I have numerous historical documents relating to my business which has
been in operation for nearly 150 yrs old.  Many interesting records
have been preserved by the business such as old maps drawn by
contractors for my business, old insurance certificates and other
business forms & letters received from others in the course of our
business, letters written to others & old certificates or licenses
issued by government to my business?
If the owners of my business want to retain control of use and
distribution of the above materials; 1. do we have right to such
control and in what circumstances? 2. what is required to inform
public our rights in this way (copyrights)?

Hello -

Please note: This answer is not finished until you're satisfied with
it.  If you choose to rate this answer, please do so *only* after
asking for any needed information/clarification.  Thanks for your
understanding.

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If the item in question contains material that's copyrighted, you must
gain permission from the author [if alive] before distributing or
selling that item.  If the item is not copyrighted, trademarked, or
patented, it's generally like any other piece of property -- like a
piece of furniture in your home, your car, or any other item. 
However, you cannot claim exclusive right to the *content* [i.e., file
protection in the form of a copyright], because you or your company
did not author the work [see more below about copyrights], but you can
mark the property as being yours.  There are a number of ways you can
physically mark your property to tag it as yours.  See these pages for
more info on this:

Metropolitan Police
http://www.met.police.uk/crimeprevention/art.htm

Mersey World
http://www.merseyworld.com/protect-and-secure/propmark.html 

Doculam
http://www.doculam.co.za/uv.asp

Always-Safe
http://www.always-safe.com/product122.html


Per the US Copyright Office, "Only the author or those deriving their
rights through the author can rightfully claim copyright.  Mere
ownership of a book, manuscript, painting, or any other copy or
phonorecord does not give the possessor the copyright. The law
provides that transfer of ownership of any material object that
embodies a protected work does not of itself convey any rights in the
copyright."

Because you don't own the copyright, no one has to seek permission
from you to copy these items.  For all items created before 1923, they
are in the public domain.  That means no one in particular "owns the
content," and they're not copyrighted by anyone.

You can seek legal, registered copyright protection for those items
that are the unique creation of your company only.  Note that
copyrights only apply to things like literary, dramatic, musical,
artistic, and certain other intellectual works, but do not apply to
things like business forms.  See more information on copyrights and
the scope of their protection at the US Copyright Office page:

http://www.copyright.gov


Search Strategy:
patent/copyright attorney & US copyright office

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Request for Answer Clarification by sailinhum-ga on 19 Mar 2003 09:29 PST

Thanks for the info - good answers and resources.
RE:  "Items created before, 1923, are in public domain"...."no one in
particular owns the content" -- Does this mean copyright protection
for items created prior to 1923 is up for grabs by anyone who want to
apply or does the public perminantly hold those rights?
Also, in FREE2COPYRIGHT.COM under "copyrighting graphics" I read in
4th para. that there are exceptions to the 6 exclusive rights granted
to author of original works of authorship.  These exceptions pertain
to certain limited purposes; criticism, comment, teaching, news
reporting, scholarship or research.  Is it the intent of this
provision in the law that items of historical significance (which
could be just about anything that is perceived to have historical
value) may be used, without permission of author or other party
designated by author, for any of these excepted purposes?

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Clarification of Answer by jbf777-ga on 19 Mar 2003 10:18 PST

Hello again -

Great questions...  if you need any more clarification, please do not
hesitate to ask before rating this answer.  Thanks!

1) Are items in the public domain [e.g., those before 1923] up for
grabs in terms of someone being able to claim copyright on them?

No, they are not up for grabs.  These items are freely usable by
anyone, and no one can claim rights to them.

2) Is it the intent of this provision in the law that items of
historical significance may be used, without permission of author or
other party
designated by author, for any of these excepted purposes?

If the work is not registered with the copyright office, patented, or
trademarked, then the answer is a definite yes.  With regard to
copyrighted works, yes, you have limited use of them without author's
permission.  It's called the "fair use doctrine."  According to the
U.S. Copyright Office, "Under the fair use doctrine of the U.S.
copyright statute, it is permissible to use limited portions of a work
including quotes, for purposes such as commentary, criticism, news
reporting, and scholarly reports.  There are no legal rules permitting
the use of a specific number of words, a certain number of musical
notes, or percentages of a work. Whether a particular use qualifies as
fair use depends on all the circumstances. See Circular 21 and FL
102."  It's always a good idea to cite your sources whenever possible.

jbf777-ga
GA Researcher

Response provided direct responses to my questions and included useful
resources so I could explore further.  Thank you.