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Copyright protection was established in Article I, Section 8, Paragraph 8 of the Constitution to "promote the progress of science and useful arts by securing for a limited time to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective discoveries." That’s all the Constitution says on the subject; it was left to Congress to establish the length of the copyright period and what items were eligible for protection. Congress has altered these provisions several times since 1790, when the first copyright legislation was enacted, but the concept has remained the same. To encourage "science and the useful arts," an author is given a certain amount of time to reap financial benefits from his or her work before it reverts to the public domain.

The roots of copyright date back to 546 AD where St. Columba, an Irish missionary was found guilty for copying a Latin Biblical work. The judge and local king stated, “As the calf belongs to the cow, so the copy belongs to the book.”

Nonetheless, it took another 1155 years before written law was to match this king’s envisioning stance. In 1701, the British Parliament enacted the Statute of Anne, forbidding unauthorized persons from printing or importing another person’s book, and created a public domain concept by limiting the term of copyright.

Caxton’s printing press, which was brought to England in the 1470s, the growth of commerce and increase in exploration spread literacy in the late sixteenth century. In Elizabeth’s reign, a guild of printers called the Stationers’ Company was granted the sole right to publish printed works. A printer paid a writer a flat sum and purchased rights in perpetuity to publish that work. With this system, the Crown had created a method to control what material found its way into print. It lasted through the English civil war and the Restoration, until Parliament passed the Statute of Anne in 1710. This law introduced the radical concept that literary works were the property of their creators and gave writers control of their material for up to 28 years.

The American colonies followed the English laws until the Revolutionary War. After the break with England, each state tried to enact its own copyright legislation, with a predictable chaotic result.

When the decentralized government established by the Articles of the Confederation demonstrated its weakness, the new model for a more centralized government, the Constitution, provided ways to control "taxation, interstate commerce and intellectual property" (Gasaway and Wiant 7). The first federal copyright law was enacted in 1790, with major revisions in 1831, 1870, 1909, 1976 and 1998. Legally speaking, copyright issues are still a hot topic and still have an impact on our lives today, especially in teaching, research activities and entertainment. Copyright can have a financial impact too – the law permits penalties ranging from $750 to $30,000 for individual liability and up to $150,000 for each act that is judged a "willful" copyright infringement (Crews, Copyright 100).

What Can Be Copyrighted?

Not all material is eligible for copyright protection. Intellectual property that can be copyrighted includes literary works (prose, poetry, non-fiction and plays), music, film, video, choreography, architectural designs, maps, photographs, art, sound recordings and computer software.

The material to be copyrighted must be:

• An "original work of authorship," such as a new musical composition or new writing, or a new arrangement of information.
• In a "tangible format"-on paper, floppy disk, videotape, compact disk, server, etc.

Material that cannot be copyrighted:

• Ideas-only the expression of ideas can be copyrighted. Romeo and Juliet and West Side Story = same idea expressed differently.
• Facts.
• A work that has not been fixed in a tangible format, such as a speech that has not been written down or recorded in some form.
• Title, names, short phrases, familiar symbols, etc.
• Many government documents, such as reports written by employees of the federal government in the scope of their duties.
• Works already in the public domain.

Today SEOAssur involves itself in several areas of literary work and corresponding copyright, such as:

• Copyrights – When distributing articles use company citations as a means to increase your exposure in local search.
• Copywriting – Renewing your website’s copyright in the US every 3 months affords you statutory damages of $150,000.
• DMCA – is not a replacement for copyright law. It addresses specific conditions associated with digital media.
• Deleted Domains – A robust thesaurus is your best friend when searching for deleted domains to purchase.
• Javascript Links – Use Javascript navigation menus to reduce fragmented snippets in listing descriptions.

In addition, SEO Assur provides independent referrals for operating search engine optimization firms and consultants within the United States arranged by state and city of origin.

SEOAssur for copyright advisory & consulting.
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