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They Said
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Barbara
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TIMELINE •••
Barbara A. Ringer had just
graduated from Columbia
University's law school in 1949
when she joined the Copyright
Office at the Library of
Congress.
•••
Within a few years, she set about
revising an archaic set of laws
that had been in place since 1909
-- before the invention of
television or commercial radio,
before copying machines and the
modern recording industry, let
alone cable TV, home computers
and the Internet.
•••
Ringer believed, above all, that
copyrights should protect the
creative people in American life
-- the authors, songwriters and
performers whose work too often
was printed or broadcast without
permission. By 1955, she was
writing papers and commissioning
studies on how the nation's
copyright laws should be
revised.
•••
Ringer died April 9, 2009 of
complications from dementia at a
nursing home in Lexington, Va.
She was 83.
•••
For years, she devoted much of
her time to drafting a
comprehensive copyright act and
educating congressional
representatives about why it was
needed.
•••
Anticipating the rise of new
technologies such as the
Internet, she inserted provisions
into the law to protect authors
from the unauthorized
reproduction of their work, even
by means not yet devised.
•••
"The basic human rights of
individual authors throughout the
world," she warned in a 1975
speech, "are being sacrificed
more and more on the altar of . .
. the technological revolution,"
wrote
LAtimes,
and By Matt Schudel May 4,
2009 •
Part
02h
TIMELINE-
•
1925 -1945 -
Barbara
Alice Ringer was born May 29,
1925, in Lafayette, Ind., and was
a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of
George Washington University in
1945. She earned a master's
degree at George Washington in
1947, then went to Columbia as
one of the few women in her law
school class. •
1947 - 1971 -
In
1971, after 22 years at the
Library of Congress, Ringer was
passed over for the job of
register of copyrights, the
nation's top copyright position.
She had stellar performance
reviews and had held the office's
No. 2 position for five years,
but the post went to a man.
•••
Ringer filed a job discrimination
suit, then moved to Paris for two
years to work for the United
Nations.
•••
A federal hearing examiner found
"a consistent pattern of
discrimination" and concluded
that Ringer had been wrongfully
denied the position because she
was a woman and because she was a
vocal proponent of promoting
African Americans at the library.
In 1973, a federal judge ordered
that Ringer be installed as the
register of copyrights. She was
the first woman to hold the
job. •
1976
-
TheRightFix - Ringer finished
the drafting the legislation and
lobbying Congress before the
Copyright Act of 1976 was finally
passed.
She
wrote most of the bill
herself. •
1977
- In
1977, she received the
President's Award for
Distinguished Federal Civilian
Service, the highest honor for a
federal worker. •
1980
- She
retired on her 55th birthday in
1980 and moved to rural Bath
County, Va., where she lived
alone on 100 wooded acres. She
never married. •
1993
-
Ringer remained active in
copyright law for years,
attending international
conferences and filing briefs
with the U.S. Supreme Court. She
returned to the Library of
Congress in 1993 and 1994 as
acting register of
copyrights. •
03h
•
Photo:
In this photo from the 1960s,
Barbara Ringer is the only woman
at a hearing on copyright
revision. She later successfully
sued the Library of Congress for
discrimination after she was
passed over for the job of
register of copyrights. •
1976
-
Ringer spent 21 years drafting
the legislation and lobbying
Congress before the Copyright Act
of 1976 was finally passed. She
wrote most of the bill
herself.
•••
"It brought an essentially 19th
century law up to date with the
late 20th century and 21st
century," said Arthur Levine, a
copyright lawyer who worked with
Ringer at the Library of
Congress. "I don't believe there
would have been a Copyright Act
if there hadn't been a Barbara
Ringer."
•••
The act established the principle
of "fair use," whereby scholars
and reviewers could quote briefly
from copyrighted works without
having to pay fees. But it is
better known for allowing authors
to retain greater control over
their work.
•••
Under the old 1909 law, an author
owned the copyright for 28 years
from the date of publication.
Unless the copyright was renewed,
the work entered the public
domain, and the author lost any
right to royalties. With the 1976
act, which Ringer conceived, the
author owned the copyright for
his or her lifetime, plus 50
years.
•••
"That was a monumental change,"
said Marybeth Peters, the Library
of Congress' current register of
copyrights and one of Ringer's
proteges. "Barbara was an
absolutely spectacular leader and
thinker in copyright law. She was
responsible for the first major
change in copyright law in 70
years."
•04headlineTVI
Bylines In Memory / Portrait of
Barbara Rigner
•
•
"People do
what they want," said Widipedia's
founder at the recent Digital
Hollywood Spring keynote address.
"There is no master plan what
people are interested in." The
question is, how can we partner
with people to have a symbiotic
realationship.
•
•
•••
Mostly, though, Ringer was
content to stay in rural Bath
County, where she cataloged the
books at the local public library
and established its audiovisual
department -- all without
pay.
•••
Ringer owned several properties
that she placed in conservation
easements to be preserved in
perpetuity as wilderness.
•••
She also amassed an enormous
collection of 20,000 movies and
1,500 books on film, all of which
she donated -- where else? -- to
the Library of Congress.
•••
"Her contributions were
monumental," said Peters, the
current register of copyrights.
"She blazed trails. She was a
heroine." - Schudel writes for
the Washington
Post. Part
05h
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