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Copyright

A form of protection provided by the laws of the United States for "original works of authorship", including literary, dramatic, musical, architectural, cartographic, choreographic, pantomimic, pictorial, graphic, sculptural, and audiovisual creations. "Copyright" literally means the right to copy but has come to mean that body of exclusive rights granted by law to copyright owners for protection of their work. Copyright protection does not extend to any idea, procedure, process, system, title, principle, or discovery. Similarly, names, titles, short phrases, slogans, familiar symbols, mere variations of typographic ornamentation, lettering, coloring, and listings of contents or ingredients are not subject to copyright.

Author

A general term used in the Copyright Act to describe the creator of a work such as a literary work, musical composition, or sound recording.

Phonorecord

A material object in which sounds are fixed and from which the sounds can be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated either directly or with the aid of a machine or device. A phonorecord may include a cassette tape, an LP vinyl disc, a compact disc, or other means of fixing sounds. A phonorecord does not include those sounds accompanying a motion picture or other audiovisual work.

Digital Media Association (DiMA)

A member-based trade association that: 1) promotes a business and regulatory environments that support their members' growth and success, and which encourage consumers' adoption of legal digital media choices; 2) defends their members against legal and legislative initiatives that would inhibit technological and business model innovation or would otherwise impose undue costs and legal obligations on their members; and 3) represents its members in industry negotiations and rate-setting proceedings that determine significant royalties - and which often determine whether companies are profitable. DiMA members: Amazon, Apple, Live365, Microsoft, Pandora, Real Networks (Rhapsody), Slacker, and YouTube.

Patent

A set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for detailed public disclosure of an invention.

Sound Recording

A sound recording is a work that results from the fixation of a series of musical, spoken, or other sounds, regardless of the nature of the material objects in which they are embodied. A sound recording does not include the sounds accompanying a motion picture or other audiovisual work. Copyright in a sound recording protects the particular series of sounds embodied in the sound recording. Copyright registration for a sound recording alone is not the same as registration for the musical, dramatic, or literary work recorded. The underlying work may be registered in its own right apart from any recording of the performance.

Trademark

A word, phrase, symbol, and/or design that identifies and distinguishes the source of the goods of one party from those of others.

Derivative Work

A work based on a preexisting work that is substantially recast, transformed, or adapted into an original copyrighted work of authorship.

Compilation

A work formed by the collection and assembling of preexisting materials or of data that are selected, coordinated, or arranged in such a way that the resulting work as a whole constitutes an original work of authorship. The term "compilation" includes collective works.

Collective Work

A work in which a number of contributions, constituting separate and independent works in themselves, are assembled into a collective whole.

Fixed

A work is "fixed" in a tangible medium of expression when its embodiment in a copy or phonorecord, by or under the authority of the author, is sufficiently permanent or stable to permit it to be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated for a period of more than transitory duration. A work consisting of sounds, images, or both, that are being transmitted, is "fixed" for purposes of this title if a fixation of the work is being made simultaneously with its transmission.

Intellectual Property

A work or invention that is the result of creativity, such as a manuscript or a design, to which one has rights and for which one may apply for a patent, copyright, trademark, or receive some form of protection as a trade secret.

Joint Work

A work prepared by two or more authors with the intention that their contributions be merged into inseparable or interdependent parts of a unitary whole.

Audiovisual Work

A work that consists of a series of related images and accompanying sounds.

Work-Made-For-Hire (or Work-For-Hire)

A work that is (1) prepared by an employee within the scope of his work, or (2) specially ordered or commissioned for use by another person under terms of a written agreement completed in advance of the creation of the work.

Berne Convention

An international copyright treaty (The Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works) that established protection of an author's intellectual property, signed at Berne, Switzerland, on September 9, 1886, and all acts, protocols, and revisions thereto. The United States acceded to the Berne Convention effective March 1, 1989. One of the main features of this treaty is that it provides that copyright is established at the point of fixation rather than the point of registration.

Fair Use

In U.S. copyright law, the doctrine that brief excerpts of copyrighted materials may be used without permission of the copyright owner provided the use is fair and reasonable, does not substantially impair the value of the materials, and does not curtail the profits reasonably expected by the owner. Limited to the purposes of comment, criticism, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.

Copies

Material objects, other than phonorecords, in which a work is fixed by any method now known or later developed, and from which the work can be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated, either directly or with the aid of a machine or device. The term "copies" includes the material object, other than a phonorecord, in which the work is first fixed.

Exclusive Rights (of Copyright)

Musical Work i. Reproduce (in copies or phonorecords) ii. Distribute copies of the work (sell, publish, transfer, rent, lease) iii. Derive (make arrangements) iv. Display the work publicly v. Perform the work publicly • Sound Recording i. Reproduce (in phonorecords or audiovisual works) ii. Distribute copies of the work (sell, publish, transfer, rent, lease) iii. Derive (remixing, abridgements, extended versions) iv. Perform the work publicly by digital audio transmission 1. Sometimes simply referred to as "transmit" digitally

World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)

One of the 17 specialized agencies of the United Nations created in 1967 "to encourage creative activity, to promote the protection of intellectual property throughout the world." WIPO currently has 188 member states, administers 26 international treaties, and is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.

Piracy

The act of illegally copying a product or invention without permission. In the music industry, this is most often applied to the unauthorized copying and distribution of sound recordings.

infringement

The act of violating a law, right, or contractual relationship.

Copyright Notice

The copyright notice consists of three elements. They are the "c" in a circle (©), the year of first publication, and the name of the owner of copyright. A copyright notice is no longer legally required to secure copyright on works first published on or after March 1, 1989, but it does provide legal benefits.

Remedy

The means to achieve justice in any matter in which legal rights are involved.

Statutory Rate

The mechanical license royalty rate established by the U.S. Copyright Act that compensates owners of musical works that are recorded and commercially released to the public on phonorecords

Poor Man's Copyright

The practice of obtaining copyright protection without filing the appropriate documentation via the U.S. Copyright Office. Most commonly performed by authors who send their work through the postal service or by a notary public to themselves and using a time stamp to validate a date of creation. There is no provision in copyright law regarding such type of protection and courts have rejected such cases as the method is susceptible to tampering.

Public Domain

The status of a work having no copyright protection that is therefore available for unrestricted use by anyone, for any purpose, without permission or payment.

Counterfeiting

The unauthorized manufacture and distribution of copies of a product packaged to look like the original.

Bootlegging

The unauthorized recording of a live or broadcast performance.

Publish

To publish a work is to distribute copies or phonorecords of the work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending. Publication also includes offering to distribute copies or phonorecords to a group of persons for purposes of further distribution, public performance, or public display. A public performance or display of a work does not of itself constitute publication.

Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (DMCA)

United States copyright law that implements two 1996 treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). It criminalizes production and dissemination of technology, devices, or services intended to circumvent measures (commonly known as digital rights management or DRM) that control access to copyrighted works. It also criminalizes the act of circumventing an access control, whether or not there is actual infringement of copyright itself. In addition, the DMCA heightens the penalties for copyright infringement on the Internet. The DMCA's principal innovation in the field of copyright is the exemption from direct and indirect liability of Internet service providers and other intermediaries (aka: The "Safe Harbor" Provision). This exemption was adopted by the European Union in the Electronic Commerce Directive 2000.

Interpolation

Using a portion of a pre-existing musical work as an element in a new musical work.

Sampling

Using a portion of a pre-existing sound recording as an element in a new sound recording.

Law Types

a. Statutory Law Legislative acts that proscribe certain conduct by demanding or prohibiting something or that declare the legality of particular acts. b. Case Law Legal principles enunciated and embodied in judicial decisions that are derived from the application of particular areas of law to the facts of individual cases. A dynamic and constantly developing body of law.

Law Practices

a. Transactional Transactional practice involves researching, preparing and reviewing the documents and contracts. Ensuring compliance with relevant regulations and laws also falls under this heading. Lawyers engaged in transactional practice never see the inside of a courtroom. Their main work involves research, drafting, negotiating, and advising. b. Litigation Litigators seek to resolve disputes in court. The main duty of a litigation lawyer is to take a lawsuit to court and try to win the case. Sometimes, litigation attorneys settle cases out of court, but most lawsuits they receive will be handled by them in court. There are two types of litigation - Civil and Criminal.