6.7 Copyright
Copyright is a complex and confusing area of the law these days. But you should
know the following about copyright:
- Everything that is produced is automatically copyrighted.
The U.S. Copyright Office puts it this way: "Copyright is secured automatically
when the work is created, and a work is 'created' when it is fixed in a
copy or phonorecord for the first time. 'Copies' are material objects from
which a work can be read or visually perceived either directly or with the
aid of a machine or device…” Thus, a book, Website, sound recording, or
photograph are all examples of works that are automatically protected by
copyright immediately upon their creation. The U.S. Copyright Office’s website
at http://www.copyright.gov/
gives in-depth information.
- There is no need to register for copyright or to put any words or symbol
on an item: it is copyrighted merely by existing. The owner can, of course,
register for copyright, as well as putting a notice on the work such as:
Copyright 2005 University
of Idaho Library All Rights Reserved
|
- The right to copy (i.e, to control intellectual property) is protected
for many years. The U.S. Copyright Office tells us:
“A work that is created (fixed in tangible form for the first time) on or
after January 1, 1978, is automatically protected from the moment of its
creation and is ordinarily given a term enduring for the author's life plus
an additional 70 years after the author's death. In the case of 'a joint
work prepared by two or more authors who did not work for hire,' the term
lasts for 70 years after the last surviving author's death.
For works made for hire, and for anonymous and pseudonymous works (unless
the author's identity is revealed in Copyright Office records), the duration
of copyright will be 95 years from publication or 120 years from creation,
whichever is shorter.” A helpful chart can be found at:
http://www.unc.edu/~unclng/public-d.htm
- Does that mean I cannot use a copyrighted work? No. Here is what the
Copyright Website
http://www.benedict.com/ has to say:
“The 'fair use' provision of the law says use of a copyrighted work, including
such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means
specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news
reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship,
or research, is not an infringement of copyright.”
Public Domain
Also, some work is in what’s called the public domain. Works in the public
domain include works with the following characteristics:
- Originally Non-copyrightable such
as ideas, facts, titles, names, short phrases and blank forms
- Lost Copyright such as all works
published before January 1, 1978 that did not contain a valid copyright
notice may be considered to be in the public domain.
- Expired Copyright for which the statutory
copyright period has expired.
- Government Documents are not copyrighted,
and therefore are considered to be in the Public Domain. Consequently, if
you obtain a government document from the net, such as a law, statute, agency
circular, federal report, or any other document published or generated by
the federal government, you are free to copy or distribute the document.
- Works Granted to the Public Domain
if the copyright owner grants the work to the public domain.
|
Module 6
|