Cheryl Ann Coyle

cheryl@copyrightlibrarian.com

Understanding and Defending

Digital Copyright in Your Library

Understanding & Defending Digital Copyright

Please consult a Copyright Lawyer

Understanding & Defending Digital Copyright

Copyright Overview

Understanding & Defending Digital Copyright

• Digital Content is easy to redistribute without thinking

• License Agreements always take precedence over Copyright Law

• Internet content is covered by Copyright Law

• Accessibility provision for disabled individuals

(МихаилБанчев, 2016)

Main Ideas

Does NOT Protect

● Ideas

● Facts

● History

● News

Understanding & Defending Digital Copyright

Protect the expression

of an idea

Automatic Protection

* Originality

* Fixed Format

* Minimally CreativeThe Berne Convention for the

Protection of Literary & Artistic

Works

● Established 1886

● 1989 U.S. Joined

● International Copyright

Agreement

● 170 countries(Hombal, & Prasad, 2012)

Basics

Understanding & Defending Digital Copyright

DRM - Digital Rights

Management

● Protects digital content from

redistribution or other copyright

violations

Digital Content

● Copy for Archival purposes only

● Cannot backup any downloaded

digital content or other

copyrighted works

(PeteLinforth, 2015)

You cannot circumvent

technical security

measures.

Bits & Bytes

Understanding & Defending Digital Copyright

Library Issues● Managing own digital content

● Managing the rights of the content and keeping it connected to the content

● Publishers & vendors are trying to protect themselves from piracy and infringement

● Vendors retain control over access to materials

● DRM restricts access to content to protect the owner’s rights

● Fair Use may apply

(Hombal, & Prasad, 2012)

Understanding & Defending Digital Copyright

Questions

1. Can you caption a video you don’t own the rights to?

2. Can a library scan an article from a print journal in its

collection?

3. I’ve authored an OER textbook & want to allow people to

use it for free, but ask permission. Can I require that?

4. Am I covered as long as I give credit to the content I’m

using?

Understanding & Defending Digital Copyright

Licensed Content

Licenses or Contracts

ALWAYS

take Precedence

in

Copyright Cases(Bykst, 2016.)

Libraries can only use the material according to license specifications.

Understanding & Defending Digital Copyright

Working Within the Law

Understanding & Defending Digital Copyright

Creative Commons

(Suny Empire State College, 2018)

Understanding & Defending Digital Copyright

Chafee Amendment

(Association of Research Libraries, 2012)

● Passed in 1996

● Limited to published, non-dramatic, literary works

● “it is not an infringement of copyright for an authorized

entity to reproduce or distribute in specialized formats

exclusively for use by blind or other persons with

disabilities”

Understanding & Defending Digital Copyright

Fair Use (Hain, 2015)

● “Purpose and character of the use”

● “Nature of the copyrighted work”

● “Amount and substantiality of the portion used”

● “Effect of the use upon the potential market”

(U.S. Copyright Office, 2015)

Understanding & Defending Digital Copyright

DMCA

(Franklin, 2015)

Digital Millennium Copyright Act

● 1998

● “Sets limitations on copyright infringement liability for online service

providers (OSPs).”

● Instituted the rules for the preventing the “circumvention of

technological protection measures used by copyright owens to

protect their works”

● There is ongoing debate on whether or not Copyright Law is

keeping up with technology, or if technology is trying to sidestep the

Law

Understanding & Defending Digital Copyright

(Schmundt, 2014)

eBooks● There is no special eBook Copyright Law or Amendment

● Often governed by License Agreements

“We have thousands of e-books that we

could make available to our users,..But we

often aren’t allowed to because licenses are

so restrictive”

-- Harald Muller, qtd in

”How Copyright”, 2014

● DRM, Digital Watermarks, etc.

Understanding & Defending Digital Copyright

(Griffin, 2018)

Video● No current lawsuits for adding captioning to a video

● National Association of the Deaf sued Harvard & MIT

“for failure to caption all educational videos”

● Ideally get permission, or purchase a copy already

captioned

● “Strongest defense for video captioning is fair use.”

Court Case #1

Understanding & Defending Digital Copyright

Vernor v. Autodesk 2010

● ebooks viewed as computer software, not regular books

● Gave publishers the right to impose restrictions on the

use of their ebooks

○ # of users

○ $ charge more for single copy of ebook

○ max # of circulations

(American Library Association, 2014)

Court Case #2

Understanding & Defending Digital Copyright

Elsevier Inc. v. Sci-Hub, ACS v. Sci-Hub

● “Sci-Hub’s unauthorized reproduction and distribution of

Elsiever’s copyrighted works.”

● Elsevier was awarded $15 million

● ACS went a step further and sued for “additional boon of

the ability to see orders against search engines like

Google to cut links to Sci-Hub”

(Kupferschmid, 2018)

Understanding & Defending Digital Copyright

Fight for Your Rights

Understanding & Defending Digital Copyright

Advocacy

(Cornell University, 2016)

● Negotiate to use the materials as your patrons need

● Find specialized agencies who provide accessibility to

materials for the blind or disabled

● “Research has shown that all students can benefit from

certain improvements in the usability of course material”

Understanding & Defending Digital Copyright

References

American Library Association. (9 April 2014). Ebooks and copyright issues. Retrieved from

http://www.ala.org/news/state-americas-libraries-report-2014/e-books

Association of Research Libraries. (2012). Briefing: Accessibility, the Chafee amendment, and fair use.

Retrieved from http://www.arl.org/focus-areas/copyright-ip/fair-use/code-of-best-practices/2445-

briefing-accessibility-the-chafee-amendment-and-fair-use#.W2jj87gnY2w

Bykst. (2016) Contract [Digital image]. Retrieved from

https://pixabay.com/en/contract-consultation-pen-signature-1427233/

Cornell University. (2016). Accessibility and copyright materials. Retrieved from

http://acadtech.cit.cornell.edu/accessibility-and-copyright-of-materials/

Franklin, T. (28 September 2015). Copyright and fair use in the digital age. EContent. Retrieved from

http://www.econtentmag.com/Articles/News/News-Feature/Copyright-and-Fair-Use-in-the-Digital-Age-

105888.htm

Griffin, E. (21 February 2018). Copyright law vs. accessibility law: Is it fair use to caption videos you don’t

own? Retrieved from https://www.3playmedia.com/2015/04/09/copyright-law-vs-accessibility-law-is-it-

fair-use-to-caption-videos-you-dont-own/

Grappling with Digital Copyright

References

Hain, J. (2015). Justice scales [Digital image]. Retrieved from

https://pixabay.com/en/justice-scales-fairness-impartial-683942/

Hombal, S., & Prasad, K. (2012). Digital copyright protection: Issues in the digital library environment.

DESIDOC Journal Of Library & Information Technology, 32(3).

doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.14429/djlit.32.3.2380

Kupferschmid, K. (10 January 2018). Copyright law in 2017: 12 big court cases to know about. Retrieved from

http://www.copyright.com/blog/copyright-law-2017-12-big-court-cases-know/

МихаилБанчев. (2016). Human with question marks [Digital image]. Retrieved from

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Human_with_question_ marks.jpg

PeteLinforth. (2015). Copyright symbol [Digital image]. Retrieved from

https://pixabay.com/en/copyright-symbol-sign-business-law-850371/

Schmundt, H. (28 March 2014). How copyright laws keep e-books locked up. Spiegel Online. Retrieved from

http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/how-copyright-laws-prevent-easy-sharing-of-e-books-a-

961333.html

Suny Empire State College. (19 January 2018). Get up to speed with OER. Retrieved from

https://subjectguides.esc.edu/c.php?g=754755&p=5408909

U.S. Copyright Office. (2015). Copyright.gov (U.S.A., Library of Congress, U.S. Copyright Office). Retrieved

from http://copyright.gov/fair-use/more-info.html