Full Preemption & Copyright Law
In 1976, Congress created a single national system for the registration of copyrights, preempting the right of individual states to provide protection under state law. At that time, the Copyright Act of 1976 represented the most basic change to the United States copyright system since the inception of copyright protection in this country.
Other People Are Reading
-
History
-
Copyright protection in this country stems from a 1710 English statute and is specifically authorized by the U.S. Constitution. Historically, a copyright holder was protected by common law prior to publication of a work and by federal law post-publication. In 1976, federal law preempted this dual system of protection and adopted one system of federal statutory protection.
Legal Framework
-
Chapter 2, sections 301 to 305 of the Copyright Act of 1976 preempts states from enacting or enforcing any law to provide copyright protection to creators of original works. The statute places copyrights under federal purview, and any action involving rights falls under the exclusive jurisdiction of the federal government.
-
In Practice
-
The United States Copyright Office is the only entity authorized to accept and certify copyright registrations. Although a creator is not required to register a work and will still hold a copyright upon creation at common law, the only way to pursue a claim of infringement is if a work is properly registered with the Copyright Office.
Benefits
-
The preemption of state law regarding copyright standardizes the copyright application process and makes it easier for a rights holder to prove and pursue cases of infringement. In an age of instantaneous dissemination of works both nationally and internationally, a uniform system of federal statutory protection is more important than ever, and brings the United States copyright system into line with the copyright systems in most other countries around the world.
-
References
Resources
- Photo Credit black copyright symbol image by Angie Chauvin from Fotolia.com
More Like This
Comments
-
trotsdiem
Aug 29, 2010
To add to that - the international dimension: the United States is a signatory to the Berne Convention along with almost every other country. This means that copyright is recognised worldwide and introduces the shared principle that copyright automatically exists from the moment you set down your original work (on paper, pc, etc.). Very important to preserve the date and time of that moment for evidence reasons
