Sarah MorehouseLibrarian, Empire State College

The librarians can direct you to copyright information resources, such as where to look up the copyright owner of a certain work or how to determine if something is fair use or public domain.

We can’t get permission/licenses for you

Above all, we can’t give legal advice!

A fact or idea can’t be copyrighted

What can be copyrighted is the unique expression of facts and ideas some element of creativity, analysis,

interpretation, organization from the author

The work doesn’t need to be published or registered anywhere

It’s copyrighted as soon as it’s “fixed in a tangible medium of expression” On paper, film/tape, in stone

In any digital format, including email and blogs

Sculpted into ice? Written on a chalkboard?

What matters is that there’s a means of transmitting the information from one person to another across time and space

The right to make copies

The right to distribute copies for profit or not

The right to make derivative works and make copies of them and distribute them

The right to assign the copyright to someone else A license

A transfer

Sequels, spinoffs, supplemental materials, translations, adaptations, revisions, conversions to a new format

If a work is in the public domain, copyright no longer applies to it. You don’t need to ask permission to

copy/remix it

You don’t need to pay royalties

Most works fall into the public domain because they have reached a certain age Authored works: add 70 years to the

author’s death date

Anonymous and corporate works: add 95 years to publication date

Unpublished anonymous/corporate works: add 120 years to creation date

Used to be shorter

Different for non-US publications

Publications of the federal government are put immediately into the public domain

Use this tool to find out whether a certain work is still under copyright: http://bit.ly/168N10f

Fair Use exists to promote kinds of use that the law considers beneficial to society. Using Fair Use is good!

Fair Use is a legal defense. It basically means “The infringement met the criteria, so there’s no penalty.”

Those criteria are called the four factors.

Purpose of the use Good: education, research, scholarship,

criticism, commentary, news reporting, a single copy for personal use, transformative works

Bad: anything else, including art and creativity

Nature and character of the work being used Good: published works, non-fiction

Not so good: unpublished works, creative works

Amount and substantiality of the portion used Good: a tiny amount

Not so good: more than you need; most or all of the work

VERY BAD: the “heart and soul” of the work

Effect on the market for the original work and derivative works Good: none

VERY BAD: any

You absolutely can save a PDF or make a photocopy!

But you can’t share it with anybody, including your students So you can’t use interlibrary loan to get

items to share with your students.

Also you can’t break copy protection or bypass access controls (more on that later)

A transformative work is what happens when a derivative work has completely different purpose from the original. Can’t be mistaken for the original.

Can’t substitute for the original.

Transformative examples: Adding explanation or commentary to a

video or image

Putting thumbnail images in a timeline

Not transformative: Translating a work, revising it, or putting it

in a new format

Using a song as background music a video

Parodies are protected by Fair Use!

Weak protection: tweaking the original work to be a commentary on something else Weird Al songs (he actually gets

permission)

Strong protection: tweaking the original work to comment on itself Actually Ironic (they rewrote Alanis

Morissette’s Isn’t It Ironic so all the examples are actually ironic.)

You can use this worksheet to determine if what you want to do is Fair Use: http://bit.ly/12LxKQY

Keep a copy as documentation

Face-to-face classroom only

Educational purposes only No extra-curricular activities

No faculty development, conferences, meetings, etc.

No handouts!

Allows performance and display of copyrighted works Images, art

Documentaries

Movies and TV

Music

Dramatic performances

You can show whole works, but you should only show what you need

ESC is now TEACH Act compliant!

It acts like the Educational Use exemption, but for online courses

Images, audio and video! This is not a way to distribute readings.

It has to be inside the LMS. No external web sites or Web 2.0 tools

You have to clearly mark or caption it State that it’s copyrighted

Attribute the original source

If it’s a fictional or dramatic work, keep it to a minimum. If it’s a non-fictional work, you can use the whole thing.

It can’t be pirated, bootlegged, etc. It has to be a legal copy, legally obtained. It’s ok to digitize physical media that you

own, but only if there isn’t a born-digital version to buy or subscribe to.

The library signs license agreements in order to subscribe to information resources

Those license agreements allow access but also have restrictions: They prohibit us from allowing access to

alumni, emeritus professors, or students or faculty of other colleges

Some allow uploading their content to the LMS; many do not

Getting permission is synonymous with getting a license

There is no exact wording or format, but you need to get it in writing. Document everything!

If you can’t find the copyright owner, you can’t get permission. It’s not ok to use the work anyway.

Expect this to take time – maybe even several months

Sometimes there will be an online form to fill out. Other times, you will need to send a letter Use email or mail, whichever seems more

likely to get an answer

Be specific: Which work are you using? How much?

Which parts?

What are you using it for? (EDUCATION!)

For how long?

How big is the potential audience?

How are you protecting it?

Instructions for identifying and locating the copyright owner

A sample letter with a license for them to fill out

http://bit.ly/15J0H1Q

Permission to use published articles and books generally costs about 35 cents per page per student.

Permission to use big media (movie, TV and music industry) tends to be expensive.

Things produced for the educational market (textbooks, workbooks, educational films) are also very expensive.

Permission to use unpublished web materials is sometimes granted for free because it’s educational.

Protects the college from liability if faculty, staff or students infringe copyright

The individual faculty, staff and students are not protected from liability

In exchange, the college has to comply with DMCA takedown procedures

If you have infringing material in a course, web site, blog, etc. then the copyright owner or their designee can send a takedown notice to our copyright agent

Our copyright agent (the VP of OIT) has to remove the content immediately, which in practical terms, means that your site comes down

The law does not allow investigation or notification before the material is taken down.

You have the right to issue a counterclaim and put your course/page/blog back up as is, but if you do so, the copyright owner has 14 days to file a lawsuit against you in federal court

The safer option is to edit your course/page/blog so that it’s no longer infringing, and then it will be put back up

Contact a lawyer first!

Prohibits attempting to break or bypass either access controls or copy protection.

Even if it would otherwise be legal to make a copy (fair use) you can’t break in to do it!

There are a few exemptions that allow breaking/bypassing copy protection Making ebooks accessible for blind people

Film studies professors can make compilations of clips

There are no exemptions that allow breaking/bypassing access controls

The Creative Commons is a system of licenses that authors can opt into.

They work within copyright law to allow users automatic permission to do certain things that would normally be prevented by copyright. Making and sharing copies

Some allow making derivative works ; others don’t

Some allow commercial use; others don’t

Open Textbooks and OER are Creative Commons licensed

The most important thing when using a work that’s got a Creative Commons license is to know and abide by the terms of that particular license Or else you’re infringing on the copyright!

http://www.esc.edu/copyright

http://bit.ly/14HSH4F