What is Copyright?

Copyright is a legal device that provides the creator of a work of art or literature, or a work that conveys information or ideas, the right to control how the work is used. The intent of copyright is to advance the progress of knowledge by giving an author of a work an economic incentive to create new works.
Authors rights include:

• The right to make copies of the work.
• The right to sell or otherwise distribute copies of the work.
• The right to prepare new works based on the protected work.
• The right to perform the protected work in the public.

Why do we have copyright?

The government believed that those who create an original expression in any medium need protection for their work so they can receive appropriate compensation for their intellectual effort.

Fair use provisions of the copyright law allow for limited copying or distribution of published works without the author’s permission.

There are guidelines for fair use. Each case of copying must be evaluated according to four factors:

• The purpose and nature of the use.
• The nature of the copyrighted work.
• The nature and substantiality of the material used.
• The effect of use on the potential market for or value of the work.

Source: Copyright Law and Fair Use

When can I use the Fair Use provisions?

Congress codified fair use in Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, which allows reasonable use of a work without permission for specified purposes which include:

• scholarship
• teaching
• research

Source: MLANET

Tangible, original expression can be copyrighted. A verbal presentation that is not recorded cannot be copyrighted. There are three fundamental requirements for something to be copyrighted:

• Fixation: The item must be fixed in some way; a piece of paper, a computer disk, an audiotape, or a videotape.
• Originality: The work must be original; a novel or a student’s e-mail message to a professor. Works may be combined, adapted, or transformed in new ways that would make them eligible for copyright protection.
• Minimal Creativity: The work must include something that is above and beyond the original. Reference to the original work that is used to discuss a new concept would be considered original. Creativity need only be extremely slight for the work to be eligible for protection.

Works in the public domain:

• Ideas are in the public domain.
• Facts are in the public domain.
• Words, names, slogans, or other short phrases cannot be copyrighted.
• Blank forms.
• Government works, which include:
  • Judicial opinions.
  • Public ordinances.
  • Administrative rulings.
  • Works created by federal government employees as part of their official responsibility.
• Works for which copyright wasn't obtained or copyright has expired.

Fair use is the most significant limitation on the copyright holder’s exclusive rights. Deciding whether the use of a work is fair IS NOT a science. There are no set guidelines that are universally accepted. Instead, the individual who wants to use a copyrighted work must weight five factors:

• Is the new work merely a copy of the original?
• Does the new work offer something above and beyond the original? Does it transform the original work in some way?
• Is the use of the copyrighted work for nonprofit educational purposes?
• Is the copyrighted work out of print?
• Is the work factual or artistic?

• A chapter from a book.
• An article from a periodical or newspaper.
• A short story, essay, or poem.
• A chart, graph, diagram, drawing, cartoon or picture from a book, periodical, or newspaper.
• Poetry
• Prose
• Illustrations

What should be avoided?
(Mainly for teachers or regular presentations)

• Making multiple copies of different works that could substitute for the purchase of books, publisher’s reprints, or periodicals.
• Copying the same works from semester to semester.
• Copying the same material for several different courses at the same or different institutions.
• Copying more than nine separate times in a single semester.

• When you intend to use the materials for commercial purposes.
• When you want to use the materials repeatedly.
• When you want to use a work in its entirety and it is longer than 2,500 words.

Source: Information and Library Services

Avoid copying or otherwise using images you find on web pages without permission of the copyright owner. These and other uses violate Federal Copyright Law. The copyright owner can sue infringers for damages (the owner’s lost profit), profits (any profit the infringer made), statutory damages (up to $10,000 and as much as $50,000 for willful infringement), and attorney’s fees and costs. They can get injunctive relief, and infringing copies and the equipment used to produce them can be impounded and destroyed.

It is also a criminal act to violate Federal Copyright Law. It may qualify as a Federal misdemeanor (with a fine as much as $10,000 or imprisonment for up to one year.)

Since October 31, 1988, works no longer need a copyright notice to have copyright protection. This means any image you find on a web page may be copyrighted. The traditional notice, such as "Copyright 1989 XZV Co." or “©1989 XZV Co." is no longer required.

Copyright protects:

• Copying or saving their image to your hard drive.
• Copying to other mediums, like scanning a photo from a book and turning it into a JPEG file.
• Modifying a work by:
  • Cropping
  • Coloring
  • Distorting
  • Enlarging

Creating a derivative work "or any other form in which a work may be recast, transformed or adapted" is an infringement. If you take a copyrighted image without permission, and put it on a web page, you are violating the exclusive right of the copyright owner to display his work.

If your use of copyrighted work is for:

• Teaching, scholarship or research
• Criticism or comment on a copyrighted work
• News reporting

It might be considered fair use. It depends:

• Upon on how much of a copyrighted work you use.
• How important that part of the work is to the whole.
• The effect of your use upon the value or potential value of the copyrighted work.

Source: Reproducing Pictures, Photos, Photographs, or Photography 1997-1999 Scott Tambert

In general, works governed by copyright law include:

• Traditional works of authorship as books, photographs, music, drama, video and sculpture
• Software
• Multimedia
• Databases

Copyrighted works are protected regardless of the medium in which they are created or reproduced; thus, copyright extends to digital works and works transformed into a digital format.

The law lists the following factors as the ones to be evaluated in determining whether a particular use of a copyrighted work is a permitted fair use:

• The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes.
• The nature of the copyrighted work.
• The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole.
• The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

Although all of these factors will be considered, the last factor is the most important in determining whether a particular use is "fair."
Consider:

• Where a work is available for purchase or license from the copyright owner in the medium or format desired, copying of all or a significant portion of the work in lieu of purchasing or licensing a sufficient number of "authorized" copies would be presumptively unfair.
• Where only a small portion of a work is to be copied and the work would not be used if purchase or licensing of a sufficient number of authorized copies were required, the intended use is more likely to be found to be fair.

Some photocopying services will obtain copyright permission and add the price of the royalties, if any, to the price of the materials.

A request to copy a copyrighted work should generally be sent to the permission department of the publisher of the work. Permission requests should contain the following:

• Title, author, and/or editor, and edition
• Exact material to be used, giving page numbers or chapters
• Number of copies to be made
• Use to be made of the copied materials
• Form of distribution (classroom, newsletter, etc.)
• Whether the material is to be sold

For certain works, permission may also be sought from the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) which will quote a charge for works for which they are able to give permission.

Source