Understanding Intellectual Property US - Infobase

Understanding Intellectual Property

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Why should students value their own and others’

intellectual property? What exactly is intellectual

property? This interview led program builds an

understanding of: intellectual property; exceptions

to copyright; registering IP; why students should be

aware of the terms and agreements of social media

sites, what Creative Commons is and the different

licenses, why an IP holder may wish to share

material; and what it means when material is in the

public domain. A great resource for encouraging

students to value IP.

Duration of resource: 13 Minutes

Year of Production: 2014

Stock code RLC13124000


2 © VEA Group Pty Ltd 2014

Reproducing these additional resources You may download and print one copy of these additional resources from our website or ClickView for your reference.

Further copying or printing must be reported to CAL as per the Copyright Act 1968.

Worksheets

What is Intellectual Property? - Worksheet

1. According to Jessica Boland, IP (intellectual property) can encompass things like copyright,

______________, ________________, ______________.

2. Identify each format below that can be protected by copyright. The first one has been done for you.

Format Examples

Artworks paintings, cartoons, maps, photographs and drawings

novels, lyrics, poems and newspaper and magazine articles, in printed and

electronic form

pop songs, melodies, film scores and advertising jingles

plays, screenplays and choreography

movies, video recordings, television shows, music videos, advertisements

and interactive games

CDs, MP3s and vinyl

on television, radio and online

3. Copyright allows for a ‘fair’ amount for private research and study.

a) How much is typically considered fair?

____________________________________________________________________________________

b) Do you need to reference the creator and the work?

____________________________________________________________________________________

c) Do you need to get permission from the creator?

____________________________________________________________________________________

4. At what point in the creation of something do you have copyright over it?

____________________________________________________________________________________





5. Do you need to mark your work with the copyright symbol in order for copyright to exist?

____________________________________________________________________________________

6. Why might your copyright be affected if you upload your content to a social media site like Instagram

or Facebook?

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________





What is Creative Commons? - Worksheet

1. Creative Commons is a way for creators to license their copyright material that allows others to use

their work - without payment – while retaining control of the copyright material. Why would creators

want to do this?

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

2. What is the one common element among all six Creative Commons licences?

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

3. Complete the chart below by filling in the boxes with missing information.

Name of licence Creative common

symbol

Commercial, non-

commercial, or

both?

Licence terms

Attribution

Licence Both

Attribution-

ShareAlike

licence

Both

must be licensed under the

identical terms of the original

material

Both must remain unchanged – that is, in

its original form

Attribution-Non-

commercial

licence

use it however they like, as long as

they aren’t making any money from

the new work

Attribution-Non-

commercial-

ShareAlike

licence

Non-commercial

Non-commercial

work can be copied and shared

with others, but not altered in any

way





4. What four pieces of information should you provide to give credit to a creator for their original work?

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

5. What does ‘public domain’ mean?

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

6. How many years after a creator dies does copyright on their work expire?

____________________________________________________________________________________





What is Intellectual Property? – Extension Activities

1. Sofia paints a picture of a peacock. She scans it to create an electronic file and uploads it to eBay to

be sold as an original artwork. Does Sofia own copyright for the picture and any images made of it?

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

Imagine Sofia fails to sell the artwork on eBay. She removes the picture from her eBay account and

posts it on her Facebook page without a copyright notice, caption or label. She shares the image with

her two friends, Sandra and Rebecca. Rebecca adds it to her Facebook page. Facebook later use it as

part of an online advertising campaign. Who has breached copyright? Explain your answer.

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

2. Ben writes a novel about a submarine captain whose entire crew is made up of artificially intelligent

robots – part of a top secret operation by the US Navy. The robots mutiny against the captain, setting

him adrift in a boat. He eventually reaches land and informs authorities, but no one believes him.

Ben wrote the novel on his computer, and each version is date stamped. Ben sends two printed

manuscripts of the novel to his workmates. Within a year, Ben sees a book with an identical story

written in the same words but published under a different title and under a different author’s name

for sale in a bookshop. Has copyright been breached? If so, who is legally at fault?

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________





3. Marat has the idea of making a bathmat out of live, growing moss. He tells a few people about it but

never gets to the design stage. Marat finds out that a company has developed the idea into a final

product and it is for sale online. Has there been a breach of copyright? Explain your answer.

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________





What is Creative Commons? - Extension Activities

1. C.S. Lewis died in 1963. Has his copyright in his book The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe expired?

Explain your response.

____________________________________________________________________________________

2. A songwriter publishes a new song in the form of printed sheet music. It is published under an

Attribution-No Derivatives license. A version of the song, with slightly altered lyrics, is used in a

product-selling, television advertising campaign, with no permission sought from the songwriter and

no acknowledgement of the original source of the song. Has copyright been breached? Explain your

response.

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

3. A series of color photographs of injured pelicans has been released under an attribution non-

commercial license. A not-for-profit organization uses black and white versions of the images in a

public information poster encouraging people not to litter in our waterways. The sequence of the

images has also been altered. Has copyright been breached? Explain your answer.

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________





Suggested Student Responses

What is Intellectual Property? - Worksheet

1. According to Jessica Boland, IP (intellectual property) can encompass things like copyright, designs,

trademarks and patents.

2. Identify each format below that can be protected by copyright. The first one has been done for you.

Format Examples

Artworks paintings, cartoons, maps, photographs and drawings

Literary works novels, lyrics, poems and newspaper and magazine articles, in printed and

electronic form

Music pop songs, melodies, film scores and advertising jingles

Drama plays, screenplays and choreography

Film movies, video recordings, television shows, music videos, advertisements

and interactive games

Sound

recordings CDs, MP3s and vinyl

Broadcasts on television, radio and online

3. Copyright allows for a ‘fair’ amount for private research and study.

d) How much is typically considered fair?

10%

e) Do you need to reference the creator and the work?

Yes

f) Do you need to get permission from the creator?

No

4. At what point in the creation of something do you have copyright over it?

As soon as it takes form.

5. Do you need to mark your work with the copyright symbol in order for copyright to exist?

No

6. Why might your copyright be affected if you upload your content to a social media site like Instagram

or Facebook?

Their terms of use may give them ownership of your material once you post it on their site.





What is Creative Commons? - Worksheet

1. Creative Commons is a way for creators to license their copyright material that allows others to use

their work - without payment – while retaining control of the copyright material. Why would creators

want to do this?

To spread their work far and wide, to communicate information, share and collaborate, thereby

allowing others to use it, learn from it and be inspired to build on it for the benefit of everyone.

2. What is the one common element among all six Creative Commons licences?

Copyright must be attributed, meaning properly credited, to the original creator.

3. Complete the chart below by filling in the boxes with missing information.

Name of licence

Creative

common

symbol

Commercial, non-

commercial, or

both?

Licence terms

Attribution Licence

Both can be licensed to others on any

terms

Attribution-

ShareAlike licence Both

must be licensed under the identical

terms of the original material

Attribution-No

Derivatives licence Both

must remain unchanged – that is, in

its original form

Attribution-Non-

commercial licence Non-commercial

use it however they like, as long as

they aren’t making any money from

the new work

Attribution-Non-

commercial-

ShareAlike licence

Non-commercial

must license the new work under

the same terms as the original and

can’t make any money from the

new work

Attribution-Non-

commercial-No

Derivatives licence

Non-commercial work can be copied and shared with

others, but not altered in any way

4. What four pieces of information should you provide to give credit to a creator for their original work?

Name of the creator

Title of the work

URL where the work is hosted

Details of the CC licence

5. What does ‘public domain’ mean?

Public domain means that either the copyright has expired or the creator has said that they wish to

offer their material in the public domain.

6. How many years after a creator dies does copyright on their work expire?

70 years





What is Intellectual Property? – Extension Activities

1. Sofia paints a picture of a peacock. She scans it to create an electronic file and uploads it to eBay to

be sold as an original artwork.

Does Sofia own copyright for the picture and any images made of it?

Yes. Copyright is automatically Sofia’s. The eBay images of the artwork are also copyright

protected.

Imagine Sofia fails to sell the artwork on eBay. She removes the picture from her eBay account and

posts it on her Facebook page without a copyright notice, caption or label. She shares the image with

her two friends, Sandra and Rebecca. Rebecca adds it to her Facebook page. Facebook later use it as

part of an online advertising campaign.

Who has breached copyright? Explain your answer.

No one. Because Sofia voluntarily shared the image with both friends as well as publicly displaying

it on Facebook, she has essentially lost control of the ways in which the image is used. Facebook

and other social media sites can sometimes legitimately assert copyright over images they host.

2. Ben writes a novel about a submarine captain whose entire crew is made up of artificially intelligent

robots – part of a top secret operation by the US Navy. The robots mutiny against the captain, setting

him adrift in a boat. He eventually reaches land and informs authorities, but no one believes him.

Ben wrote the novel on his computer, and each version is date stamped. Ben sends two printed

manuscripts of the novel to his workmates. Within a year, Ben sees a book with an identical story

written in the same words but published under a different title and under a different author’s name

for sale in a bookshop. Has copyright been breached? If so, who is legally at fault?

Ben has a clear case for breach of copyright. The novel’s content is identical and he has the original

manuscripts, the dates of which will reveal that the novel is his intellectual property. The author

named on the cover is legally at fault, for falsely claiming authorship and submitting the work for

publication without the original owner’s permission. If the publisher was aware that the author

was not the originator of the work, the publisher would also be at fault, but this could be more

difficult to prove.

3. Marat has the idea of making a bathmat out of live, growing moss. He tells a few people about it but

never gets to the design stage. Marat finds out that a company has developed the idea into a final

product and it is for sale online. Has there been a breach of copyright? Explain your answer.

You cannot claim copyright for an idea. It is only when an idea takes physical form (as text, image,

sound recording or object, for example) that copyright exists. Marat never produced anything

based on his idea, so he has no claim on the competitor’s product.





What is Creative Commons? - Extension Activities

1. C.S. Lewis died in 1963. Has his copyright in his book The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe expired?

Explain your response.

No. Copyright will still exist until 70 years after 1963 – which will be the year 2033.

2. A songwriter publishes a new song in the form of printed sheet music. It is published under an

Attribution-No Derivatives license. A version of the song, with slightly altered lyrics, is used in a

product-selling, television advertising campaign, with no permission sought from the songwriter and

no acknowledgement of the original source of the song. Has copyright been breached? Explain your

response.

Yes. The copyright owner has not been acknowledged nor approached for permission. This license

provides that the work cannot be altered. It can be used for a commercial (sales) purpose, but only

in its unaltered form.

3. A series of color photographs of injured pelicans has been released under an attribution non-

commercial license. A not-for-profit organization uses black and white versions of the images in a

public information poster encouraging people not to litter in our waterways. The sequence of the

images has also been altered. Has copyright been breached? Explain your answer.

No. The license provides permission for use for non-commercial purposes. The images have been

altered slightly, but alteration is also allowed under the license.

Understanding Intellectual Property US - Infobase

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