§ 2.01 Introduction

• Jurisdiction: United States
• Publication year: 2020

§ 2.01 Introduction

The United States Constitution authorizes Congress to enact legislation "securing for limited times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their Writings and Discoveries."¹ This clause, affording a limited right to copyright owners, reflects a balance between promoting the creation of works by providing incentives to authors and encouraging dissemination of knowledge and information by and to the public. Achieving this balance has been a constant theme throughout the history of copyright law.² Copyright infringement did not become a criminal offense until over one hundred years after the passage of the first federal copyright act in 1790. Until this time, the availability of damages under civil law was considered to be an adequate deterrent against copyright infringement. In addition, nineteenth century technology made it very difficult if not impossible to illegally reproduce and distribute a copyrighted work on a scale large enough to seriously threaten the copyright owner's profits. In short, criminal sanctions for copyright infringement were unnecessary in the past. Since then, however, changes in technology, especially in the digitization of copyrighted works, have made it easier to reproduce and distribute copyrighted works and more difficult for a copyright owner to protect his or her works. In response to these concerns and in recognition of the increased value and importance of intellectual property to the economic well-being of the United States, Congress has amended criminal copyright laws numerous times, and has progressively increased the scope and penalties for criminal copyright infringement. An example of this is the enactment of the No Electronic Theft Act in 1997.³

The law of copyright, in general, protects "original works of authorship," which are broadly defined to include literary works; musical works; dramatic works; pantomimes; pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works; motion pictures; sound recordings; and architectural works.⁴ In other words, copyright law protects almost all works of creative expression, so long as they are "original" and "fixed in a tangible medium of expression."⁵ Copyright, however, protects only a work's expression; it does not protect the underlying ideas.⁶ Federal copyright statutes are found primarily in Sections 101 through 1101 of Title 17 of the United States Code. The offenses for criminal copyright infringement are set forth in Section 506 of Title 17, and the related penalties are set forth in Title 18, Section 2319 of the United States Code.

Since January 1, 1978, federal copyright law has preempted almost all equivalent states' laws.⁷ Many states, however, have adopted criminal laws against unauthorized copying or distribution of copies that are directed toward the same types of piracy and counterfeiting targeted by federal...