Copyright in Legal Documents
![handle is hein.journals/ohlj31 and id is 671 raw text is: COPYRIGHT IN LEGAL DOCUMENTS0
By DAVID VAVER*
Original legal documents and forms have long enjoyed copyright protection.
After looking at Commonwealth and U.S. decisions, the author discusses the
nature, extent, and desirability of protection. An examination of the
technicalities of copyright protection reveals a law drafted in broad generalities
and ill-suited to respond adequately to the common practices arising from this
class and, by implication, other classes of creative work. The author concludes
by suggesting practical ways in which legislators, lawyers, and judges can solve
some of the copyright problems generated through the use of legal documents.
[Take the] case of a client who goes to his solicitor to draw a will, assuming that the
instructions do not exclude the will when drawn from being an original literary work, is it
to be said that the solicitor thereby has a copyright in another man's will during his
lifetime and is entitled to the rights which the statute gives to the owner of a copyright?
The whole idea seems to me absolutely absurd.1
-Mr. Justice Astbury
L INTRODUCTION ............................................................ 662
I. QUALIFYING FOR COPYRIGHT ............................................. 663
A. Authors and Owners ........................................................ 664
B. Joint Productions ........................................................... 666
C. Original ................................................................. 667
II. MORAL RIGHTS ............................................................ 669
A. Right ofAttribution ......................................................... 669
B. Right of Integrity ............................................................ 670
o 1994, David Vaver.
* Professor of Law, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University. Thanks to my colleagues
Harry Glasbeek, John McCamus, and Graham Parker, as well as to Sir Muir Chilwell, William L
Hayhurst, and Victor Nabhan, for their helpful comments on earlier drafts.
1 Harrold Drabble, Ltd. v. Hycolite Manufacturing Co. (1928), [1923-1928] MacGillivray's
Copyright Cases 322 at 332 (Ch.D.).](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/ohlj31&div=26&collection=journals&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
What Is HeinOnline?
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most
Copyright in Legal Documents
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most