April 7, 2000:  SAMPLE PROBLEM QUESTION 1

COPYRIGHT LAW 2000

Recommended Time: 1 Hour

Marcia, a student at Columbus School of Law at CUA who lives in Virginia, recently visited London during her spring break. While she was there she attended a rather bizarre British event known as "The Sing-Along Sound of Music". This is a screening of a karaoke version of the 1965 film "The Sound of Music" at a major London cinema. During the film, the audience raucously sings along to all the songs as their lyrics scroll across the big screen. The audience is also encouraged to dress up as their favorite "Sound of Music" character. At the screening Marcia attended, there were four nuns, six Nazis, two girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes, and sixteen brown paper packages tied up with string.

For the purposes of this question, assume that the film was first published with copyright notice on September 9, 1965. The producers of the film, P Co., registered copyright in the film in 1965. P. Co. did not file a renewal registration with the copyright office. In 1977, P. Co. purported to assign copyright in the work to G. Inc. by means of a written assignment signed only by P. Co. but not by G. Inc.

Marcia really loved the event, and being an entrepreneurial type (as well as a law student with typically large loans), has the idea of bringing a similar event to the D.C. area. As a law student, however, she is concerned about exposure to liability for copyright infringement. Marcia has heard of your stellar reputation as an eminent intellectual property lawyer in a D.C. firm. She makes an appointment to see you and asks you the following questions:

1. Under U.S. copyright law, when will copyright in the film "The Sound of Music" expire? Please provide the day, month, and year. Please explain why copyright will expire on this date.

2. Assume Marcia wants to record, for sale to members of the public for private use, karaoke CD-ROMs of the "Sound of Music" soundtrack, with a video portion showing the lyrics from all the songs scrolling across the screen. Does Marcia need to obtain a license to do this? If so, what must she do to obtain a license?

3. Assume that videos of the karaoke version of the film "The Sound of Music" (i.e. the film with printed lyrics scrolling across the screen) are on sale in D.C. with the authority of the copyright owner. If Marcia purchases one lawfully made copy of this karaoke video and shows it to law students in the atrium of the law school at CUA, will she infringe copyright? Why or why not?

4. Marcia wants to know if, under copyright law, she can manufacture and sell to the public sets of doll clothes for Barbie dolls which are exact copies of all of Maria’s costumes in the film "The Sound of Music" and whether she can obtain copyright in the costumes.

Please advise Marcia.