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● Introduction & Index ● What is PR ● Job Expectations ● Types of Media ● Building Relationships ● Media, Hams & FCC Rules ● The Basic News Release ● Interviews and Live ● Making your own show ● Easy P.R. ● Public Service Events ● Piggy-back to Events ● Pictures NOW! ● P.R. Research Aids ● Making Friends ● ARES® PIO ● Final Exam Information Next Page

Now let’s turn to two laws that PIOs encounter all the time. Copyright Law In the US, copyright laws go back to 1790. These laws “protect creative works from being reproduced, performed, or disseminated by others without permission.” In this context, a “work” is any “original creation of authorship produced in a tangible medium.” (That about covers everything). It used to be that authors would register written and musical works with the Library of Congress, but now a lot of authors simply put the © on a work and let it go at that. They can still sue you. Before you use any copyrighted materials, you better get permission or a license from the author (or their agent) in writing. But a lot of people, including hams who should know better, swipe copyrighted materials off the internet for their own website, club or personal use in the belief that it is “Fair Use.” Fair Use Laws When can you use copyrighted audio or video and how much of it? I once “thought” the rule is 4 bars or measures, or maybe it was 20 seconds of audio, but that’s not true now. I got that idea before 1991. But things have changed. Some excellent answers to a very complicated question are at: http://www.pdinfo.com/fairuse.php A lot more complicated answer is at http://www.royaltyfreemusic.com/public-domain/basic-rules-fair-use.html Before 1991, sampling in certain types of music was an accepted practice and viewed as largely irrelevant. But then the strict decision against rapper Biz Markie’s appropriation of a Gilbert O’Sullivan song in the case Grand Upright Music, Ltd. v. Warner Bros. Records, Inc. changed everything overnight. Even short samples now had to be licensed, as long as they had “a level of legally cognizable appropriation.” De minimis sampling, for a while, was still considered fair and free because “the law does not care about trifles,” but then the Sixth Circuit Court decision in the appeal to Bridgeport Music reversed this, eliminating the de minimis defense for samples of recorded music, but stating that the decision did not apply to “fair use.”