Essentials to keep in mind when laying the foundation for copyright protection of your digital content
Tom Curley from Levine Sullivan Koch & Schulz, LLP presented this session on Tuesday at the 32nd Annual International Newsletter & Specialized-Information Conference on the essentials to keep in mind when laying the foundation for copyright protection of your digital content:
Own It, and Get it In Writing – It is the author whom the copyright in a work belongs and thus it is essential that, if possible, publishers secure ownership for themselves. If a regular employee in the usual scope of her duties creates a piece of work, ownership automatically vests with the employer (here, the publisher). By contrast, if a non-employee such as a freelancer creates the work, the non-employee is typically the owner of the work in the absence of a work-made-for-hire agreement to the contrary.
Register Regularly, and in Time – While not a prerequisite for legal protection, timely registration of publications with the Copyright Office is nevertheless vital. If registration is made within three months after publication of the work (or prior to any infringement), statutory damages and attorney’s fees are available if the publisher prevails in court.
Use Copyright Notices – While not required for copyright protection, copyright notices serve a vital educational function. They communicate to would-be infringers that a publication is protected by law. The most effective notices go beyond the basics—the © symbol, the year of the first publication, and the penalties for violating copyright law, and provide contact information for those who want broader licenses.
Use Contracts to Protect Databases – Because copyright protection extends only to the “original” elements embodied in the selection, coordination and arrangement of factual information contained in databases and directories, copyright law may be an inadequate weapon to present such valuable products from unauthorized reproduction. Accordingly, publishers should consider the use of contracts to protect especially there, but other kinds of works.
Website User Agreements – Website user agreements can help protect content, too. But it is vital to construct a user agreement or site license that maximizes the chance that a court will uphold its enforceability. Among other requirements, this typically means that subscribers should be required to affirmatively agree to the terms and conditions of website use being proposed by the publisher, often by clicking an “I agree” icon.
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