By paying $45 to copyright its front page story on Warren Buffett's wedding to his long-time companion, the Omaha World-Herald guaranteed itself several thousand dollars worth of worldwide publicity.
As of Friday night, more than 275 stories had appeared in on-line publications. Information on print-only publication mentions was not available.
Whenever someone uses a copyrighted work for the purposes of criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship or research it may be deemed a "fair use" and is exempt from copyright infringement. The U.S. Copyright Act lists four factors for determining whether the use of a work is fair use. These factors are:
- the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
- the nature of the copyrighted work;
- the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole;
- the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work. The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors.
A determining factor in copyright infringement is whether the use by a suspecting infringer has taken away from the copyright owner's opportunity for profit. If a court finds that the copied image is affecting the value of the original image, the usage will not be considered "fair use."
Technically, all original stories printed in the state's largest newspaper are already copywritten because copyright protection exists once the work is created. However, an advantage of filing for copyright registration means the World-Herald can file suit against other media outlets which infringe on its copywritten stories.
So how much of the World-Herald's 600-word story are other media outlets permitted to use? Under the fair use doctrine of the U.S. copyright statute, it is permissible to use limited portions of a work - including quotes - for purposes such as commentary, criticism, news reporting, and scholarly reports. There are no legal rules permitting the use of a specific number of words or percentage of a work.
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