Copyright

theaug37 <*no_reply_at_yahoogroups.com*> · Wed, 15 Jan 2003 04:23:54 -0000

--- In quizbowl_at_yahoogroups.com, "cellinis_ego
<matthew.schneller_at_l...>" <matthew.schneller_at_l...> wrote:
> 
> 1) Who own the reproduction rights to written questions, if anyone? 
> Particularly, to events in which each team is required to submit a 
> packet of questions? Are questions copyrighted?
> 
> The team which runs/edits a packet submission tournament.  The 
> editing team generally has some time to swap their tournament for 
> other recent tournaments they couldn't attend.  After some period of 
> time (a year?  two?) the questions tend to find their way to the 
> public domain - either Stanford's archive or trading of others' old 
> tournaments en masse.
> 
> No copyright.  Most of any given question tends to be just facts 
> available to all - the fact that Durrell wrote The Alexandria Quartet 
> isn't any more copyrightable than instructions on how to screw in a 
> lightbulb.  Practically, any "original" phrasing tends to be more 
> annoying than anything else.  NAQT might copyright, although I 
> seriously doubt it's worth their while.

I'm not quite sure if this statement is true.  From my understanding,
as a general rule, the rights are entitled to the author
automatically, regardless of whether they formally register to do so.
 Registering is helpful in the event of a litigation as it offers the
strongest proof, however if such things are litigated, the automatic
copyright can stand on its own merits.  

As for the question of whether QB questions are copyrightable, I'm
almost certain they are.  Relying on 17 USCA Section 101 onwards,
there only needs to be "some minimal degree of creativity" by the
author.  The clarification in Feist Pub. v. Rural Telephone Service
(499 US 340, 1991), Justice O'Connor says in a 9-0 decision that any
work with a minimal degree of creativity, no matter how crude, is
considered copyrightable.  In the case, they found the white pages to
be unoriginal because no creativity is needed in a simple compilation.
 However, they strongly reiterated the point that anything past a
white pages compilation was certainly worthy of protection.  Note here
that they are not talking about effort, but merely the originality of
the work itself.  QB questions, requiring the arrangement of clues,
choice in word usage, etc, exceeds all statutory requirements for
originality.  

The only problem, as I see it, is whether when writing questions for a
tournament, the copyright transfers to the host/editor of the
tournament as a grant of the copyright, or whether the copyright
remains with the author because they are given as license to the
host/editors for reasonable use during the tournament.  There's
"compensation" given to the authors in the form of tournament set for
freelancers, packet discounts and the right to attend the tournament,
but given the informal nature of the circuit, no one (as far as I
know) has never stipulated what the actual conditions for such a
transfer of questions would be.  If I had to guess, I think the author
would retain most rights of the questions, making the use of questions
at tournaments a license only.  

Just my opinion on the subject, 

-Augustine-