Copyright Law, Fair Use, Creative Commons, and

the Public Domain

Copyright Law Protects authors of original works including literary,

dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual property.

Grants copyright holders the exclusive right to reproduce, perform, distribute, translate and publicly display their original works.

Covers both published and unpublished works, regardless of the nationality or domicile of the author.

Exists to foster creativity and spur the distribution of new and original works.

Copyright Law Copyright protection exists from the moment a work is

created in a fixed, tangible form of expression; the copyright immediately becomes the property of the creator.

Ownership of copyright-protected work permits lending, reselling, disposing, etc., of the item, but does not permit reproducing, publicly displaying or performing it, or engaging in any of the acts reserved for the copyright holder.

To legally use copyrighted materials, you must obtain permission from the copyright holders or a copyright licensing agent.

Duration of Copyright Law

Works created on or after January 1, 1978, are protected by copyright from the moment of creation until 70 years after the author's death.

For anonymous works, pseudonymous works, and works made for hire, the duration of copyright is 95 years from publication or 120 years from creation, whichever is shorter.

Works published with notice from 1923-1963 are protected for 28 years plus the option to renew for another 67 years.

Works published with notice from 1964-1977 are protected for 28 years for the first term, plus an automatic extension of 67 years for the second term.

Duration of Copyright Law

Works created before 1-1-78 but not published are protected from 1-1-78 for life + 70 years or 12-31-2002, whichever is later.

Works created before 1-1-78 and published between then and 12-31-2002 are protected from 1-1-78 for life + 70 years or 12-31-2047, whichever is later.

Copyright has expired for works published before January 1, 1923, meaning they are in the public domain and free to use without permission.

Fair Use Is a concept that recognizes that certain uses of copyright-

protected works do not require permission from the copyright holder or its agent.

Is a guideline, whereas Copyright is a law. Is primarily intended to allow the use of copyright-

protected works for commentary, parody, news reporting, research and education.

Is flexible; copyright law does not specify how it should be applied.

EducationalFair Use Principles

Employing Copyrighted Material in Media Literacy Lessons. Educators are allowed to make copyrighted material available to learners in class, workshops, informal teaching, and school-related web sites. They should use material relevant to the topic, only necessary material, and provide proper attribution and citation. Employing Copyrighted Materials in Preparing Curriculum Materials. Educators are allowed to use copyrighted materials to create lesson plans, materials, etc. to apply the principles of media literacy in an educational context. They should credit and cite sources and use only what is necessary for the educational goal.Sharing Media Literacy Curriculum Materials.  Educators using concepts and techniques of media literacy should be able to share effective examples of such at conferences, trainings, professional development sessions, and electronically. They should use only what is necessary to convey a point or fulfill the educational goal.

EducationalFair Use Principles

Student Use of Copyrighted Materials in Their Own Academic and Creative Work. Students strengthen their media literacy skills by creating messages and using symbolic forms to express themselves and share meaning. Media production can foster a deeper understanding of media construction, which is a key concept of media literacy. Student use of material is not a substitute for their own creative efforts, however. They should be able to understand and demonstrate how their use of a copyrighted work transforms or repurposes the original.Developing Audiences for Student Work. Students learn most when they are expected to behave in a responsible manner as creators of media and are encouraged to reach audiences beyond the classroom. Student work incorporating the use of copyrighted material may be distributed to wide audiences if it meets the transformativeness standard. Educators should explore with students the differences between material that should be licensed, is in the public domain or otherwise openly available, and copyrighted material subject to fair use. Providing proper attribution also should be emphasized. If students wish to distribute their work more broadly, then educators should model the real-life permissions process and emphasize both how the process works and how it affects the creation of media.

Determining Fair Use

When deciding whether an unlicensed use of copyrighted material is fair, courts consider the following guidelines and best practices: What is the purpose and character of the use? What is the nature of the copyrighted work? What is the amount of the portion used? What is the effect of the use upon the potential market for,

or value of, the copyrighted work?

Determining Fair Use Did the unlicensed use "transform" the material by using

it for a different purpose than that of the original, or did it just repeat the work for the same intent and value as the original?

Was the material used appropriate in kind and amount, considering the nature of the copyrighted work and of the use?

An example demonstrating the principles of these key questions can be observed by viewing the following video.

Creative Commons Is a non-profit organization that provides free licenses and

other legal tools to mark creative work with the freedom the creator wants it to have.

Can be used to change your copyright terms from “all rights reserved” to “some rights reserved.”

Works alongside copyright, so you can modify your copyright terms to best suit your needs.

Creators choose a set of conditions they wish to be applied to their work.

Creative Commons License Conditions

Attribution: You allow others to copy, distribute, display, and perform your copyrighted work — and derivative works based upon it — but only if they give credit the way you request.      Share Alike: You allow others to distribute derivative works only under a license identical to the license that governs your work.

     Noncommercial: You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform your work and derivative works based upon it for noncommercial purposes only.

     No Derivative Works: You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform only verbatim copies of your work, not derivative works based upon it.

Public Domain The term "public domain" refers to works that are not protected

by intellectual property laws such as copyright, trademark or patent laws.

Anyone can use a public domain work without obtaining permission, but no one can ever own it.

Collections of public domain material may be protected by the “collective works” copyright. For example, you may use individual images within a collection without permission but not the entire collection.

Works arrive in the Public Domain in four ways: expiration of copyright; failure to renew copyright; dedication (the owner deliberately places the work in the public domain); or no copyright protection is available for the type of work.

Examples of Images in the

Public Domain

References Creative Commons. 2009. Licenses. Retrieved 7/5/09 from

http://creativecommons.org/about/licenses/. Creative Commons. 2009. What is Creative Commons? Retrieved 7/5/09 from

http://creativecommons.org/about/what-is-cc. Electronic Frontier Foundation. 2002. Fair Use Frequently Asked Questions and

Answers. Retrieved 7/8/09 from http://w2.eff.org/IP/eff_fair_use_faq.php. Google Images. 2009. Public Domain Images. Retrieved from

http://images.google.com/images?sourceid=navclient&rlz=1T4ADBF_en___US331&q=public%20domain&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi.

Rebelliouspixels, Jonathan. (2009, June 19.) Buffy vs Edward: Twilight Remixed. Youtube. Video retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZwM3GvaTRM.

Stanford University Libraries. 2009. The Public Domain. In Copyright and Fair Use Overview, (Chapter 8.) Retrieved 7/10/09 from http://fairuse.stanford.edu/Copyright_and_Fair_Use_Overview/chapter8/index.html.

United States Copyright Office. 2009. Copyright Basics. U.S. Copyright Office. Retrieved 7/2/09 from http://www.copyright.gov/.

United States Copyright Office. 2009. Fair Use. U.S. Copyright Office. Retrieved 7/2/09 from http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html.

Presented by:

Anely ArencibiaEME 5207

Designing Technology-Rich Curricula

Summer 2009Professor C. Sessums

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. To view a copy of this license, visit

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.