Copyright And First Sale Doctrine Clarification
Business By AmandaPanda Updated 12 Jun 2007 , 1:28am by CelebrationsbyLori
Hey there i did a little searching because I know there is a lot of different ideas floating around .... the first sale act says that you can purchase your item and sell it, give it away, lend it or destroy it without any reprocussions from the company. BUT when it comes to selling that item in a way that it was not intended, that is illegal ... for example ... you can purchase a disney princess doll .... and resel that doll as is, you cannot purchase that doll and resell her on a cake because that is not the intended use for her ..... here is a excerpt I took from teh us copyright website.
§ 106. Exclusive rights in copyrighted works36
Subject to sections 107 through 122, the owner of copyright under this title has the exclusive rights to do and to authorize any of the following:
(1) to reproduce the copyrighted work in copies or phonorecords;
(2) to prepare derivative works based upon the copyrighted work;
(3) to distribute copies or phonorecords of the copyrighted work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending;
(4) in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and motion pictures and other audiovisual works, to perform the copyrighted work publicly;
(5) in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and pictorial, graphic, or sculptural works, including the individual images of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, to display the copyrighted work publicly; and
(6) in the case of sound recordings, to perform the copyrighted work publicly by means of a digital audio transmission.
This stuff does talk a lot about music and books however when it refers to "sculptural works" in the article it refers you back up to article 106 which is the excerpt that I just copied for you.
§ 113. Scope of exclusive rights in pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works45
(a) Subject to the provisions of subsections (b) and (c) of this section, the exclusive right to reproduce a copyrighted pictorial, graphic, or sculptural work in copies under section 106, includes the right to reproduce the work in or on any kind of article, whether useful or otherwise.
If you are interested in reading the entire doctrine you can access it here http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html#101
I must warn you though, it is NOT a very fun read LOL
and resel that doll as is, you cannot purchase that doll and resell her on a cake because that is not the intended use for her .....
What if you invoice the cake to a client and as a 'thank you for your custom' you 'gave' them the doll and so were not charging your customer for it?
I did read on a website thatyou cannot give it away in that fassion either I will search for that article again and post it tomorrow, it is way past my bedtime LOL
The cake kits produced by Bakery Crafts and Decopac are intended for use on cakes and it is perfectly legal to purchase those and resell them on a cake. Thankfully we still have that option! It is really hard sometimes to make the customers understand all these legalities. They say, you CAN'T or you WON'T, I say both, I'm not willing to risk a $50,000 or more fine for your $25 cake order. Sorry!
-Lori
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