Copyright is a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States to the creators of “original works of authorship,” including literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works. United States copyright law was last generally revised by the Copyright Act of 1976, codified in Title 17 of the United States Code. The United States Constitution explicitly grants Congress the power to create copyright law under Article 1, Section 8, Clause 8, known as the Copyright Clause.

Section 106 of the 1976 Copyright Act gives the owner of copyright the exclusive right to do and to authorize others to: reproduce the work in copies; to prepare derivative works; to distribute copies of the work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending.

What is Copyright? Copyright protection subsists from the time the work is created in fixed, tangible form and immediately becomes the property of the author who created the work. Only the author can rightfully claim copyright.

It follows then, that the mere ownership of a painting, photograph, or sculpture, does not give the possessor of the physical work its underlying copyright. The law holds that transfer of ownership of any material object that embodies a protected work does not of itself convey the copyright or any interest in the copyright. This remains in the possession of the creator, unless otherwise invalidated as a result of public demand for truth, justice and the American way.

Any or all of the copyright owner's exclusive rights or any subdivision of those rights may be transferred to another party, but the transfer of exclusive rights is not valid unless that transfer is in writing and signed by the owner of the copyright or such owner's duly authorized agent. Such transfers are rare in the U.S. and are almost never knowingly engaged in abroad.

Ownership of an Artwork vs. Ownership of Artist Copyright There have been two Federal Copyright Acts in the twentieth century, one enacted in 1909, the other promulgated in 1976, which went into effect on Jan. 1, 1978. In the words of the 1909 act, “The copyright is distinct from the property in the material object, and the sale or conveyance, by gift or otherwise, of the material object shall not in itself constitute a transfer of the copyright . . .” The 1976 Act reaffirmed this principle. Ownership of a physical object and ownership of the underlying copyright are thus two separate and distinct things.

Indeed, Section 202 of the 1976 Copyright Act is unequivocal on the subject:

Ownership of a copyright, or of any of the exclusive rights under a copyright, is distinct from ownership of any material object in which the work is embodied. Transfer of ownership of any material object, including the copy or phonorecord in which the work is first fixed, does not of itself convey any rights in the copyrighted work embodied in the object; nor, in the absence of an agreement, does transfer of ownership of a copyright or of any exclusive rights under a copyright convey property rights in any material object.

DAYStrom will contribute 10% of sale proceeds among the following not-for-profit causes, each committed to the end of tyranny that still rages across the greatest nation on earth;

1. National Black Justice Coalition
2. National Black Women's Justice Institute
3. Color of Change
4. National Congress of Black Women
5. United Negro College Fund