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Intellectual property and Copyright
Return to: Plagiarism and Copyright
"the legal regulations governing an individual's or an organization's right to control the use or dissemination of ideas or information. Various systems of legal rules exist that empower persons and organizations to exercise such control.Copyright law confers upon the creators of “original forms of expression” (e.g., books, movies, musical compositions, and works of art) exclusive rights to reproduce, adapt, and publicly perform their creations. Patent law enables the inventors of new products and processes to prevent others from making, using, or selling their inventions. Trademark law empowers the sellers of goods and services to apply distinctive words or symbols to their products and to prevent their competitors from using the same or confusingly similar insignia or phrasing. Finally, trade-secret law prohibits rival companies from making use of wrongfully obtained confidential commercially valuable information (e.g., soft-drink formulas or secret marketing strategies)."
Intellectual property law is highly complex and deals with many issues: copyrights, patents, trademarks and trade secrets. The part we will discuss will be copyright law. Not everything is subject to copyright, but many of the materials you will use as a student come under this law. To succeed as a student, it is important to understand the difference between copyright violations and plagiarism. They are not the same.
Generally speaking, copyright gives the owner of the copyright various legal rights. (Incidentally, the owner of the copyright does not have to be the same as the creator of the content. For example, it is normal practice for scholars writing in scholarly publications to be required to assign copyright to the publisher)
These rights give the owner of the copyright the exclusive right to do and authorize others:
Not all items are under copyright. These are the materials in the Public Domain. What are these materials?
When we discuss copyright, we are discussing an area of law related to Intellectual property. This law has been undergoing various changes as the Internet develops. Undoubtedly, there will be more changes in the future There are several parts to this law. This is from the definition of intellectual property law from the Encyclopedia Britannica: |  P.A. Bruegel. Misanthrope, 1568 |
Intellectual property law is highly complex and deals with many issues: copyrights, patents, trademarks and trade secrets. The part we will discuss will be copyright law. Not everything is subject to copyright, but many of the materials you will use as a student come under this law. To succeed as a student, it is important to understand the difference between copyright violations and plagiarism. They are not the same.
Generally speaking, copyright gives the owner of the copyright various legal rights. (Incidentally, the owner of the copyright does not have to be the same as the creator of the content. For example, it is normal practice for scholars writing in scholarly publications to be required to assign copyright to the publisher)
These rights give the owner of the copyright the exclusive right to do and authorize others:
- To reproduce the work in copies or phonorecords;
- To prepare derivative works based upon the work;
- To distribute copies or phonorecordsof the work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending;
- To perform the work publicly, in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and motion pictures and other audiovisual works;
- To display the copyrighted work publicly, in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and pictorial, graphic, or sculptural works, including the individual images of a motion picture or other audiovisual work; and
- In the case of sound recordings,to perform the work publicly by means of a digital audio transmission.
- Copyright is automatic. You do not need the © symbol.
Not all items are under copyright. These are the materials in the Public Domain. What are these materials?
For materials in the public domain: you do not have to ask permission of the author to do the things listed above.
Items may be originally in the public domain (e.g. US Government documents), or go into the public domain after a specified period of time after an author’s death.
For example, you don’t have to ask Homer for permission to publish his Iliad, but if someone has published a translation of the Iliad within the last 70 years or so, you need permission to publish or use the translation.
- expiration of copyright: the copyright has expired or was not renewed
- no copyright protection available: copyright law does not protect this type of work.
- dedication: the owner deliberately places it in the public domain.
Items may be originally in the public domain (e.g. US Government documents), or go into the public domain after a specified period of time after an author’s death.
For example, you don’t have to ask Homer for permission to publish his Iliad, but if someone has published a translation of the Iliad within the last 70 years or so, you need permission to publish or use the translation.
BUT HOMER CAN STILL BE PLAGIARIZED!
COPYRIGHT | Legal Concept: Protects the Expression NOT the Idea You can be fined and/or sued |
PLAGIARISM | Moral Concept: Deals with the Expression AND the Idea You can be legally right, but morally wrong You can be punished by the University and: you may even be guilty of Fraud |
If you copied an entire article AND gave the citation,
you would NOT be guilty of Plagiarism,
but it could be a Copyright violation.
you would NOT be guilty of Plagiarism,
but it could be a Copyright violation.
How do I know if something is in the Public Domain?
Are There Any Exceptions to Copyright?
A very important one: FAIR USE
The same guidelines apply for pictures or movies.
In reality, Fair Use is a big fight today, and must deal with some strange issues on the Internet. As one example, some web sites do not want you to link to them! This may seem strange, but the main reason is that many times, a web site has a series of advertisements that they want users to see, and if someone links directly to an internal page, they may not see the advertisements.
Obviously, things are changing with the introduction of the internet, just as they are with everything else.
The easiest rule to use is: if you are writing something for class and quoting something, you should be OK. If you are publishing something, and/or placing it on the web, be much more careful.
For more information on copyright, see Stanford University Library's Copyright and Fair Use page.
The Internet and Copyright
A genuine problem has appeared with the internet. The way the internet works is by transferring files from one machine to another. Then, the file opens on your own machine, and you read the file or watch the movie, or so on.
This means that a copy is automatically created and sent to your machine. Many people believe that this is a violation of copyright law. Peer-to-peer programs also come under suspicion in this regard. See also: A Short History of the Internet : A Digression
New Trends in Copyright: Copyleft and Creative Commons
Many people find the current copyright standards too restricting and are turning to other methods. Since few scholars make substantial amounts of money on their articles anyway, there is a movement among scholars to make their materials available for free. (See Open Archives: What They Are and How to Search Them). An important aspect of this movement is copyright: authors still want to have some control over their work. How do they let others know how they can use the author's material?
This initiative complements Open Archives. With Creative Commons, authors can let people know in advance how they can use the materials people find on the web. How it works is the author decides how he or she wants the material to be used. The author does this bychoosing one of the Creative Commons licenses.
One very interesting choice is copyleft
, which allows someone to:
In this way, someone who finds an item on the internet that he or she wants to use, they know in advance what they are allowed to do with it, and they do not have to ask permission.
Continue with: Making Citations
- Originally in the Public Domain, e.g. U.S. government documents, or materials published under Creative Commons (see below)
- Determining if the copyright has expired can get very confusing. A lot is determined by when the item was published and/or when the author died. It changes by country, also. To get an idea of the complexity, look at: Flowchart to determine Public Domain status of a work in the U.S.
- Remember that this is based primarily on date of publication. As a result, books first published recently by authors who died long ago, (because a manuscript was rediscovered) will be under copyright. There are many details concerning whether something is in the public domain.
Are There Any Exceptions to Copyright?
A very important one: FAIR USE
Fair Use allows copyrighted works to be used for purposes such as criticism, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, research for nonprofit, educational, or even forpurposes of parody that do not affect the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work. The purpose of the Fair Use exception is to allow for free criticism. If authors could forbid any use of their work for commentary, they could stop any negative comments about their work.
There has never been a precise determination of how much someone can take before it ceases being Fair Use, but there are "general rules." For example, one article from a magazine, one chapter or 10% of a book, NEVER the complete item!
There has never been a precise determination of how much someone can take before it ceases being Fair Use, but there are "general rules." For example, one article from a magazine, one chapter or 10% of a book, NEVER the complete item!
The same guidelines apply for pictures or movies.
In reality, Fair Use is a big fight today, and must deal with some strange issues on the Internet. As one example, some web sites do not want you to link to them! This may seem strange, but the main reason is that many times, a web site has a series of advertisements that they want users to see, and if someone links directly to an internal page, they may not see the advertisements.
Obviously, things are changing with the introduction of the internet, just as they are with everything else.
The easiest rule to use is: if you are writing something for class and quoting something, you should be OK. If you are publishing something, and/or placing it on the web, be much more careful.
- Photocopying books and other materials are subject to copyright!
- See the copyright notice placed above the copy machine in the library.
For more information on copyright, see Stanford University Library's Copyright and Fair Use page.
The Internet and Copyright
A genuine problem has appeared with the internet. The way the internet works is by transferring files from one machine to another. Then, the file opens on your own machine, and you read the file or watch the movie, or so on.
This means that a copy is automatically created and sent to your machine. Many people believe that this is a violation of copyright law. Peer-to-peer programs also come under suspicion in this regard. See also: A Short History of the Internet : A Digression
New Trends in Copyright: Copyleft and Creative Commons
Many people find the current copyright standards too restricting and are turning to other methods. Since few scholars make substantial amounts of money on their articles anyway, there is a movement among scholars to make their materials available for free. (See Open Archives: What They Are and How to Search Them). An important aspect of this movement is copyright: authors still want to have some control over their work. How do they let others know how they can use the author's material?
This initiative complements Open Archives. With Creative Commons, authors can let people know in advance how they can use the materials people find on the web. How it works is the author decides how he or she wants the material to be used. The author does this bychoosing one of the Creative Commons licenses.
One very interesting choice is copyleft
, which allows someone to:"Share Alike. If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under the same or similar license to this one."
In this way, someone who finds an item on the internet that he or she wants to use, they know in advance what they are allowed to do with it, and they do not have to ask permission.
Continue with: Making Citations
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j.weinheimer |
Latest page update: made by j.weinheimer
, Aug 21 2007, 5:52 AM EDT
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