Copy Right Cases

There is a strict copy right law on media today. It hasn't always been that way, but through specific court cases, we have gotten where we are now. Here are two cases that show some of the laws which have been the outcome due to court rulings.

Miller v. Universal Studios

This case is based on an abduction that happened in 1968. A college-aged daughter was kidnapped from a motel room and buried alive. Surprisingly she lived through this for five days until she was rescued. A news reporter, Gene Miller, collaborated with the victim to write a book about the crime. A book was written along with a condensed very in Reader's Digest. Soon after a Universal Studios producer read the condensed version and thought it would make a good movie. He got a copy of the book and gave it to the scriptwriter who began work on the screenplay. Movie rights were taken by Universal, but Miller was never asked. The scriptwriter was advised that it was forbidden, but the movie was completed and aired on ABC. What was determined at the trial was whether or not the scriptwriter had used the book to write the screenplay or whether it was from his own view on the story. Miller testified of numerous similarities and proved that the movie infringed his copyright. It was then questioned on whether or not an author's research is protected by copyright. Is research copyrightable? An extended jury charge said, "Copyrightability is best defined in terms of what can and cannot be copyrighted. Ideas can never be copyrighted. Only the particular expression of an idea can be copyrighted....if an author, in writing a book concerning factual matters, engages in research on those matters, his research is copyrightable." This is that copyright only includes the kind expression of facts author uses not the actual facts themselves. So there is no copyright in the idea or theme of a story, but there may be copyright in how it is told dramatically by the author.

This is important to copyright law because we need to be careful when writing about an incident that really happened. When researching that topic or story, we need to be careful and depict from what the author is saying and from what really happened. That is when exaggeration happens, people don't get there stories straight.



Feist Publications v. Rural Telephone Service-

Rural is a telephone corporative in northwest Kansas. Feist does the same thing by compiling lists of phone numbers but they do it for a larger geographical area. Feist was compiling a book and had 11 other areas and needed the numbers from Rural to complete the book. Rural would not let them have the numbers, possibly because the two companies were competitors. So Feist when behind Rural's back and took the numbers (or at least a good majority) they wanted. They would have gotten away with it but Rural had a detection system to let them know some of their information had been copies. So they sued Feist for copyright infringement. In the lower courts the judge ruled in favor of Rural. However, when it went to the Supreme Court they ruled in favor of Feist, saying that the numbers were not copyrightable, so there was no infringement. This is because they ruled that 'fact' is not able to be copyrighted. However, any expression or personality that and author has used to write this fact, written down and not cited would be copyrightable. For example when we write a research paper about disney world and we say that "Disney World in FL has four main amusement parks; Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Disney's Hollywood studios, and EPCOT."

Even if you read that out of a book, you would not have to worry about citing it or using the information in a paper because it is fact that those 4 parks are there. Also you can copy recopies down because they are facts. You need these ingredients to get this dish. However, you can not right the steps word for word, because that would
infringe on copyright.

Copy right law is important because there are necessary checks and balances for privacy and protection of people's lives.

By: Sarah Headrick