Monday, May 7, 2012

Continental Casualty Co. v. Beardsley case brief, 253 F.2d 702 (1958)

Continental Casualty Co. v. Beardsley
253 F.2d 702 (1958)

FACTS
-Pamphlet describing policy and forms for new kind of insurance.
-Unlike blank forms in
Baker v. Selden, Beardsley’s forms included prose that was explanatory of his insurance plan.

ISSUE
Was the pamphlet copyrightable?

HOLDING
⇒ Somewhat; the court concludes that copyright on the forms may protect only the exact rendition of the precise wording employed by the copyright owner [Thin Copyright].  

RULES
Facts and Compilations

A “Compilation” is a work formed by the collection and assembling of preexisting materials or of data that are selected, coordinated, or arranged in such a way that the resulting work as a whole constitutes an original work of authorship.  Includes collective works.

ANALYSIS
⇒ For a work to qualify as a copyrightable compilation (each must be met): (1) the collection and assembly of pre-existing material facts or data; (2) the selection, coordination, or arrangement of those materials; and (3) the creation, by virtue of the particular selection, coordination, or arrangement, of an “original” work of authorship.

⇒ The copyright in such a work is INDEPENDENT of and does not affect or enlarge the scope, duration, ownership, or subsistence of, any copyright protection in the preexisting material.
⇒A compilation results from a process of selecting, bringing together, organizing, and arranging previously existing material of all kinds, regardless of whether the individual items in the material have been or ever have been subject to copyright.  
⇒A derivative work, on the other hand, requires a process of recasting, transforming, or adapting one or more preexisting works; the preexisting work must come within the general subject matter of copyright set forth in 102, regardless of whether it is/was ever copyrighted.

Link to case:  253 F.2d 702 (1958) 

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