Ibus, quassus sitat. Luptatur? Quis as dolupta ssitae. Cienit, qui oditiatet faciatiam vel ma sam rem lant, sum am quis sit aut ut rest od quos magnimi nctore, expel in earumque ellut volupitibus di ipsamust quat es mossit undi re nimus. Epro totatent explias im ut mossum ideri cusa dolles 41 Zeppelin II, was based on Howlin’ Wolf’s ‘Killing Floor’, though Wolf was not originally listed as a songwriter. His publishers sued in 1972, and subsequently he was listed as a co-writer. Few would argue that architecture of any kind is not a creative activity. Architectural drawings, given that they class as artistic work, have been protected since copyright law was originally codified, but the structures that are produced using them were not, in the US at least, until the passing of the Architectural Works Copyright Protection Act in 1990, which extended copyright protection to the actual buildings produced by architects. But note the word ‘buildings’: landscape architecture (which, for the purposes of this debate, includes golf architecture, was specifically excluded). Golf architects, and other landscape architects, have been urging American politicians to correct this apparent oversight ever since. This has, eventually, led to the Bolstering Intellectual Property Rights against Digital Infringement Enhancement (Birdie) bill, currently before Congress, and sponsored, in a rare Congressional display of bipartisanship, by Representatives Jimmy Panetta, a Democrat from California and Brian Fitzpatrick, a Republican from Pennsylvania. Panetta’s district is one of the ‘golfiest’ in America, containing as it does the likes of Cypress Point, Pebble Beach and Pasatiempo, and Fitzpatrick’s occupies some golf-heavy suburbs of Philadelphia, so it is not entirely surprising that they should take an interest in the subject. Even so, this seems a rather specialised subject for Congress to get its teeth into. “Clearly the sponsors have connections with a vested interest. It is odd that you would think copyright protection for golf course architecture is something worth legislating about,” says Mark Pearce, a leading British intellectual property lawyer with the firm of Mills and Reeve, and a golf architecture junkie of long standing. “The list of things protected by copyright in the US is inclusive not exhaustive. So, you could always have argued that a golf course design is a work of authorship and The famous seventeenth, Road, is one of many hole designs at St Andrews that have been copied throughout the world Photo: Kevin Murray
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