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| Copyright Information |
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In most countries around the world, it is recognized that writers, artists, programmers, sculptors, and entertainers have a right to their own work. Generally, copyright laws protect these rights. For example, in the United States, they are protected in the U.S. Constitution (Article I, Section 8) where it grants the right to copyright works so as "To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries." |
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COPYRIGHTS AND PLAGIARISM |
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When you find things in places like the Web that are interesting, there is a tendency to want to print them out or save them on your disk. In most, but not all cases, this is perfectly legal and ethical. Problems begin to arise however, when you decide to incorporate some of the text or photographs in one of your own reports, presentation, or Web sites. Now you are using the materials for other than your own personal use. This raises two big questions: copyright infringement and plagiarism. Almost any material that you find in print or electronic form is copyrighted - the rights to use it belong solely to the owner of that copyright.
However, even non-copyrighted materials are protected. Using the material without written permission violates the owner's rights and subjects you and your companyor organization to penalties and embarrassment. In addition, even when materials are not copyrighted or even if you have written permission to use them, you could be guilty of plagiarism - the representation of someone else's work as your own. Let's look at an example. The paragraphs in the following section "What are copyrights?" are adapted directly from the U.S. Library of Congress' page on the Web. Including this material in this text without written permission is OK in this case because many (but not all) government materials fall into what is called the public domain. The author also avoids a charge of plagiarism because he credits the source of the text and does not claim it to be his own. |
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WHAT ARE COPYRIGHTS? |
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| Copyright is a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States (title 17, U.S. Code) to the authors of "original works of authorship" including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works. |
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| This protection is available to both published and unpublished works. Section 106 of the Copyright Act generally gives the owner of copyright the exclusive right to do and to authorize others to do the following: |
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* To reproduce the copyrighted work in copies (CD / video / record / print)
* To prepare derivative works based upon the copyrighted work
* To distribute copies of the copyrighted work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending
* To perform the copyrighted work publicly, in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and motion pictures and other audiovisual works
* To display the copyrighted work publicly, in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and pictorial, graphic, or sculptural works, including the individual images of a motion picture or other audiovisual work.
It is illegal for anyone to violate any of the rights provided by the Act to the owner of copyright. These rights, however, are not unlimited in scope. In some cases, these limitations are specified exemptions from copyright liability. One major limitation is the doctrine of "fair use." The U.S. Copyright Office |
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WHAT IS FAIR USE? |
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Is copying that article from a Web magazine or newspaper into an e-mail message to a friend fair use? Nope, you're infringing the owner's copyright. Basically, the copyright law says "...the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright." |
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1. Even for these uses, whether a specific use is fair or not depends on a number of factors.
2. The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes.
3. The nature of the copyrighted work.
4. The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole.
5. The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work. |
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WHAT IS PUBLIC DOMAIN? |
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When something is in the public domain, you're free to use it any way you see fit. However, you are still expected to credit the source and not claim it as your own. |
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How do you know if something is in the public domain? Partly it is common sense. Recent ads, logos, cartoon characters, illustrations, or photographs are almost certainly not in the public domain. However, 18th-century photographs and illustrations most likely are. In that gray area from 1900 through 1970 or so, some things remain protected while others don't. What is protected and what isn't depends on what type of property it is and when it was first copyrighted. If you have questions, you have to search the records of the U.S. Copyright Office yourself, or hire a qualified researcher (or the Copyright Office itself), to do the search for you. Even then, the Copyright Office states, "Copyright searches cannot be considered conclusive... but at least will show a good faith effort. The responsibility of determining whether to use an item or not rests with you."; |
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Just to muddy the waters for you, even though something hasn't been registered with the Copyright Office doesn't mean it isn't protected by what's called a common law copyright. Two good sources of copyright information are Kodak's and the United States Copyright Office. |
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WORK-CREATED COPYRIGHT TERMS |
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Works Originally Created On or After January 1,1978 |
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Automatically protected from the moment of its creation for a term enduring for the author's life, plus an additional 50 years after the author's death. For works made for hire, and for anonymous and pseudonymous works (unless the author's identity is revealed in Copyright Office records), the duration of copyright will be75 years from publication or 100 years from creation, whichever is shorter. |
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Works Originally Created Before January 1, 1978, But Not Published or Registered by That Date |
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The duration of copyright in these works will generally be computed in the same way as for works created on or after January 1, 1978: the life-plus-50 or 75/100-year terms will apply to them as well. The law provides that in no case will the term of copyright for works in this category expire before December 31, 2002, and for works published on or before December 31, 2002, the term of copyright will not expire before December 31, 2027. |
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Works Originally Created and Published or Registered Before January1, 1978 |
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Under the law in effect before 1978, copyright was secured either on the date a work was published or on the date of registration if the work was registered in unpublished form. In either case, the copyright endured for a first term of 28 years from the date it was secured. During the last (28th) year of the first term, the copyright was eligible for renewal. The current copyright law has extended the renewal term from 28 to 47 years for copyrights that were subsisting on January 1, 1978, making these works eligible for a total term of protection of 75 years. |
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