Copyright Act Of 1909

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The Congress shall have Power ...To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Tımes to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.

I. Introduction to Copyright Law and its Legislative History Before delving into the intricacies of copyright law and the fair use doctrine, it is important to discuss the purpose behind copyright law, and the legislative history surrounding the body of law. In this section, I will discuss the purpose of copyright law and provide a brief overview and history of the Copyright Act of 1909 and the Copyright Act of 1976, which superseded the Copyright Act of 1909. The Copyright Act of 1909 set the stage for copyright protection in the United …show more content…

In sum, many of the provisions established in the Copyright Act of 1976 were not contemplated by the drafters of The Copyright Act of 1909. For instance, the policy behind The Copyright Act of 1909 was created to protect the owners of copyrighted material in a time where there was a growing threat of infringement due to technological advancements that allowed infringers to distribute written works and music faster than ever before. Therefore, since the drafters of the Copyright Act of 1909 were extremely focused on providing the utmost protection to authors and composers, it should not come as a surprise that they did not implement the defense of fair use at the time or even think about it for that matter. For the most part, the drafters of the Copyright Act of 1909 felt like certain works needed to be protected and that is why they allowed statutory damages at the election of the copyright holder, and established various criminal and civil penalties for defendants depending on the …show more content…

Put another way, the immediate effect of our copyright law in the United States is to secure a fair return for an author’s creative labor and to stimulate artistic creativity for the general public good. The first federal copyright statute was enacted in 1790 and that statute mirrored the 1710 English statute known as the Statute of Anne. When the 1790 statute was enacted, the statute protected maps, charts, and books. Furthermore, the 1790 statute provided protection for authors and proprietors for fourteen years and granted them the option of renewing their copyright for an additional fourteen years if they wished to do so. Essentially, when the drafters enacted the 1790 statute, the goal was to reward creative inventors by granting them the sole power to disseminate their work into society. Therefore, they would likely gain positive recognition for the works that they created and they would be able to reap the benefits of their work. However, the drafters of the 1790 statute implemented the consecutive fourteen- year protection periods so that the authors and proprietors would not have an unlimited monopoly over their creations. The idea behind this was to provide protection for the authors, but to also ensure that the public would eventually

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