Fair Use Under Copyright Laws (Essay Sample)

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6/05/2015
Fair use under copyright laws.
The USA congress is mandated to promote science and useful arts by securing for limited times to authours and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries. This responsibility of the congress is cleary stated in the US constitution (Ariticle 1 section 8). In an effort to serve it purpose the congress enacted laws to protect intellectual property. Among the acts passed by the congress is is the copyright Act 17 U.S.C.A Section 101-108.
Copyright law extends to all literal work.For one to be issued with copyright protection intellectual activity must be determined and the work being protected should be original. The owner of literar work enjoys five basic protection under the copyrights laws. This laws restricts the use of intellectual material other than in the ways defined by the act as within Fair use.
Fair use of a document is an unauthrorised way of exploiting an intellectual work that does not infring the copyright of the author(). In evaluating fair use one should consider some of these aspects,the purpose and character of use ,the substantiality in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole ,nature of copyrighted work and the effect of use upon the market value of the copyrighted work.
These guidelines do not give a discreet definition of fair use. Due to this effective fair use of documents can only be analysised through examples. One of the clear example outlined by the copyright law is the photocopying of documents by classroom teachers for student use. This according to the evaluation of the above is a non profitable venture that does not affect the marketability of the written document. Libraries are aslo allowed to photocopy documents but only for archival purposes.
Critical analysis of adocument also qualifies for fair use. Though the effect of criticism is undetermined due to diverse response it may get from the targete market. Negative criticism may lower the profitability of a document. Therefore fair use of a document melts down to the purpose and the effects of the reproduced document on the copyrighted work.
Copy Right Protection
Exclusive legal rights held by copyright owner.
Copyright owner is termed as the author or creator of a work that is protected by copyright laws of the USA. Copyright law extends to a wide range of artistic works such as books, music and films. The law also clear states the rights enjoyed by copyright owners. This are referred to as exclusive legal rights.
One of the legit rights of copyright owners is the right to reproduce the protected work. This ensures that the owner is able to meet demand of the market by increasing the quantity of their products through reproduction. IT also ensures total profits to the owner as this right is restricted only to the original developer whivh cuts out pirates. Original producers also enjoy the right to produce derivative works from the protected work.
Derivatives works help in promoting marketability of the protected work. For example in the cases of books these works maybe the illustrated versions of the book or even translation. This help in widening the market of one single product therefore ensuring one benefits fully from their invention. Copyright laws also guarantees the original producer the right to distribute their product.
Distribution right ensures that the product reaches the target group, this protection gives the producer satisfaction of seeing their work get consumed by the intended groups. In addition to this it also offers the right to perform. This is in relation to protected works that encompass musical arts and drama. In addition to performing one also has the right to publicly display their arts. These right also incorporate the use of sound though it is not clearly stated in the act.
Trade secrets and Patents
Trade secrets are ideas or methodologies employed by a firm to edge out competition. The competitor does not actually know of these methods that why they are termed as trade secrets. On the other hand patent rights are judicial protections offered on new processes, composition of matter… as well as to any design pertaining manufacture of new machine (Chisun. 1989). Patents allow the holder to exclude all other rival firms from using their design or invention .The pan tee may require payments from this rivals in order to allow them to use the patented machine or method.
The two, patents and trade secret are similar in that they are both exclusively available to one firm. In the case of trade secret only one firm is aware hence uses this knowledge to beat other firms in the market and win greater market shares. In the case of patents they are legally offered to a single firm by the government for a unique invention. This gives the patentee firm an added advantage during completion in production. It also earns the firm royalties. Therefore both are great business competencies. The...