News, entertainment, education and other productions are ready at the on-ramp and may eventually be carried by Internet.   Many of the productions will contain numerous and diverse digitized works, e.g., software, motion pictures, video, graphics, music and photographs.  Intellectual property rights, particularly copyright, are critical to the creation of productions or titles that contain such multimedia content.

There are four major intellectual property laws for multimedia developers in the United States:

• Copyright law.  The law protects original "works of authorship".
• Patent law.  The law protects new, useful, and "nonobvious" inventions and processes.
• Trademark law.  The law protects words, names, and symbols used by manufacturers and businesses to identify their goods and services.
• Trade secret law.  The law protects valuable information not generally known that has been kept secret by its owner.

Copyright

Copyright protection is available for "works of authorship".  Copyright protection arises automatically as soon as some aspect of a protectable work has been fixed in a tangible medium (such as an Internet server).  Notice information is not required, and registration is required only if legal action is warranted and the work originates in the United States.

A copyright owner has five exclusive rights in the copyrighted work:

•  Reproduction Right. The reproduction right is the right to copy, duplicate, transcribe, or imitate the work in fixed form.
• Modification Right. The modification right (also known as the derivative works right) is the right to modify the work to create a new work. A new work that is based on a preexisting work is known as a "derivative work."
• Distribution Right. The distribution right is the right to distribute copies of the work to the public by sale, rental, lease, or lending.
• Public Performance Right. The public performance right is the right to recite, play, dance, act, or show the work at public place or to transmit it to the public. In the case of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, showing the work's images in sequence is considered "performance." Some types of works, such as sound recordings, do not have a public performance right.
• Public Display Right. The public display right is the right to show a copy of the work directly or by means of a film, slide, or television image at a public place or to transmit it to the public. In the case of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, showing the work's images out of sequence is considered "display."

Anyone who violates any copyright shown above is an infringer.
 

Copyright Act

The Copyright Act states that works of authorship include the following types of works, which are of interest to the multimedia developer:

• Literary works. Novels, nonfiction prose, poetry, newspaper articles and newspapers, magazine articles and magazines, computer software, software manuals, training manuals, manuals, catalogs, brochures, ads (text), and compilations such as business directories
• Musical works. Songs, advertising jingles, and instrumentals.
• Dramatic works. Plays, operas, and skits.
• Pantomimes and choreographic works. Ballets, modern dance, jazz dance, and mime works.
• Pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works. Photographs, posters, maps, paintings, drawings, graphic art, display ads, cartoon strips and cartoon characters, stuffed animals, statues, paintings, and works of fine art, motion pictures and other audiovisual works, television shows, television ads, and interactive multimedia works.
• Sound recordings. Recordings of music, sounds, or words.

Routine and Standard Uses

"Routine" uses would add precision to the scope and nature of rights granted in order to avoid litigation since ambiguity has been a major source of lawsuits. "Routine" or standard uses would be defined by the type of work, but might be categorized based on some of the following factors:

• Whether the work will be used internally only or distributed publicly on a CD-ROM, through a network or otherwise.
• The number of times a copyrighted work is used in a multimedia product, e.g., one time versus multiple times.
• Whether the entire work is used or only a portion of the work and if only a portion, the size of the extract or sample, i.e., seconds or minutes, words or pages, etc.
• Whether the work is used in its original form or is modified or otherwise transformed by the multimedia product.

Avoiding Copyright Infringement -- Fair Use

"Fair use" is a possible defense to copyright infringement but is unlikely to be available in a commercial transaction.  Fair use generally is limited to the private, non-commercial or educational use of a copyrighted work.  Fair use is determined on a case-by-case basis and is based on an assessment of factors including the amount of the copyrighted material that is used and whether such use can potentially harm the copyright owner's market.  For example, the fair use defense may be available for the personal use of copyrighted material but not for a commercial distribution of a multimedia work which contains part of a pre-existing work.

Use Photo

A publisher of a work that contains a photograph may have only a one-time use right rather than outright ownership of the photograph. The publication agreement may also impose additional restrictions on use of the photograph: minimum size, resolution, number of copies, time period, etc. Thus, a developer of a multimedia product may need to negotiate with the photographer to obtain rights to the photograph.
 

Use of Music Works

Music encompasses a number of different licensing rights. The good news is that procedures and policies for obtaining rights to use a musical composition are well established. It is also usually clear who owns the rights being sought. The bad news is that one normally has to negotiate with several different parties to obtain all needed rights for use as multimedia content.

• A mechanical license is needed for the right to make and distribute material objects in which a recording of a musical composition is embodied such as a record, tape or CD. This license is authorization only from the composer of the work, not the performer.
• A synchronization license is needed to authorize the synchronization of a musical composition with visual images of a multimedia work. Most synchronization licenses limit the number of seconds the composition can be used in a work.
• A master recording license is needed for the right to use a particular performance of a specific artist of the underlying composition.

Three examples violate copyright

Jumbo
http://www.jumbo.com/pages/multimedia/sounds/wizardofoz/INDEX.htp

This site offers lots of sound clips from movie and CD album.  It also includes most famous classical composer such as Mozart.  Several sound formats can be found on this site.  Movie clips like Wizard of Oz  by .au file.  CD albums like ABBA by .mid. Classical music performs by real time audio (.ram) format. No any copyright or trademark information is given.

This site infringes public display right, reproduction, modification and distribution rights from image and sound clips.
 

SouthBeach at Geocities
http://www.geocities.com/SouthBeach/1139/movies.html

Bunches of movie poster are shown on the web page. Even you can download the sound clips clicking directly from images.
It also uses the logo and sound title of THX.  It is not like commercial site and do not give any copyright or trademark information.
 
This site infringes public display right, reproduction and distribution rights from images and sound clips.

Shell on Negilia
http://europe.shellnigeria.com/video/multimedia.html

There is no any statement or information on  about copyright on those video, photo and image gallery.  It's hard to identify whether this site is commercial or not.

This site infringe reproduction and distribution rights from images.
 

Additional Links

http://hem2.passagen.se/danling/sounds.html

This site can download some great Star Wars sound clips.  Also it supports some images of main characters from Star War .
No any copyright or trademark information is given.

Conclusion

An understanding of legal issues is critical to success in the multimedia industry. These issues are complex because of the youth of the industry and the many industries upon which it draws to create its products.

Reference

J. Daianne Brison & Mark F. Radcliffe.(1994). Intellectual Property Law for Multimedia Developers. http://www.dorsai.org/p-law/wong_dir/docs/wongpap1.html

Thomas F. Field, Jr. (1996). Copyright on the Internet.  Franklin Pierce Law Center.
http://www.fplc.edu/tfield/cOpyNet.htm