Constitutional Basis

• Authors' rights to protection of their works are enshrined in Article 1, Section 8, of the U.S. Constitution: "The Congress shall have Power ... To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries."
  
  

18th Century

• The first copyright law, which afforded protection to books, maps and charts, was enacted in 1790. Copyrights were granted for 14 years and could be renewed for an additional 14 years. On June 9, 1790, The "Philadelphia Spelling Book" by John Barry became the first registered work.
  
  

19th Century

• By the end of the 18th century, prints, dramatic compositions, photos and photographic negatives were covered by copyright, and works of music were protected against unauthorized printing, vending and performance. In 1832, the initial copyright period was increased to 28 years, but the 14-year renewal period was maintained. Copyright activities were centralized in the Library of Congress in 1870--since then, authors were required to deposit two copies of each copyrighted work with the library.
  
  

20th Century

• Copyright law was first codified in 1947. During the 20th century, copyright protection was extended to many additional works, including some unpublished works, motion pictures, computer programs, sound recordings, recordings of literary programs and architectural works. The duration of copyright was extended a number of times during the century and was finally extended to the life of the author plus 70 years under the Sony Bono Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998.
  
  

Fair Use in Law

• According to Section 107 of the Copyright Law, use of copyrighted material for criticism, news reporting, comment, scholarship, research or teaching is not an infringement of copyright. Section 107 details a number of factors to be considered in determining whether a use constitutes fair use, including the purpose and character of the use, the nature of the copyrighted work, the volume of the portion quoted and the effect of such use on the value of the copyrighted work.
  
  

Other Information

• The Copyright Office notes that the use of copyrighted material in a parody, the reproduction by a library of damaged sections of a book and the reproduction of works in legislative or judicial proceedings have been covered by fair use in court cases. The Copyright Office also notes that it may be difficult to distinguish between fair use and copyright infringement and that there is no specification regarding the number of words, lines or notes that may safely be used without the author's permission.