Copyright Law

The purpose of a copyright is to secure for the creator of original material all the benefits earned by creating it. Copyrights apply not only to written words but also to illustrations, plays, musical works, motion pictures, sound recording, graphics, sculp­tures, pantomimes, and dances. Two aspects of copyright law concern you: the use of copyrighted material and the protection of the work that you do.

The copyright law protects original material published during and after the au­thor's lifetime as well as unpublished material.

If the material is prepared "for hire", the protection runs for 75 years from the first year of publication or the first year of creation, whichever is shorter. Anything you write on the job is considered "for hire", and your client or company is the owner of your work, including the copyright.

Material does not have to be printed or distributed for copyright protection. As soon as it is created in a concrete form, it is protected, particularly if it bears a copyright notice but also even if it does not.

Distributing or offering to distribute copies of a work to the public is considered publication. Such distribution may be free or paid.

If you want the most unassailable copyright protection, you should take formal steps to acquire it as soon as any material is published.

News releases, features, and illustrations accompanying them are not normally copyrighted. Booklets, leaflets, books, and similar publications usually are copyrighted unless there is a desire to allow others to reproduce them. In that case, it is customary to place a notice in the publication stating that reproduction and distribution of copies is permissible without charge.

Fair Use and Infringement

As a public relations writer, you will use information and materials from a variety of sources. Therefore, it is important for you to understand thoroughly the dividing line between fair use and copyright infringement.

Fair use of materials, in general, can be done for purposes of criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research. If you are writing something and want to use a quotation from a copyrighted article or book, you may do so as long as you give proper credit to the author and the source.

If you quote a lengthy passage from an article or a book, however, it is best to get permission. In general, using a paragraph from a 1,000-word article is acceptable, but using several paragraphs might constitute copyright infringement if permission has not been obtained. Writers should also be careful about using whole paragraphs of copy­righted material with only a few words changed. If the content and structure of the sentences are virtually the same, this constitutes not merely copyright infringement but also plagiarism, a form of theft.

Writers of company newsletters and magazines, primarily using information for news reporting purposes, generally are within the boundaries of the fair use concept. Writers who prepare materials directly supporting the sales of a product or service (news releases, advertisements, promotional brochures), however, need to be more concerned about copyright infringement.

The use of a selected quotation from an outside source in a product news release or sales brochure, for example, should be cleared with the source. The reason is that you're directly profiting from using someone else's material to sell goods and services.

In addition, using selected quotes may distort the author's meaning. For example, a research report may give a new computer product an overall poor performance rating but mention some good things about the product too. To use only the favorable quote from the review in a news release or advertisement, the computer company should clear the quote with the report's authors to avoid possible lawsuits.

Titles of books and plays cannot be copyrighted, but the principle of unfair compe­tition applies nevertheless. Lawyers say that a public relations staff should not copy anything if the intent is to capitalize on or take advantage of its current renown. The key to a lawsuit is whether an organization is in some way obtaining commercial advan­tage by implying that a service or product has the endorsement of or is closely allied with the literary property. This is also a problem in using names and logos that closely resemble registered trademarks of well-known companies.

The use of cartoons, illustrations, and photographs from outside sources (either previously published or unpublished) always requires copyright permission. Copyright infringement also extends to videotaping television documentaries or news programs if the intent is for widespread use of the material to internal or external audiences.

Another category that always requires copyright permission is musical material. The holders of musical copyrights do not permit use of any part of their compositions without prior written permission. It is forbidden to quote even a part of a lyric or to play only a few bars of a tune. But also keep in mind that most classical music, especial­ly that of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, is in the public domain and can be used without permission.