CopyrightYour rights and responsibilities in the U.S.

A definition:

• According to the US copyright office it is a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States to the authors of “original works of authorship,” including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works.

How is copyright established?

• According to the copyright act of 1976 there are 3 criteria used– Fixation to a tangible

medium

– Originality

– Minimal Creativity

How is copyright secured?

• Copyright is secured when a work is created and then fixed in a tangible form.

What constitutes a tangible form?

• Books

• Manuscripts

• Sheet music

• Film

• Video tape

• Cassette tape– In other words those

things written and recorded that can be copied and viewed or heard.

How do you obtain a copyright?

• As a result of the Berne copyright convention work created privately and creatively after April 1, 1989 is copyrighted and protected whether or not the copyright notice accompanies the work.

What is fair use?

• Fair Use is an exemption to copyright law that allows for the use of small excerpts for the purpose of education, parody, news reporting and research without securing permission from the author.

• The excerpt is generally short and should be attributed to its creator.

What is public domain?

• Works that are not owned by anyone and not protected by copyright law.– What qualifies as public domain?

• Created before copyright laws

• Expired copyright

• Copyright lost or never retianed (applies to works before March 1, 1989 that did not carry a notice)

• It has been dedicated to public domain

Is there anything out there not covered by copyright laws?

• works created by the U.S. government • reprints of works in the public domain• ideas, facts, and common property • federal laws and court decisions • words, names, slogans and phrases • most blank forms • recipes, discoveries, procedures, and

systems

• Rights is a website dedicated to stopping the redistribution of graphics and other art forms without the permission of the artist. http://www.rightsforartists.com/copyright.html

• Brad Templeton attempts to debunk myths surrounding copyright found on the net as well as related to USENET/Internet publication. http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html

• The Online Learning Library offers tutorials on information literacy related topics. http://www.usg.edu/galileo/skills/unit08/credit08_10.phtml

• The United States Copyright office has all the legal jargon, answers and forms you need to secure a registered copyright. http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html#wccc