2007-02-09_Newspaper_Articles_re_Healing_Our_Island_Website

Home

Mr. William Kenoi February 9, 2007 Page 3 b. HOI can offer a link to a newspaper website. This is not a violation of copyright law because the mere offering of a link is neither copying nor distributing of a newspaper article. I. Discussion: A. Background of Copyright Law Title 17, United States Code, Section 106, Exclusive Rights in Copyrighted Works, is known as The Copyright Act of 1976. It provides that the owner of a copyright has the exclusive rights to do and to authorize any of the following: 1) to reproduce the copyrighted work in copies or phonorecords; 2) to prepare derivative works based upon the copyrighted work; 3) to distribute copies or phonorecords of the copyrighted work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease or lending; 4) to perform the copyrighted work publicly (in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and motion pictures and other audiovisual works); 5) to display the copyrighted work publicly (in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and pictorial, graphic, or sculptural works, including the individual images of a motion picture or other audiovisual work); and 6) to perform the copyrighted work publicly by means of a digital audio transmission (in the case of sound recordings). However, there are exceptions to the exclusive rights of the owner. While the copyright owner has the sole right to exercise these exclusive rights and to exclude others from exercising any such rights, these rights have various limitations listed in the statute. These exceptions are set forth in Sections 107 through 118 of the Copyright Act. "Fair use" is one of the exceptions to the copyright owner's exclusive rights, which I believe would apply to the situation at hand. Title 17, United States Code, Section 107, Limitations on Exclusive Rights: Fair Use, referred to as the "fair use exception," contains a list of the various purposes for which the reproduction of a particular work may be considered "fair," such as criticism, comment, news reporting,