Copyright Dos and Don’ts Zahra Hassan

COPYRIGHTS What exactly is a copyright? What does a copyright protect? A form of protection grounded in the U.S. Constitution and granted by law for original works of authorship fixed in a tangible way of expression. This covers both published and unpublished works. What does a copyright protect? It protects original works including literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works, like poetry, novels, movies, songs, computer software, and architecture. What doesn’t a copyright protect? It does not protect facts, ideas, systems, methods of operation, or names, though it may protects the way these things are portrayed.

Copyright vs. Patent/Trademark Copyrights: Protect original work of authorship Patents: Protect inventions and discoveries Trademarks: Protect words, phrases, symbols, and design P R O T E C When does a copyright take effect you may ask? Well, it is protected right from creation- as soon as it takes tangible form!

1976 Copyright Act Rights The owner of the copy right has exclusive rights to: To reproduce the work in copies Create derivative works based on the work Distribute copies of the work to the public by sale, lease, transfer, or lending To display or perform the work publicly It is ILLEGAL for anyone to violate these rights !!

Infringement Penalties 3 elements for infringement to occur: Copyright holder must have valid copyright Person allegedly infringing must have access to copyrighted work Duplication of the copyrighted work must be outside the exceptions Legal Penalties Infringer pays the actual dollar amount of damages and profits Law provides $200-150,000 for each work infringed Infringer pays all attorneys fees and court costs The court can issue an injunction to stop the infringing acts The court can impound illegal works The infringer can go to jail In the classroom: Doing any of these things without the permission of the copyright owner may constitute infringement for which both the student or teacher and the school can be held liable. THIS IS SERIOUS!!!!

A Fairy Tale of Fair Use! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJn_jC4FNDo

In the classroom… If you wish to make use of copyrighted work, first seek permission from the copyright owner! What are some common ways students and teachers infringe on others’ copyrights? They photocopy others’ written works or drawings. They download files from the internet. They post others’ written or graphic works to their own website or YouTube or use them in their own presentations or multi-media projects.

What is fair use? Fair use is a copyright principle based on the belief that the public is entitled to freely use portions of copyrighted materials for purposes of commentary and criticism In determining whether a use of someone else’s copyrighted work without their permission qualifies as a “fair use” under the copyright law, four factors must be evaluated.

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4 factors of Fair Use: 1. The purpose for which the work is used (non-profit, teaching and research uses generally are allowed, whereas commercial uses generally are not) 2.The nature or characteristics of the work (the use of published or non-fiction works generally is favored over the use of unpublished or fictional/highly creative works) 3.The amount and substantiality of the work used (which includes an evaluation of the quality and the quantity of the work used, so using large portions of a work or portions of the work that are considered key or central to the work is not permitted) 4. The effect of the use on the marketability or value of the work. (If the use negatively affects the sale or value of the work, it is rarely allowed, so it is important to limit the number of copies and to not engage in repeated or long term use of the work without obtaining permission.)

Permissible amounts of Media allowed in Classrooms Motion media: Up to 10 percent of the total or three minutes, whichever is less. Text material: Up to 10 percent of the total or 1,000 words, whichever is less. An entire poem of less than 250 words may be used, but no more than three poems by one poet or five poems by different authors in an anthology. For poems exceeding 250 words, 250 words should be used but no more than three excerpts from one poet or five excerpts from different poets in the same work Music, lyrics, and music Video: up to 10 percent of the work but no more than 30 seconds of the music or lyrics from an individual musical work. Illustrations or photographs: no more than five images from one artist or photographer. No more than 10% or 15 images, whichever is less, from a collection. Numerical data sets: up to 10 percent or 2,500 fields or cell entries, whichever is less, from a copyrighted database or data table. Copying of a multimedia project: no more than two copies may be made of a project.

How can schools reduce infringing activity? Teachers and students should be educated about “public domain” materials. These are not eligible for copy right protection so there are no restrictions on use or reproduction A few include: Government publications For example, photos taken by NASA scientists and posted on the NASA website may be copied and used by students in reports or presentations. Works excluded from protection by statute For example, a teacher’s copying and distribution to students on one occasion of a current copyrighted article on a topic being covered in class would qualify as a non-infringing use under the fair use exception. Works for which copyright protection has expired.

What Can Schools Do? Schools can purchase collections of royalty free music and clip art for use by students and teachers take advantage of open source software; subscribe to news services whose licenses allow for classroom copying and distribution create or subscribe to learning object repositories like MERLOT, a free and open resource for educators that links to online learning materials Introduce teachers to open course ware sites that provide a variety of resources developed by major colleges and universities around the world free for use by teachers. For example, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has created a new web site with free online resources aimed at improving high school instruction in science, math, technology, and engineering.