Copyright, Fair Use, and Citing Sources

Copyright protects works such as poetry, movies, CD-ROMs, video games, videos, plays, paintings, sheet music, recorded music performances, novels, software code, sculptures, photographs, choreography and architectural designs. According to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, to "plagiarize“ means…  to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own  to use (another's production) without crediting the source  to commit literary theft  to present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source (“Plagiarize.”) Any copyrighted material is owned by someone or something else. If you use copyrighted information without documenting the source, you are committing plagiarism.

Plagiarism.org

fair use is any copying of copyrighted material done for a limited and “transformative” purpose, such as to comment upon, criticize, or parody a copyrighted work. Such uses can be done without permission from the copyright owner (Stim). quoting a few lines from a Bob Dylan song in a music review summarizing and quoting from a medical article on prostate cancer in a news report copying a few paragraphs from a news article for use by a teacher or student in a lesson, or copying a portion of a Sports Illustrated magazine article for use in a related court case. (Stim) quoting a few lines from a Bob Dylan song in a music review summarizing and quoting from a medical article on prostate cancer in a news report copying a few paragraphs from a news article for use by a teacher or student in a lesson, or copying a portion of a Sports Illustrated magazine article for use in a related court case. (Stim) When in doubt about copyright or fair use, ALWAYS cite your source! W h e n i n d o u b t a b o u t c o p y r i g h t o r f a i r u s e, A L W A Y S c i t e y o u r s o u r c e !

As a general rule, it is wise to operate under the assumption that all works are protected by either copyright or trademark law A s a g e n e r a l r u l e, i t i s w i s e t o o p e r a t e u n d e r t h e a s s u m p t i o n t h a t a l l w o r k s a r e p r o t e c t e d b y e i t h e r c o p y r i g h t o r t r a d e m a r k l a w A work is in the public domain simply because it has been posted on the Internet (a popular fallacy) or because it lacks a copyright notice (another myth) (Stim). not Example: You conduct a Google image search for a picture to use in an assignment. The search does not own the images. Google does not own the images. Neither do you. Care must be taken to find the original owner of the image. Google images, for example, allows you to visit the page of the image and search for the source or owner. This is your responsibility!

Provide the artist's name, the work of art italicized, the date of creation, the institution and city where the work is housed. Follow this initial entry with the name of the Website in italics, the medium of publication, and the date of access. Klee, Paul. Twittering Machine Museum of Modern Art, New York. The Artchive. Web. 22 May If the work is cited on the web only, then provide the name of the artist, the title of the work, the medium of the work, and then follow the citation format for a website. If the work is posted via a username, use that username for the author. The Purdue OWL Family of Sites. Begin with the user's name (Last Name, First Name) followed by his/her Twitter user name in parentheses. Insert a period outside the parentheses. Next, place the tweet in its entirety in quotations, inserting a period after the tweet within the quotations. Include the date and time of posting, using the reader's time zone; separate the date and time with a comma and end with a period. Include the word "Tweet" afterwards and end with a period. Brokaw, Tom (tombrokaw). "SC demonstrated why all the debates are the engines of this campaign." 22 Jan. 2012, 3:06 a.m. Tweet. An Image A Tweet

Generally, citations begin with the artist name. They might also be listed by composers (comp.) or performers (perf.). Otherwise, list composer and performer information after the album title. Fo o Fighters. In Your Honor. RCA, CD. Determine the type of work to cite (e.g., article, image, sound recording) and cite appropriately. End the entry with the name of the digital format (e.g., PDF, JPEG file, Microsoft Word file, MP3). If the work does not follow traditional parameters for citation, give the author’s name, the name of the work, the date of creation, and the medium of publication. Use Digital file when the medium cannot be determined. Beethoven, Ludwig van. Moonlight Sonata. Crownstar, MP3. Smith, George. “Pax Americana: Strife in a Time of Peace.” Microsoft Word file. Based on MLA standards for other media formats, we feel that the following format is the most acceptable for citing YouTube videos: Author’s Name or Poster’s Username. “Title of Image or Video.” Media Type Text. Name of Website. Name of Website’s Publisher, date of posting. Medium. date retrieved. Here is an example of what that looks like: Shimabukuro, Jake. "Ukulele Weeps by Jake Shimabukuro." Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 22 Apr Web. 9 Sept The Purdue OWL Family of Sites.

The correct citation for a definition from an online dictionary, Dictionary.com, should include both the original source the definition comes from and the information for the web access. For instance, a proper citation should look like this: "Perchloric acid." The American Heritage ® Stedman’s Medical Dictionary. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, Dictionary.com. Web. 13 Dec The correct citation for a definition from an online dictionary, Dictionary.com, should include both the original source the definition comes from and the information for the web access. For instance, a proper citation should look like this: "Perchloric acid." The American Heritage ® Stedman’s Medical Dictionary. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, Dictionary.com. Web. 13 Dec Author Lastname, Author Firstname. Title of Book. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication. Kindle AZW file. While the Kindle has recently deployed page numbers in their texts, the MLA has yet to formally include how to handle this in their handbook. Author Lastname, Author Firstname. Title of Book. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication. Kindle AZW file. While the Kindle has recently deployed page numbers in their texts, the MLA has yet to formally include how to handle this in their handbook. The Purdue OWL Family of Sites. Letters fall under the MLA’s guidelines for personal communication, which are as follows: Author’s LastName, Author’s FirstName. Letter to the author. Date of Letter. Letters fall under the MLA’s guidelines for personal communication, which are as follows: Author’s LastName, Author’s FirstName. Letter to the author. Date of Letter. The author’s name or a book with a single author's name appears in last name, first name format. The basic form for a book citation is: Lastname, Firstname. Title of Book. City of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication. Medium of Publication. The author’s name or a book with a single author's name appears in last name, first name format. The basic form for a book citation is: Lastname, Firstname. Title of Book. City of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication. Medium of Publication.

When in doubt, ALWAYS cite your source! W h e n i n d o u b t, A L W A Y S c i t e y o u r s o u r c e ! Plagiarism.org

Works Cited “Plagiarize." Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Web. 22 Nov Plagiarism.org. “What is Plagiarism?”, Web. 20 Nov The Purdue OWL Family of Sites. The Writing Lab and OWL at Purdue and Purdue U, Web. 20 Nov Stim, Rich. Copyright and Fair Use. Stanford University, Web. 20 Nov