Building on each others’ creative expressions

Understanding the rules

CopyrightIt is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator exclusive rights to it. Generally, it is “ the right to copy”, but also gives the copyright holder the right to be credited for the work, to determine who may adapt the work to other forms, who may perform the work, who may financially benefit from it, and other related rights.

Your rights as a copyright owner

The Copyright Act gives all authors a set of rights that only they may exercise. These include the right to make copies, to prepare derivative works, to publicly distribute, display and perform the work, and in the case of digital sound recordings, to perform the works over a digital network.

Copyright protection

Many people assume that everything posted on the Internet is public domain, probably because our law used to protect published works only if they displayed the proper copyright notice upon publication. The law, however, has changed: neither publication nor a notice of any kind is required to protect works today. Simply putting the pen to the paper or in the electronic medium, putting the fingers to the save key creates a copyrighted work. Once expression is committed to a tangible medium (and computer media is considered tangible), copyright protection is automatic. So, postings of all kinds are protected the same as published printed works.

Implied and express licenses to use Internet materials

You can easily give your works an express license by attaching a Creative Commons license to the materials you post on your Website, or upload to other sites. It's easy and it sends the message that you want your materials to be part of the flow of creativity.

License design and rationaleusing creative commons

All Creative Commons licenses have many important features in common. Every license helps creators — we call them licensors if they use our tools — retain copyright while allowing others to copy, distribute, and make some uses of their work — at least non-commercially. Every Creative Commons license also ensures licensors get the credit for their work they deserve. Every Creative Commons license works around the world and lasts as long as applicable copyright lasts (because they are built on copyright). These common features serve as the baseline, on top of which licensors can choose to grant additional permissions when deciding how they want their work to be used.

Liability for posting infringing works

The proliferation of RIAA lawsuits against individuals for peer-to-peer file-sharing make clear that individuals can be liable for their own actions when they copy and distribute others' copyrighted works without permission.

The role of fair use Fair use is the right, in some circumstances, to quote

copyrighted material without asking permission or paying for it. Fair use enables the creation of new culture, and keeps current copyright holders from being private censors. With the Washington College of Law, the Center for Social Media creates tools for creators, teachers, and researchers to better use their fair use rights.

Fair use plays a critical role in the analog world where duplicating technology is cumbersome and authors make money by controlling copies. It balances authors' rights to reasonable compensation with the public's rights to the ideas contained in copyrighted works.

Getting permission Assuming the work you wish to use is protected, the work has not been licensed for your use online, and your use is not a fair use or otherwise exempt from liability for infringement, you need permission.

Check the Copyright Clearance Center ("CCC") first.If the work you want to use is registered with the CCC, you can get permission instantly for most materials. If your institution subscribes to the academic license and your work is covered, you don't have to do anything -- your use is covered.

Mass Digitization of LibraryCollections is revealing a treasure trove of heretofor obscured works, works in the public domain that can be shared broadly with the public, and orphan works, those still protected, but whose copyright owners are unknown, unable to be located, or unresponsive. The potential these works hold puts pressure on copyright law and policy to adapt more quickly to new possibilities in a digital networked environment.

Mass Digitization

Libraries, museums and archives are carrying out small, medium and massive digitization projects and providing public access to the resulting digital collections. Google, Amazon, Yahoo, and Microsoft, among others, are partnering with cultural institutions to increase the pace at which these collections are brought to the public.

Orphan Works are those books, records, images, compositions, manuscripts, movies, screenplays, painting and drawings, in short, any work protected by copyright whose owner cannot be determined or located or who does not respond when contacted.

Public Domain is considered if a work is published without proper notice (name of publisher and date) during certain time frames (1923-1989), it becomes part of the public domain. If it is not published, or if it is published after 1989 without indication of the author is, its protection is automatic and lasts for the life of the author plus 70 years in the U.S. (and longer in some countries).

The public domain and orphan works

Conclusion

When you use others’ creative expressions, set time aside to understand copyrights and licenses rules that are linked to their original creation.

End notesThe Copyright Crash Course © 2001, 2007 Georgia K. Harper

Copyright definition - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright

Alfredo Alvarado ppt_EDTC6340 by Alfredo Alvarado is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

<a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_US"><img alt="Creative Commons License" style="border-width:0" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/3.0/88x31.png" /></a><br />This work is licensed under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_US">Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License</a>.