Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
In this section we examine court cases and legislation that have helped define the
limits of copyright in the United States.
GERSHWIN PUBLISHING v. COLUMBIA ARTISTS
Columbia Artists Management, Inc. (CAMI) managed concert artists, and it sponsored
hundreds of local, nonprofit community concert associations that arranged concert
series featuring CAMI artists. CAMI helped the associations prepare budgets, select
artists, and sell tickets. CAMI printed the programs and sold them to the community
concert associations. In addition, all musicians performing at these concerts paid CAMI
a portion of their fees.
On January 9, 1965, the CAMI-sponsored Port Washington (NY) Community Con-
cert Association put on a concert that included Gershwin's “Bess, You Is My Woman
Now” without obtaining copyright clearance from Gershwin Publishing Corporation.
The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) sued CAMI for
the copyright infringement.
CAMI argued that it was not responsible for the copyright infringement, since the
concert was put on by the Port Washington Community Concert Association. However,
the US District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled that CAMI could be
held liable because it was aware that the community concert associations it supported
were not obtaining proper copyright clearances. In 1971 the US Court of Appeals for
the Second Circuit upheld the ruling of the district court [25].
BASIC BOOKS v. KINKO'S GRAPHICS
In the 1980s, Kinko's Graphics Corporation engaged in what it called the “Professor
Publishing” business. It distributed brochures to university professors asking them to
provide lists of readings they planned to use in their courses. Kinko's used these lists
to produce packets of reading materials for students taking these classes. The packets
typically contained chapters from books. In 1991 the US District Court for the South-
ern District of New York ruled that when Kinko's produced these packets it infringed
upon the copyrights held by the publishers. The judge ordered Kinko's to pay statutory
damages of $510,000 to the plaintiffs, a group of eight book publishers [26]. Kinko's
subsequently got out of the Professor Publishing business.
DAVEY JONES LOCKER
Richard Kenadek ran a computer bulletin board system (BBS) called Davey Jones Locker.
Subscribers paid $99 a year for access to the BBS, which contained copies of more
than 200 commercial programs. In 1994 Kenadek was indicted for infringing on the
copyrights of the owners of the software. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to six
months' home confinement and two years' probation [27].
NO ELECTRONIC THEFT ACT
Another incident in 1994 led to further legislation protecting copyrights. David LaMac-
chia, an MIT student, posted copyrighted software on a public bulletin board he created
on a university computer. According to prosecutors, bulletin board users downloaded
more than a million dollars' worth of software in less than two months. However, the
