15.5: Exploitation of A Work

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One of the best ways of understanding copyright protection is to know how copyright works can be exploited; that is, used for financial gain by the copyright owner. Here’s a list of all the ways to use a work:

Copying: This is the oldest form of exploitation of a work protected by copyright! This is the arena of book publishers, music distributors and film houses. The issue is fairly clear if we are talking about an entire work. The grey areas appear when we start talking about copying part of a work. If the law states that no part of a work may be copied, then what happens to cliché’s? What about small quotations needed to make a point? What is the line between acceptable copying and copyright infringement?
Adaptation or derivatives: This is a right that emerged in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries. This is the right to take a work and create a new work based on it. This is the home of ‘film rights’ and the like. Examples would include making a movie from a book, or a sculpture from a painting.
Translation: At times foreign markets demand a book or other work, when the artist has no intention of supplying it in the chosen language. It is often difficult to directly translate a work into a new language. This can lead to moral rights issues, if the translator is unable to properly relay the author’s original intent.
Performance: In music, the choice of orchestra, the choice of arrangement even the choice of instruments can greatly affect the resulting performance. Consider the plethora of cover tunes—some good, some bad, some horrid. It is clearly in the composer’s interest to be able to control how their works are performed. In many cases it is the only way a composer can gain an income from their work.
Broadcast: The advent of radio created a challenge to copyright laws of the day, not unlike the challenge brought by Napster and online file sharing. There is a tendency to believe that when one hears a song on the radio, it is being heard for ‘free’. This is not the case, as radio broadcasters carefully record each song played and remit payment to the copyright owners for each broadcast. Of course radio broadcasters cover this fee through the sale of advertising.