Survey Passman Chapter 21

1. Chapter 21
More Advanced Copyright Concepts

2. Sonny
Bono

3. 1998 Sonny Bono Act
• A work that is created and fixed in a tangible
medium of expression on or after January 1, 1978,
from the moment of its creation and gives it a term
lasting for the author’s life plus an additional 70
years.
• For a “joint work prepared by two or more authors
who did not work for hire,” the term lasts for 70
years after the last surviving author’s death.
• For works made for hire and anonymous and
pseudonymous works, the duration of copyright is
95 years from first publication or 120 years from
creation, whichever is shorter

4. 1998 Sonny Bono Act
• 1998 Sonny Bono Act gave “life plus 70” for newer
songs, 95 years from publication for older works.
• Brought the U.S. in line with Europe which has always
had longer copyright protections.
• U.S. works would drop out of protection sooner from
European markets; Europe wouldn’t pay if U.S.
copyright expired even though theirs lasted longer.
• Rule of Shorter Term – meant that if U.S. copyright
expired, European copyright expired at the same time
as well.

5. 1998 Sonny Bono Act
• 1998 Sonny Bono Act also gave:
• Libraries and archives the right to make copies
of works during the 20 year extension
• Termination of transfer right
• The suggestion to film and TV companies that
they should agree on how to divide monies with
talent during the 20 year extension
• Copyright extension came with a price tag…..

6. Fairness in Music Licensing Act of
1998
• Fairness in Music Licensing Act was lobbied for
heavily by bar, restaurant, and store owners in
exchange for supporting the copyright extension.
• Act established that bars, restaurants, and stores
under a certain size don’t have to buy a license to
play music.
• If under 2,000 sq. ft. for stores, 3,500 sq. ft. for bars
and restaurants, establishments can use all the music
they want for free.

7. Digital Samples
• Digital sampler is a device that can make pristine
digital recordings of guitar sounds, voices, drums,
etc.
• Recordings can then be played back on a
keyboard, edited in Pro Tools, etc.
• Problems come when they are inserted into songs
that are released without securing the rights to the
use of the master and the publishing.

8. Digital Samples
• Digital sampling without securing these rights has been struck
down by the courts.
• Record companies won’t accept delivery of songs with
sampled material until all rights have been secured on the
final version of the track
• Even then they might decide that it’s not worth the hassle or
extra expense.
• There’s no compulsory license for sampled recordings, so
label will charge what they can get for use of the lifted
material; publishers will want a piece of the copyright.
• Duplicating the track is called a replay – still need to license
the song from the publisher.

9. Sound Recording Copyright
• Sound Recording Copyright – a 1972
provision to the copyright law that
protects the sound recordings
themselves from unauthorized
duplication or dubbing.
• Symbolized by ℗
• Still doesn’t protect against sound-alikes,
but it must be disclosed that it isn’t the
original recording and the songs must be
licensed from the publisher.

10. Copyright Notice
• Notice of copyright is the © symbol followed
by the year that the work was first fixed in
tangible form.
• For songs, primarily important for printed music
because law requires notices on “visually
perceptible copies”
• Still see the © symbol on CDs because of the
lyrics printed inside, cover artwork, and the
recording itself is copyrighted (℗).

11. Registration and Deposit
• Copyright exists from moment a work is fixed
in tangible form – not when registered at the
Copyright Office.
• Registering does give legal remedies that you
wouldn’t have otherwise, so any work that’s
going to be released to the public should be
registered.
• “Poor man’s copyright” – mailing a copy of the
lyrics and a tape to yourself and leaving it
unopened isn’t recognized by the copyright office.

12. Copyright Registration
• Sample – 10 song indie band CD
• Simplest case is that you wrote all of the songs on the album yourself and own 100%
of the recordings. This most frequently happens with singer-songwriters. In this case,
you can fill out a single Form SR that will cover both the songs and the sound
recordings.
• If you are the sole writer for a band, but the band owns the recordings, then you could
fill out a single Form PA for the songs and the band could fill out a single Form SR for
the sound recordings.
• A more common scenario is an album with mixed writer credits. First, let’s assume
that you wrote 8 songs by yourself and 2 with your band mate Jake. You could
register your 8 solo songs on the same PA application and the other 2 songs together
on a separate PA application. The band could fill out a single Form SR for the sound
recordings. In the alternative, perhaps you wrote 7 songs by yourself, 2 with your
band mate Jake, and another band mate, Sally, wrote 1 song by herself. In that case,
you would need to fill out three applications to register the ten songs. That is, you
would have Application #1 with 7 songs listing just you as the author; Application #2
with two songs listing you and Jake as co-authors; and Application #3 with one song
listing Sally as the author. Again, the band could fill out a single Form SR for its sound

13. Failing to Register
• If a work isn’t registered, you lose important rights:
• You can’t collect compulsory license royalties.
• You can’t file a copyright infringement case to recover
damages or stop someone from using your song
• If you don’t register within five years, court will not assume
that your registration is correct; you must prove that the
infringer is in the wrong.
• Can’t collect attorney’s fees or statutory damages
• Lesson? REGISTER any song that’s going to be
released.

14. Deposit
• Part of registration process requires the deposit of
a copy of the work within 3 months of publication.
• Can deposit tapes, CDs, or sheet music of songs.
• Now, can upload mp3’s, too!
• Failure to deposit a copy doesn’t mean loss of
copyright, but there are penalties and fines.
• Again – register all songs that you know are going to
be released. You are the creator and default first
publisher; you have the right of first use so you will
know when someone is going to record your song.

15. Infringement
• When someone steals a song, they have infringed on
the copyright; i.e. – used it without permission.
• What can you (the copyright owner) get?
• Can get fair market value for the song’s use
• Can recover the infringer’s profits (but not fair use,
too).
• Can get an injunction prohibiting the song’s use
• Can recover statutory damages – meaning a judge-
ordered amount of money if you can’t prove how
much they made from it
• Can get unauthorized copies seized or destroyed
• Can recover court costs and maybe some attorney’s
fees

16. Infringement
• If infringement is willful (meaning they knew they
were doing it and did it anyway), there can be
criminal as well as civil penalties.
• Means jail time as well as money.

17. More Advanced Copyright Concepts
• Questions?