Copyright Overview
What is Copyright?
Copyright is a form of protection provided by the laws of the
United States (title 17, US Code) to the creator of "original works
of authorship". These works include literary, musical, dramatic,
artistic, and other forms of intellectual material. Copyright gives the
owner, and those authorized by the owner, the right to:
- Reproduce the work.
- Prepare derivative works based on the original.
- Distribute copies of the work.
- Display or perform the work publicly.
- Perform the work by means of digital transmission.
General standards for copyright include:
- For material created on or after January 1, 1978, copyright extends
for the life of the owner plus seventy years.
- For works created by two or more authors, copyright lasts for fifty
years after the last surviving author's death.
- For works made for hire, or anonymous works, the duration of copyright
will be seventy-five years from publication or one hundred years
from creation, whichever is shorter.
- Works created after January 1, 1978 are computed in a similar
manner although the details are more complex. Pending legislation
will likely alter copyright laws.
For more information, refer to the
Library
of Congress website on copyright information.
What Material is Copyrighted?
Copyright applies when material is first fixed in a tangible form. But not all
material is copyrightable. Material in the public domain (not copyrightable)
is freely available for use. Public domain material includes the following:
- material that has exceeded its copyright duration.
- material that is not copyrightable by nature (facts, ideas).
- material produced by the federal government.
The Fair Use of Copyrighted Material
Copyright laws protect the interests of the authors of intellectual
property. The authors' interests need to be balanced against the needs of
others who need access to copyrighted material for the purpose of criticism,
comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research. These competing
interests are addressed in the fair use guidelines (US Code, Title
17, Chapter 1, Sec. 107) that provides for limited use of copyrighted material.
Four factors are considered in determining fair use:
- Purpose and character of the use.
- Nature of the copyrighted work.
- Amount and substantiality of the portion used.
- Impact of the use on the potential market.
While non-profit use of copyright material has historically been viewed favorably
under fair use guidelines, there is a significant difference between classroom
use and online applications because of the possible impact on the potential market.
Showing a copyrighted image in a classroom of twenty people is very different
from posting an image on a web site. Even limiting access by password protecting
a site does not guarantee protection. It is important to remember that few issues
related to the online usage of copyrighted works have been definitively settled
by the courts. Therefore, faculty and course developers need to proceed with
great caution.
TEACH Act
The TEACH act, enacted in late 2002, expands educators rights to perform
or display materials for distant students. However, the TEACH act does not allow
educators to provide unlimited material to their distant students, and typically
less than they do for their face-to-face classroom students. As an example, the
law allows for "reasonable and limited portions" of audio and
visual material to be provided to distant students, but educators may not display
the
same works in their entirety as they might do in their classrooms. Differences
between what is permissible for distant and face-to-face classroom students and
additional limits and considerations has left many educators to continue to use
fair use guidelines to guide their use of copyrighted materials. For additional
information on the TEACH act refer to:
How much copyrighted material may be used fairly?
The following guidelines are helpful in deciding what portion of a copyrighted
work may be used:
- Motion media: up to 10% of the total work, or 3 minutes, whichever is
less.
- Text media: up to 10% of the total work, or 1000 words, whichever is less.
For short works, such as poems, an entire poem of less than 250 words may
be used. 3 poems by one poet, or 5 poems by different poets from any anthology
may be used. For poems greater than 250 words, 3 excerpts from any one poet
or 5 excerpts from different poets from a single anthology may be used.
- Music, Lyrics, and Music Videos: up to 10%, but no more than 30 seconds
may be used. Any alterations to a musical work may not change the melody
or basic character of the work.
- Illustrations & Photographs: no more than 5 images from one artist
may be incorporated into one work. When using images from a collection, no
more than 15 images or 10% of the entire work may be used.
- Numerical Data Sets: up to 10% or 2500 field cells, whichever is less
from a database or data table may be used.
Media users must give credit to the media source and display copyright information
when it is available. Refer to
http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html for more information
about fair use guidelines.
Material available for use under fair use guidelines is not available for an
indefinite period of time. Typically, educators may use copyrighted material
for which they have received permission to use for a period of two years. After
that, permission for each copyrighted portion must be displayed in the material.
For more information refer to
http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html
When incorporating material from another website it is recommended to contact
the site owner to determine how long the material will be available on the site.
Steps to Secure Permission to Use Copyrighted Material
Material found on the Internet is automatically considered copyrighted.
Contact the author and/or website owner to request permission to use material.
When linking to outside material, confirm the length of time the material will
remain on the site.
For material from other sources (books, CDs, PowerPoint presentations, audio
or video tapes, records, magazines, etc.) examine the work for copyright notice,
place and date of publication, author and publisher. Contact the author and/or
publisher to request permission to use the material.
If you are not certain about the ownership or have other related questions, you
may wish to search the Library of Congress
online or
request that the Copyright Office conduct a search of its records for a fee of
$65 per hour.
What to Include in Permission Request Forms
To expedite the permission-request process, the Association of American
Publishers suggests that the following information be included when submitting
permission to copy requests to copyright owners:
- Title, author and/or editor, and edition of material to be used.
- Exact material to be used, giving amount, page numbers, chapters and,
if possible, a copy of the material.
- Use to be made of materials (including time period or duration).
- Form of distribution (classroom, online, etc.)
- Whether or not the material is to be sold.
- Type of reprint (online, photocopy).
When the copyright owner is the publisher of the work, the request should be
sent, together with a self-addressed return envelope, to the permissions department
of the publisher in question (e-mail is acceptable if you can find the correct
address). For purposes of proof, and to define the scope of the permission, it
is important that the permission be in writing (fax or e-mail are acceptable
if kept in hardcopy form). Many publishers have registered with the
Copyright
Clearance Center, which can facilitate obtaining permission to copy.
Resources for More Information
Agencies that grant copyright permission:
Sites that offer stock material:
Other useful sites:
