U.S.A. Copyright Law | Page 9

phonorecords of a work to
the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or
lending. The offering to distribute copies or phonorecords to a group of
persons for purposes of further distribution, public performance, or
public display, constitutes publication. A public performance or display
of a work does not of itself constitute publication.

To perform or display a work "publicly" means-
(1) to perform or display it at a place open to the public or at any place
where a substantial number of persons outside of a normal circle of a
family and its social acquaintances is gathered; or
(2) to transmit or otherwise communicate a performance or display of
the work to a place specified by clause (1) or to the public, by means of
any device or process, whether the members of the public capable of
receiving the performance or display receive it in the same place or in
separate places and at the same time or at different times.
"Registration", for purposes of sections 205(c)(2), 405, 406, 410(d),
411, 412, and 506(e), means a registration of a claim in the original or
the renewed and extended term of copyright. [17]
"Sound recordings" are works that result from the fixation of a series of
musical, spoken, or other sounds, but not including the sounds
accompanying a motion picture or other audiovisual work, regardless
of the nature of the material objects, such as disks, tapes, or other
phonorecords, in which they are embodied.
"State" includes the District of Columbia and the Commonwealth of
Puerto Rico, and any territories to which this title is made applicable by
an Act of Congress.
A "transfer of copyright ownership" is an assignment, mortgage,
exclusive license, or any other conveyance, alienation, or hypothecation
of a copyright or of any of the exclusive rights comprised in a
copyright, whether or not it is limited in time or place of effect, but not
including a nonexclusive license.
A "transmission program" is a body of material that, as an aggregate,
has been produced for the sole purpose of transmission to the public in
sequence and as a unit.
To "transmit" a performance or display is to communicate it by any
device or process whereby images or sounds are received beyond the

place from which they are sent.
A "treaty party" is a country or intergovernmental organization other
than the United States that is a party to an international agreement. [18]
The "United States", when used in a geographical sense, comprises the
several States, the District of Columbia and the Commonwealth of
Puerto Rico, and the organized territories under the jurisdiction of the
United States Government.
For purposes of section 411, a work is a "United States work" only if:
(1) in the case of a published work, the work is first published-
(A) in the United States;
(B) simultaneously in the United States and another treaty party or
parties, whose law grants a term of copyright protection that is the
same as or longer than the term provided in the United States;
(C) simultaneously in the United States and a foreign nation that is not
a treaty party; or
(D) in a foreign nation that is not a treaty party, and all of the authors of
the work are nationals, domiciliaries, or habitual residents of, or in the
case of an audiovisual work legal entities with headquarters in, the
United States;
(2) in the case of an unpublished work, all the authors of the work are
nationals, domiciliaries, or habitual residents of the United States, or, in
the case of an unpublished audiovisual work, all the authors are legal
entities with headquarters in the United States; or
(3) in the case of a pictorial, graphic, or sculptural work incorporated in
a building or structure, the building or structure is located in the United
States. [19]
A "useful article" is an article having an intrinsic utilitarian function
that is not merely to portray the appearance of the article or to convey

information. An article that is normally a part of a useful article is
considered a "useful article".
The author's "widow" or "widower" is the author's surviving spouse
under the law of the author's domicile at the time of his or her death,
whether or not the spouse has later remarried.
The "WIPO Copyright Treaty" is the WIPO Copyright Treaty
concluded at Geneva, Switzerland, on December 20, 1996. [20]
The "WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty" is the WIPO
Performances and Phonograms Treaty concluded at Geneva,
Switzerland, on December 20, 1996. [21]
A "work of visual art" is-
(1) a painting, drawing, print or sculpture, existing in a single copy, in a
limited edition of 200 copies or fewer that are signed and consecutively
numbered by the author, or, in the case of a sculpture, in multiple