Copyright and Licensing

What is copyright? Copyright is a statutory privilege extended to creators of works fixed in a tangible medium of expression. Copyright laws legally protect the potential monetary value of creative endeavors as a way of encouraging the producers of information and entertainment to publish their work, and thus to share it with others.

Copyright owners have exclusive rights to: Reproduce the work Prepare a derivative work Distribute the work Perform the work publicly Display the work publicly

Establishing Copyright In the USA, everything created privately and originally after 1977 is copyrighted and protected whether it has a notice or not. (Berne Copyright Convention). Copyright is established the moment a work is fixed in tangible form and lasts until 95 years after the author dies.

Copyright notice Although not necessary, a notice of copyright helps strengthen the protection. The correct form of notice: “Copyright [dates] by [author/owner] You may use © in a circle instead of copyright but not (C) in parentheses.

Fair Use Four factors are to be considered in determining whether or not a particular use of a copyrighted work is fair: 1. Purpose and character of the use (nonprofit educational use vs. commercial purposes) 2. Nature of the copyrighted work 3. Amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the work as a whole 4. Effect of the use upon potential market for value of the work.

Fair Use Purpose The intent of fair use is to allow for criticism, commentary, news reporting, research, education and parody about copyrighted works NOT to allow schools and educational institutions free rein to use copyrighted materials, especially if those works are published or viewed outside of the classroom.

Intellectual Property The term intellectual property refers to personal rights of ownership acquired originally or derivatively from intellectual creations. For example: copyrights, trademarks, and patents.

Trademarks and Patents A patent is a grant of exclusive rights issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office that gives an inventor a 20-year monopoly on the right to "practice" or make, use, and sell his or her invention. A trademark is any word, name, symbol, or device, or any combination thereof, adopted and used by a manufacturer or merchant to identify his or her goods and distinguish them from those manufactured or sold by others.

Photocopying Teachers can do the following copying for their own scholarly research, use in teaching, or preparing to teach a class. Multiple copies (one copy per student in a course) can be made if it meets the criteria of brevity, spontaneity, and cumulative effect and if each copy contains a notice of copyright.

Brevity A complete poem printed on no more than two pages or an excerpt from a longer poem not to exceed 250 words. A complete article, story or essay of less than 2,500 words may be copied in its entirety. For other kinds of prose, such as a play or novel, a copy must not be more than 1,000 words or 10% of the whole, whichever is less. No matter how short the work, one may copy an excerpt of 500 words. One chart, graph, diagram, cartoon, or picture per book or periodical issue.

You do not have permission to copy if: Copying is done to create or replace or substitute for anthologies, compilations, or collective works. The item is consumable (i.e. workbooks) You are in any way substituting for purchasing books, periodicals, etc. You intend to charge the student more than what the item actually cost to copy. You intend to use it term after term.

Shareware Shareware allows users to try software before purchasing it. If it is found to be of use, the user then pays a fee to the shareware author. The fee paid is determined by the author (usually found in a “read me” file with the software) and is paid on the honor system.

Freeware The freeware software producer retains the copyright to the product however no fee is charged. Freeware generally comes with many of the restrictions found in shareware or fee licensed software.

Public Domain Items placed intentionally into public domain by the author/creator are not copyrighted. Material on which the copyright has expired is also considered public domain. Granting something to the public domain is a complete abandonment of all rights and derivative works can be made and copyrighted from public domain material.

Multimedia Fair Use Guidelines You may use: 10% or 3 minutes, whichever is less, of a motion media work. 10% or 1,000 words, whichever is less, to incorporate into a multimedia project. Up to 10%, but never more than 30 seconds, of music and lyrics.

Multimedia Fair Use Guidelines You may use: No more than 5 images by the same artist or photographer. No more than 10% or 15 images, whichever is less, of a collective work. (photos and illustrations). Up to 10% or 2500 fields or cells, whichever is less, of a database.

Copyright and the Internet Under the guidelines of copyright, media on the Internet is copyrighted—whether it expressly says so or not. Either ask and receive permission to use copyrighted materials on your Web site or use public domain or original media.

Linking to Web pages Like a street address, a URL for a Web page is not copyrightable. Therefore, listing a link on your Web site does not require permission. However, copying an entire list of links from another Web page could be.

Linking to Web pages You also might want to: Remove a link to another person’s Web page if asked to do so. Remove links to pages where you suspect the author(s) have included materials without the copyright owner’s permission.

Violation of Copyright Violation of copyright laws is usually a civil matter, resulting in lawsuits instead of criminal trials. However, if the case involves more than 10 copies and a value of over $2,500, it can be made a felony. Under U.S. law, infringement may result in civil damages of up to $100,000 and/or criminal penalties of up to five years imprisonment and/or a $250,000 fine.

Following copyright laws and guidelines allows you to: Be a good role model. Support creative endeavors and the ability to profit from them. Avoid lawsuits and other trouble!

Sources Joseph, Linda C. (1999). CyberBee Copyright Workshop, [Online]. Available: World Wide Web: http://www.cyberbee.com/copyrt.html McKenzie, Jamie. (1996). Keeping it Legal: Questions arising out of Web site management, [Online]. Available: World Wide Web: http://www.fno.org/jun96/legal.html Northern Trails Education Agency (1999). To Copy or Not to Copy - That is the Question, [Online]. Available: World Wide Web: http://www.aea2.k12.ia.us/Tutorials/Copyright/Copyright_.html O'Mahoney P.J. Benedict. (1995). Copyright Website, [Online]. Available: World Wide Web: http://www.benedict.com/ Software & Information Industry Association. (1999). Copyright Glossary, [Online]. Available: World Wide Web: http://www.siia.net/piracy/programs/glossary.htm Templeton, Brad. 10 Big Myths About Copyright Explained, [Online]. Available: World Wide Web: http://www.clari.net/brad/copymyths.htm U. S. Copyright Office. [Online]. Available: World Wide Web: http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright/