Book Review
| Pages | 300 |
| Publication year | 2021 |
71 CBJ 300. BOOK REVIEW
COPYRIGHT LAW AND PRACTICE. William F. Patry, BNA Books. 1996. 2328 pp. $265 including supplements.
In the basic three-volume work, William R Patry has given both the experienced copyright practitioner and the relative novice an excellent reference work for understanding and solving copyright problems. This work is the latest in a series of copyright treatises by Mr. Patry - it is the outgrowth of his last edition of Latman's The Copyright Law and it follows another excellent treatise, The Fair Use Privilege in Copyright Law.
Mr. Patry has served as counsel to the Subcommittee on Intellectual Property and judicial Administration of the Committee on the judiciary of the United States House of Representatives and as the editor-in-chief of the Journal of The Copyright Society of the U.S.A. He has written many articles in the copyright field.
This work is an essentially self-contained copyright law library with an excellent history of the development of the copyright laws in the United States; this is inclusive of the several acts which implement the constitutional mandate and the legislative history of each of the acts. It has thorough and readily comprehensible chapters on the nature of copyrightable subject matter, protection of copyright, tests and remedies for infringement, transfer of interests in copyright and limitations thereon or termination thereof, duration of copyright and fair use, as well as other useful chapters. He also addresses the international aspects of copyright protection, including the Berne Convention and the effects of GATT.
In dealing with the exceptions to the author's or artist's exclusive rights, he provides an excellent analysis of the statutory exceptions, including fair use, library photocopying, classroom use, educational broadcasting, etc. In covering enforcement of copyrights, he addresses in some detail jurisdictional issues and remedies.
Indicative of the comprehensive nature of this work are the chapter tides in the first volume:
Copyright ability
Non-Copyrightable Material
Ownership of Copyright
Formalities
Duration, Renewal and Termination of Transfers
An Overview...
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