Opinion ID: 771186
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Other Provisions in the Copyright Act

Text: 97 Interpreting the AWCPA as preserving PGS artists' intellectual property rights in their works that are part of buildings is consistent with language found elsewhere in the Copyright Act. In particular, one provision of VARA amended 17 U.S.C. S 113, which governs the scope of exclusive rights in PGS works. See Pub. L. No. 101-650, S 604, 104 Stat. 5089, 5130-31. That section, entitled Removal of Works of Visual Art from Buildings, governs the scope of moral rights afforded to authors whose PGS works are incorporated into buildings. For works of visual art that have been incorporated into buildings after the passage of VARA, the following rules apply: 98 If the owner of a building wishes to remove a work of visual art which is a part of such building and which can be removed from the building without the destruction, distortion, mutilation, or other modification of the work as described in section 106A(a)(3), the author's rights under paragraphs (2) and (3) of section 106A(a) shall apply unless 99 (A) the owner has made a diligent, good faith attempt without success to notify the author of the owner's intended action affecting the work of visual art, or 100 (B) the owner did provide such notice in writing and the person so notified failed, within 90 days after receiving such notice, either to remove the work or to pay for its removal. 101 . . . 102 If the work is removed at the expense of the author, title to that copy of the work shall be deemed to be in the author. 103 17 U.S.C. S 113(d)(2). Congress' inclusion of a provision covering PGS works that are incorporated into buildings, in a section governing the scope of PGS rights, is strong evi-dence that it recognized that such works would continue to enjoy full PGS copyright protection. 104 Also, interpreting the AWCPA as eliminating separate PGS protection for works incorporated into buildings would subject what would otherwise be PGS works to 17 U.S.C. S 120(b), which permits the owners of a building embodying an architectural work to make changes or destroy the building without the consent of the author or copyright owner of the architectural work. Without continued application of conceptual separability for PGS works incorporated into buildings, those works, as part of the architectural work, could be altered or destroyed without the permission of their authors. This interpretation would have Congress acting simultaneously to enhance, through VARA, the rights of authors of works of visual art while reducing, through the AWCPA, the rights of authors whose works of visual art are part of a building. An interpretation that preserves PGS protection for works attached to buildings would avoid this inconsistency. 11 105 Finally, the Copyright Act's continued reference to PGS works incorporated in buildings provides additional evidence that Congress did not intend the AWCPA to eliminate PGS protection for such works. The Copyright Act requires registration of all United States work[s] as a prerequisite for a copyright infringement action. See 17 U.S.C.S 411. Included in the definition of a United States work is a pictorial, graphic, or sculptural work incorporated in a building or structure located in the United States. 17 U.S.C. S 101. This explicit reference to PGS works incorporated in a building was added in 1988 by the Berne Convention Implementation Act. See Pub. L. No. 100-568, S 4(a)(1)(C). If Congress viewed the AWCPA as eliminating separate PGS protection for post-1990 PGS works incorporated into buildings, then presumably Congress would have amended the definition of United States work to differentiate between preand postAWCPA structures. 12