The U.S. Copyright Statute has two symmetrical parts to Section 102. The first subsection sets out what is protected (… original expression fixed in tangible medium…”) inside the tent of copyright so to speak; and the second subsection sets out what is prohibited from that tent’s protection (…. In no case shall copyright protection extend to idea, process, system, concept, method of operation…). Over time, we have come to understand that the metaphorical tent of copyright does not extend to function. For function protection, you have to go to the Patent Office’s tent.

But with our government being the best that money can buy, and given that there is more power in PAC lobbying than ever before, a new bill (S.17850) has passed the House and the Senate and needs now only minor ratification in the Senate before it is law. That new bill will extend copyright protection to function, specifically, vessel deck designs. This will be a further extension of the camel’s function nose in the copyright tent that the earlier 2005 legislation brought in protecting vessel hull designs.

This is legislation has been specially lobbied through by the small craft design and manufacturing community; and, is the harbinger of the garment design (’fashion’) bill that is in line to be addressed next. The proposed garment design bill will grant a three year monopoly to garment designers on patterns and features of clothing. Who knows, perhaps the optical design and manufacturing community will succeed in proposing new legislation for optical gear which has eluded protection to their satisfaction… and then we’ll approach the whole head of the camel coming in under the tent of copyright.

This entry was posted by Kate Spelman on Sunday, December 31st, 2006 at 7:15 pm and is filed under Copyrights. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.