ˆ
•
Feature
Story
/
Marybeth
Peters ••• TVInews
made the acquaintance of Maybeth Peters' book, long
before we made the acquaintance of Marybeth Peters,
during our interview in early June 2009.
" The General Guide to the Copyright Act of
1976," is a special volume in
the art of understanding the place where she now
heads. ••• When
you fall in love with the trick ponies of
trademarks, and copyrights, (®™©) --
you try to find out all you can about the object of
your affection. Once I fell for the history of the
Library of Congress, and the office of the USPTO,
with their cinematic and journalistic sweep, the
history of those two power houses, and the control
the service marks ®™© have on
revenue, ensnared me in a way that no monograph, no
memoir could do. •••
Clear-eyed but
ultimately hopeful, TVInews interview with
Maybeth," said Mark Sovol, was very
enlightning." •••
Both TVI, and NBS
Publishing organizations, have shared many registry
numbers with the two government agencies for over
100 years. I now know that during the last 15
years, Maybeth has been the U.S. government's head
librarian, and know she's got a memory like some
specific Google software. •••
But not until I
interviewed her did I know her love for disscussing
the art of registering U.S. service marks
®™©. •••
Marybeth Peters has served as the United
States Register of Copyrights since August 7, 1994.
Ms. Peters was raised in East Providence, R.I. She
received her undergraduate degree from Rhode Island
College and her law degree, with honors, from The
George Washington University Law School.•••
She joined the Library of Congress in
October 1965 and began her career in the Copyright
Office on February 14, 1966, as a music examiner in
the Music Section of the Examining Division. Ms.
Peters joined the General Counsel's staff as an
attorney in December 1975 and developed and
implemented staff training on the 1976 Copyright
Act.•••
She is the author of The General Guide to
the Copyright Act of 1976. In December 1977, she
was promoted to chief of the Information and
Reference Division, where she worked closely with
staff to develop information for the public on the
1976 Copyright Act. In April 1980, she was
appointed chief of the Examining Division, where
she remained until September 1983 when she became a
policy planning advisor to the Register. She has
also served as acting general counsel.•••
Ms. Peters testifies before Congress and
frequently speaks on copyright-related topics at
conferences throughout the United States and
abroad. She has served as a lecturer in the
Communications Law Institute of The Catholic
University of America Columbus School of Law and as
adjunct professor of copyright law at The
University of Miami School of Law and at the
Georgetown University Law Center.•••
She is a member of the bar of the District
of Columbia, The Copyright Society of the U.S.A.,
the Intellectual Property Section of the American
Bar Association, the District of Columbia Bar
Association, the ALAI-USA (Association
Littéraire et Artistique Internationale),
and the Computer Law Association. From 1989-1990
she served as a consultant on copyright law to the
World Intellectual Property Organization in
Geneva.•
Part
02
Q&A •
tviNews
Interview with
MARYBETH PETERS. Moderated by MARK
SOVOL •
01
- What was not being done between 1909 and 1976
that made it difficult to help people renew their
copyrights?
02
- What did Barbara Ringer do to save those people
who could not, and did not renew their copyrights
prior to 1956 -- like song writers and news
journalists? 03
- What about the assistance to inform and make
available the forms necessary for renewal during
the pre 1956
period? 04
- What did the copyright owner lose because of the
agency's
failings? 05
- What did the Act of 1976 do to help the early-day
copyright - trademark owner preserve his
service-mark
assets? 06
- Does the Library of Congress keep track of
Trademarks? 07
- What is the copyright owner getting in
return for his
filings? 08
- If you didn't renew ….. you lose. It's that
easy,
Right? 09
- And what does that tell
us? 10
- When Books are once scanned and re-registered
within the Library of Congress and issued a number,
what protection will Google get -
Globally? 11
- In regards to the Google scanning are works newly
copyrighted? 2
- What about foreign copyright under the Berne
convention? Are they New copyright in the
US? •
13 - How about other non-member
countries? 14
- How are phone numbers
registered? 15
- What about copyright
notice? 16
- How about domain
names? 17
- How about names, short titles, article
titles? 18
- Failings of the agency when publishers were not
notified of new
laws? •
19
- How do you file a domain. Is there a need to file
each page of a domain without registering with
you? 20
-
What is the orphan
project all
about? 21
- What countries have better copyright laws than
the U.S.?
•
01 - What was not being done between 1909 and 1976
that made it difficult to help people renew their
copyrights? •••
The first term is for 28 years. To get renewal an
author had to come in the 28th year of first
publishing to renew the claim, (a grant of rights),
to get another 28 years. It was up to the applicant
and/or owner or claim holder to file
timely. •••
If the author died, even with work for hire, the
proprietor, owner at the time of renewal, had to
provide a variety of facts to the examiner of
recording, i.e. -- if there is a match they would
renew it , to see if it was too early or too late
to renew for the legatee. If the author died it
would go to the wife, children and down the list as
law provided. •••
"Not only
was "that it's a good question," said Josie, "the
answer matched." In the early days, copyright
filings had negative consequences, unless backed-up
by all Service Marks ®™© issued by
both the USPTO and Library of Congress. •••
They drove companies and jobs out of business in
non-show biz areas. The lack of knowledge of the
system made broadway and Hollywood the only
desirable places to do business. Renewal fees can
stifle commerce. But Renewal fees are different.
They raise revenues and simultaneously serve the
public good by reducing service mark infringement,
at least in theory. That's not insignificant in a
country, where there are more service mark
infringement-related than in the EU, and annual
service mark infringement-related costs are
estimated at more than $15 billion
world-wide. •••
Protection has become automatic. The term of
copyright, once tied to the affirmative act (and
dates) of publication, registration and renewal,
has been extended twice, in 1978 and 1998, and was
prospectively reconfigured to track the less
obvious period of
life-of-the-author-plus-70-years. •••
In 1992, it removed the last vestiges of the
renewal registration requirement. In 1994,
many foreign copyrights were extracted from the
public domain. The net result of these
amendments has been that more and more copyright
owners may go missing. •••
To be sure, such revisions were enacted to protect
authors from technical traps in the law and to
ensure United States compliance with international
conventions. But there is no denying that
they diminished the public record of copyright
ownership and made it more difficult for the
business of copyright to function. •••
•••
Together with committee members, Ringer drafted the
Copyright Renewal Act of 1992 that repealed
termination and provided for automatic renewal of
copyright for works copyrighted between 1964 and
1977, works that Ringer felt had been treated
unfairly in the 1976 Act. •••
In 1988 she advocated for U.S. entry into the Berne
Convention when legislation was blocked in the
Senate. •••
Ringer foresaw the
analog world quickly converting to a digital one
where the Copyright Office records of registrations
and recordations should be digitally
interlaced. •••
Originally a copyrighed article could be updated,
but if the copyright was not renewed, it becomes
public domain in this country. •••
New material that has not been published can be
published but cannot claim new
copyright. •••
There is good information online at
www.copyright.gov. or you can call an information
specialist at (202) 707-3000. ••
Nothing. You did what was natural. You'd have to
publish with copyright notice with a patent or a
patent text would not be protected and would go to
public domain, and lose its copyright protection.
The Patent office would allow copyright notice in
the name of the owner of the text. This text can be
copyrighted, only from 1978 forward. •••
Josie adds that happy days were here again --
Orphans sitting on the shelves of the library. I
had to Googlize the reasons. But here's the punch
line: The number of orphans is tough to nail down.
Some estimate it's 50% to 70% of all books
published after 1923. Paul Aiken, executive
director of the Authors Guild in Los Angeles, said
that's hogwash during a June 25, 2009
interview. •••
"Our experience is that we can find upwards of 80%
of rights holders once an effort is made," Aiken
said. CLICK
FOR MORE ORPHAN
BOOKS •••
As I stated in my first answer, (#01) The first
term is for 28 years. To get renewal an author had
to come in the 28th year of 1st publishing to renew
the claim, a grant of rights, to get another 28
years. Its up to the applicant and owner. •••
If the author died, even with work for hire, the
proprietor, owner at the time of renewal, had to
provide facts - a variety of facts had to be given
to the examiner of recording; if there was a match
they would renew it, see if it was too early or too
late to renew for the legatee. If the author died
it would go to the wife, children and down the list
as law provided. •••
According to my statistics most people did not
renew the 28th year. Only 6% of books got renewed
the 28th year, it is even lower with periodicals
and newspapers. There was no economic
viability. •••
An Original article could be updated and if not
renewed becomes public domain in this country. •••
New material that has not been published can be
published but cannot claim new copyright. •••
Records are searchable under title: work: owner of
work: Stanford digitalized all book registration,
early copyright of registrar. Notices about music,
periodicals going back (a 5 years project not
online yet) are repared by year date, every 6
months; there is a music Class E catalog for each
month in a given year. •••
Name, title owner based of registration not based
of publication. It's a tedious, time consuming way
to find something. •••
"The Berne
Convention?" The
Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and
Artistic Works, usually known as the Berne
Convention, is an international agreement governing
copyright, which was first accepted in Berne,
Switzerland in 1886. •••
The Berne Convention requires its signatories to
recognize the copyright of works of authors from
other signatory countries (known as members of the
Berne Union) in the same way it recognises the
copyright of its own nationals. •••
The United States initially refused to become party
to the Convention since it would have required
major changes in its copyright law, particularly
with regard to moral rights, removal of general
requirement for registration of copyright works and
elimination of mandatory copyright notice. This led
to the Universal Copyright Convention in 1952 to
accommodate the wishes of the United States. But on
March 1, 1989, the U.S. "Berne Convention
Implementation Act of 1988" came into force and the
United States became a party to the Berne
Convention, making the Universal Copyright
Convention obsolete. •••
Since almost all nations are members of the World
Trade Organization, the Agreement on Trade-Related
Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights requires
non-members to accept almost all of the conditions
of the Berne Convention. •••
As of September 2008, there are 164 countries that
are parties to the Berne
Convention. ••
It's not quite that simple. For one thing, said
Josie, there's a fundamental conflict in
Copyrights: The more effective it is at
discouraging service mark infringement, the less
revenue it brings in. Theoretically, if prices get
pushed up high enough, so many people will stop
service mark infringement that revenues would
decrease, eventually to zero if everyone were to
quit. •••
Author guild president Blount argues that the
number of orphan books, whatever it may be, will
diminish over time as rights holders come forward
to claim the money that Google will be obligated to
set aside for authors for a period of five years
and held in escrow by a newly created entity called
the Book Rights Registry. •••
"As the registry starts sending out royalty checks,
books will exit the orphanage in a rush," Blount
wrote. "Nothing gets an author's attention like a
royalty check. It's not an orphan-books problem
that this settlement presents. It's an orphan-books
solution." •••
Old material governed by new copyright after 1976,
effective 1978, are automatically protected
registrations; automatically even work not
published before. As to music, BMI, ASCAP have the
best records regarding older music. •••
Theere are two separate things: Update. Some live
performance, new recording (new arrangement) every
record of who owns it, of authorship. •••
1) for music 2) for sound recording. Since 1972,
perfermer and record company get copyright. •••
If lyrics are there it is part of the music. (It's
an issue of words) therefore attached are lyric
sheets with music. •••
There are a variety of things, compiling of
elements in new productions. If previously
published, works get no copyright. If not
previously published they could get copyright. •••
Let's work through a hypothetical. Imagine the
song: God Bless America it 's been updated and
recorded a thousand times -- each recording gets a
new copyright. •••
The Berne convention
assures automatic registration copyright with
Library of
Congress, •••
MARYBETH:
No, they don't have
new copyrights. Google can't do anything without
permission. •••
The Berne convention
assures automatic registration copyright with the
Library of Congress, started in 1886, and rejoined
Berne Convention 1989. •••
There is automatic registration copyright
simultaneously published in the U.S. and a Berne
convention member country. There are
apaproximately140 member countries. There are also
a number of international agreements for additional
protection for US publishers. You can go to
www.copyright.gov OR email OR call to talk to
public information specialist. •••
Obviously, says Josie that's not exactly was
happens, but the ingredients are there. But the
equation has proved, time after time, to be just
about right. But we're not done. We still want to
know what the effect of the Google Settlement will
be on the revenue they are hoping to raise. •••
As stated, the number of orphans is tough to nail
down. Some estimate it's 50% to 70% of all books
published after 1923. Paul Aiken, executive
director of the Guild, said that's hogwash. •••
"Our experience is that we can find upwards of 80%
of rights holders once an effort is made," Aiken
said in an interview. •••
They are not protected by copyright law, but under
the unfair competition
law. •••
Phone directory, white pages since 1991 are not
protectable. They are labors not creations. Yellow
pages are registered for copyright, but not white
pages. •••
Phone numbers are given to individuals by Telecom
services they subscribe to. The copyright
registration system wasn't clear if eligible.
Clearly, The Supreme Court in 1971 said No. It's
public
domain. ••
There are twp things. Since March 11, 1989 books,
published works, no longer need a copyright notice.
In 1994, many foreign copyrights were extracted
from public domain. The creation of WTA agreements
restores copyright without renewal, these works
basically had copyright recognized after Jan. 1,
1995, it restored works with Russian musical
composers for instance, we had no relations with
Russia, so before 1973 work would not be protected.
But if a composer went to Paris, work would be
protected by the US. In the Google settlement
agreement of January 5, 2009 all works are covered,
copyright as good as it
gets. •••
Domain names are closer to trade name laws.
Copyright law does not protect domain names. The
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
(ICANN), a nonprofit organization that has assumed
the responsibility for domain name system
management, administers the assignation of domain
names through accredited registers. •••
The original authorship appearing on a website
however may be protected by copyright. This
includes writings, artwork, photographs, and other
forms of authorship protected by copyright.
Procedures for registering the contents of a
website may be found in Circular 66, Copyright
Registration for Online Works.
•••
They are not eligible for copyright and come under
unprotectable subject matter. Several categories of
material are generally not eligible
for federal copyright protection. These
include among others: •••
The Agency has no
obligation to notify anybody. Everyone got a
certificate of registration from the copyright
office. The Copyright office did never know who was
the owner, who was registering after 28 ears. •••
There is a Catalog of entries in public
libraries. •
19 - How do you file a domain. Is there a need to
file each page of a domain without registering with
you? •••
Any work that is
created either on paper, computer, disk - is
protected. •••
You can find good info on the page under copyright
basics. CLICK
FOR COPYRIGHT
BASICS
What
is the orphan project all about?
• •••
Orphan books are works that are out-of-print and
unclaimed by any copyright holders. All work
between 1923 and 1963 are in the the public domain
unless renewed. Only 6% were renewed so large
numbers are in the public domain •••
A solution to the orphan works problem is overdue
and legislation is pending in Congress that would
ease the "orphan works" problem by reducing, but
not eliminating, the exposure of good faith
users. But there are clear conditions
designed to protect copyright owners.
CLICK
FOR MORE Marybeth & ORPHAN
BOOKS •••
Our's is as good as any copyright law on the
planet. Ours are the best copyright laws. •••
The interview ended when MARK implied a big . .
. " Thank you
for your answers and time . . .
with
MARYBETH answering
with the inventation . . . "Yes, everything on our
website is public
domain."
CLICK
FOR MORE COPYRIGHT
LAW This interview was edited and excerpted from
longer separate transcripts by each participant.
Interview archive, www.tvimagazine.com
•
03h
Q&A
between MARYBETH PETERS, and MARK
SOVOL •••
MARK: Before I ask you my first formal
question, may I ask you a couple of preludes.
First: Was Barbara Ringer one of your mentors?
Secondly: Can you tell me what happens when
publishers merge with each other, what happens to
their copyrights. Let's say to all the articles
prior to 1956? -- and thirdly: How do you now renew
the copyright of some of the old songs or print
form publications? •••
MARYBETH: She (Barbara Ringer) -- certainly
was a mentor. She was the first female registrar to
head the Library … but I had no direct
contact. Barbara Ringer came right from law school.
She started out as a renewal examiner ahead of the
renewal section and she served as Register of
Copyrights until1994. •••
MARK: Most of our Media readers want
to know when/where to file Service Mark
®™© registry. You are the person now
in charge of the Library?•••
MARYBETH: Yes.•••
MARK: As you
know . . . TVI, and NBS publishing are both
publisher of one of the oldest trade magazines in
the business of reporting anything and everything
that uses a microphone, earphone or monitor.
Television International Magazine, was founded by
Sam Donaldson and Al Preiss in 1956, and NBS
publishing was founded in 1902 by Nathan
Stubblefield, Murray, Kentucky. TVImagazine is a
media publisher specializing in both print, &
WITEL, and Internet streaming
video. • •
04h
TVI Bylines /
Question
and Answers, not covered within the
Marybeth
Peters
interview . •
TVInews: 2009 July Issue LIBRARY
OF CONGRES - COPYRIGHT FEES & FINES - Since
1905. Outlawing OWNERSHIP and CLAIMS by OWNERS'
FAILURE TO RENEW Copyright after 28 years prior to
1956. CLICK FOR MORE
ANTITRUST MONOPOLY
01. What does
a copyright protect? •
TVInews:
Copyright, a form of
intellectual property law, protects original works
of authorship including literary, dramatic,
musical, and artistic works, such as poetry,
novels, movies, songs, computer software, and
architecture. Copyright does not protect facts,
ideas, systems, or methods of operation, although
it may protect the way these things are
expressed. • ••
The earliest
copyright statute in the United States was passed
On January 8, 1783, by
the General Court of Connecticut under the title
"An Act for the Encouragement of Literature and
Genius." Dr. Noah Webster, famed lexicographer and
one of Connecticut's most distinguished men, was
directly instrumental in securng its
enactment.
02. Surely .
. . there must be arguments against the way the
Library operates? •••
TVInews
publisher, Josie Cory,
says . . . "Plenty
of them." Some are made by publishing companies,
some by libertarians, some by the copyright or
owners of those so-called Orphan Books. •••
One is that the government has no business using
fees, and regulatory seizure to legislate personal
intellectual works, unless somehow compensated, as
in the RF analog to digital seizure on June 12th.
If people want to smoke and are fairly apprised of
the risks, the government should not create
financial impediments. •••
Is that a reasonable objection? -- It's certainly
true that government fees, unknown by the owner of
a copyright, and not timely paid, are regressive.
On the other hand, people are also more likely to
benefit, because they are more likely to quit as a
result of the tax. 03.
• What should a copyright owner do, to pick-up
their orphan book claims? •••
In most cases, they'll just pay the higher cost.
But opponents warn that Renewal fees create
incentives for black markets, especially if there
are large price differentials in nearby areas. •••
As an analogy, in some
cases, people will cross state borders, or even
national borders, to buy or smuggle cheaper
cigarettes. As taxes go up, it makes economic sense
to purchase cigarettes on Indian reservations,
where the taxes often do not apply.
CLICK
FOR MORE ALL ABOUT COPYRIGHTS
Part
05h -
Editor's
Notes •
Reviews
/
Editorial Chart • Editorial Calendar / Events
Calendar / NBS100
TeleComunication Study - Regulatory Frequency
Seizure
CLICK FOR
MORE COPYRIGHT STORY FROM THE LIBRARY All
about Copyrights Copyright
Laws Copyright
Basics Fair
Use Orphan
Books Report
on Orphan Works, Jan 2006 Welcome
to the Copyright Office by M.
Peters 1st
copyright in 1900 Barbara
Ringer Copyright
History Copyright
for Online Works
More Articles
• Converging
News / TeleCom BuyOuts, Spinoffs and Asset Seizure
Boom •••
Part
06h
• Acknowledgments ®™© /
NBS
Authentication - CLICK
FOR MORE FREE USE OF THE NBS
ISBN .
•
EDITORIAL NOTE:
Monetize NBS WiTEL - TVI NBS
Publications. "In the 1902 world of the NBS
Wireless Telephone®™©," says Josie
Cory, -- "which is being vividly pictured by the
story writers of today," . . . it is, by and large,
described as the WiTEL word, consumers turning the
1902 WiTEL invention into being broadcasters, using
and integrating "Magic Jacks, iphones, cellphones,
cyberspace, the Internet, and VoIP into their own
global Radio-TV station, IDd with a phone
number."•••
So when Nathan Stubblefield wrote in the
introduction to the 1902 NBS edition of the
"Wireless Telephony," authored by Nathan. The
soft-cover booklet was Created over 100 years ago
as a memorial to his own start-up NBS Industrial
College. The name was changed to Telephon-Del-green
in 1907, became a normal school, and is now the
site of: Murray State University (MSU). •••
The idea was to spotlight the distinct and separate
science developed by the NBS WiTEL®™©
Radio innovations, 20 or so works, each year,
which, including the NBS WiTEL®™©
phone number connecting network system, would help
maintain his Wireless Telephone®™©
service mark organization, as well as train aerial
tower tradesmen. •••
Coming of age during a time that saw the effects
and elements of the Kentucky EMW
WiTEL®™© Voice Radio invention
exploding as an art form -- and a marketable one,
at that, with the help of the Kingsbury Commitment,
and World War I. Winners have included most of the
Smart Daaf Boys, David Sarnoff, GE, and RCA-NBC,
who took an unlikely first-place seating over
Thomas Edison. •
Respectfully Submitted Josie
Cory Publisher/Editor
TVI Magazine •
• TVI
Magazine, tviNews.net, YES90, Your Easy Search,
Associated Press, Reuters, BBC, LA Times, NY Times,
VRA's D-Diaries, Industry Press Releases, They Said
It and SmartSearch were used in compiling and
ascertaining this Yes90 news
report. • ©1956-2010.
Copyright. All rights reserved by: TVI
Publications, VRA TelePlay Pictures, xingtv and Big
Six Media Entertainments. Tel/Fax: 323
462.1099.
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