Case example: CCH [ under original requirement] originality requirement
The court stated that in order for a work to be original, you need an exercise of skill and judgment that is more than purely mechanical exercise. The plain meaning of original implies not just creativity, but something more such as intellectual.
What is copyrightable
Para 33: reported judicial decision when properly understood as a compilation of headnotes and accompany edited judicial reasons, are original works. Copyright protects original form or expression. A compilation takes existing material and casts it in a different form. No copyright in the individual components. Arrangement may have copyright in the form represented by compilation.
Reported judicial decisions meet the test for originality. The author arranged the case summary, catch lines, case title, case information and judicial reasons in a specific manner. Arrangement requires skill and judgment so compilation is met!
Any work written in distinct parts by different authors, or in which works or parts of work of different authors are incorporated.
Policy question: Why grant copyright in compilation and collective work?
Strong incentive for creating copyright because then producers can create economic value resulting in more work created opposed to no economic incentive which may result in no work being created all together. It also provides reward for skill and judgment and a broad societal benefit—labour or personality.
Case Example- Robinson v Thompson Corp
FACTS:
Robertson a freelance writer wrote 2 articles that were published in print edition and Globe and mail. Later the newspaper place copies of her article in 3 databases. Robinson objected to the presence of her articles in the database and sued the Globe and Mail for unauthorized reproduction of her work.
ISSUE:
Was the reproduction of Robinson’s articles part of the Globe’s copyright in the newspaper or did it infringe copyright in her work?
RATIO:
Court held that although a newspaper held the copyright in the collection and the arrangement of freelance articles and in its newspaper, it could not public the articles within a database.
Publication within the database would remove the articles from the context of the collective work and would make it globe and mails publication, which they were not.
The author held copyright in her articles, and the newspaper held copyright in the compilation or collection of works that contained them.
C’right: rights of c’right owners [Consider s. 13 if created during Employment]
Legislation
COPYRIGHT OWNER’S RIGHTS
Focus of section 3 is on the economic right of the user. Moral rights don’t exist in Canada, which include retracting/modifying work. Section 3 does articulate the rights used by other parties to achieve an economic benefit that allows it to go to the copyright owner.
S.3
For the purposes of this Act, “copyright”, in relation to a work, means the sole right to produce or reproduce the work, to perform the work in public or, if the work is unpublished, to publish the work and includes the sole right
Produce (3(1))
Reproduce (3(1))
Perform in public (3(1))
Produce … any translation (3(1)(a))
Convert dramatic work into non-dramatic work (3(1)(b)
Convert non-dramatic work into dramatic work (3(1)(c))