Lesson 3	Copyright Law in the Digital Age
Objective	Define Copyright, review modern copyright issues, and analyze the impact of Generative AI on authorship.

Copyright Law and Modern Issues

The legal bedrock of copyright in the United States resides in the Constitution, which empowers Congress "to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries". This constitutional mandate led to the Copyright Act of 1976, which remains the primary statute protecting "original works of authorship". In the 21st-century digital landscape, "literary works" has evolved from physical manuscripts to include computer software, compiled databases, and even complex AI prompts—though the definition of an "author" is currently undergoing its most significant legal challenge since the invention of the printing press.

The Core Pillars: Expression and Originality

Copyright law protects the expression of an idea, not the idea itself. For a work to receive protection, it must meet two fundamental criteria:

Originality: The work must be independently created by the author and not copied from existing sources. Crucially, originality does not require "novelty" in the sense of a patent; two authors can produce remarkably similar poems independently, and both may be entitled to copyright.
Fixation: The work must be fixed in a tangible medium of expression—whether that is paper, a hard drive, or a cloud server.

1) The author of a message posted to a newsgroup is entitled to copyright protection — 1) **Digital Correspondence:** The author of a message posted to a newsgroup or social media thread is entitled to copyright protection. While "sharing" or "reposting" is a foundational mechanic of the internet, it technically constitutes a copyright violation unless the author has granted permission through a platform's Terms of Service (ToS) or a Creative Commons license.

The Conflict: Rural Telephone claimed Feist infringed its copyright by copying white-page listings for a regional directory. Rural argued for the "Sweat of the Brow" doctrine—the idea that the effort and expense of compiling data should be enough to grant copyright.

The Supreme Court Ruling: The Court rejected "Sweat of the Brow". Justice Sandra Day O'Connor famously stated that "originality is a constitutional requirement". Because alphabetical listings of names and numbers lacked a "modicum of creativity," they were facts, and facts cannot be copyrighted.

Legacy for Ecommerce: This ruling means that pure data—such as product prices, stock levels, or technical specifications—cannot be copyrighted. Only the creative arrangement or unique description of that data is protected.

Cash Business Model

Modern Challenge: Generative AI and the Fair Use Defense

In 2026, the "Feist" standard is being tested by Generative AI. Large Language Models (LLMs) are trained by "scraping" millions of copyrighted works.

The Legal Debate: Creators argue this is massive copyright infringement. Tech companies argue it is "Fair Use"—a legal doctrine that allows the use of copyrighted material for transformative purposes. Fair use is determined by four factors:

The purpose and character of the use (Commercial vs. Educational).
The nature of the copyrighted work.
The amount and substantiality of the portion used.
The effect of the use upon the potential market for the work.

Current rulings suggest that while the training may be fair use, the output of an AI cannot be copyrighted if it was generated without "substantial human involvement." This creates a "Copyright Void" for many purely AI-generated ecommerce assets.

Safe Harbors: The DMCA Section 512

To protect the "Information Infrastructure," the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) provides Safe Harbor to ISPs and web hosts.


// Example: Modern DMCA Takedown Compliance
if (receivedNotice(validDMCA)) {
content.status = "removed";
notifyUploader(rightToCounterNotice);
maintainSafeHarborStatus(true);
}

As long as a platform (like an ecommerce marketplace) implements a "Notice and Takedown" system and does not have actual knowledge of the infringement, they cannot be held liable for the copyrighted material uploaded by their users.

Discussion: Copyright vs. Open Access

The Information Infrastructure Task Force (IITF) and modern groups continue to review the balance between protecting creators and allowing the free flow of information.

Is the current copyright term (Life + 70 years) too long for the digital age? Does it stifle innovation in AI? As we move toward Lesson 4, we will transition from protecting expressions (Copyright) to protecting identities and brands (Trademarks).

In the next lesson, you will learn about Trademarks and the legal challenges of brand protection in the global marketplace.