. According to the book, Plaintiff can sue if her name or picture has been misappropriated by the defendant for his own financial benefit. (Was that a pop-up ad I saw just now?)
Psst, the pop-up is because I have the URL mask. The http;//run.to people are the ones making a profit. Not me. The actual site is located at http://www.priestcult.com/~vortex/pic/ If you feel like typing out the longer URL to not be bothered by the ad - go for it.
And one more point about tort suits: even if plaintiff cannot prove actual damages, the court may order nominal damages and punitive damages in cases of intentional torts.
What? Punitive damages are based on the pain suffered by the plaintiff as a direct cause of the defendant's behaiviour. If you claim that the plaintiff can't prove actual damages, they are definetly not receiving any punitive awards. The phrase "extraordinary pain and suffering" comes up when punitive damages are mentioned in negligence case. Without proving that basic damage has been done to the user, they are definetly not collecting anything extra. And I don't know what nominal damages are. They sound made up.
Well, I'd post more but I'm running out of books to cite from, and since I'm not a lawyer I can't tell you any of what this law stuff means. Maybe if someone on this board is a lawyer (or maybe a law clerk at a law firm, perhaps?) he can post a reply and explain what all this gobbledygook rhetoric of angry old white legislators means if you translate it into layman's english.
I'm a law clerk in training and it doens't pay well. The book mainly relied on Common Law which is what most statues are based on. It's pretty accurate although does need an update and a simpler translation maybe.
CK
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