Copyright Tracy Mitrano Joan Cheverie NWACC Workshop

Principal Questions What is copyright? Why is it important? What is the law in a nutshell? What have technology, market, and social norms done to destabilize it? What are the outlines of the debate surrounding it?

History of Copyright Stationer’s Law 1557 – Exclusive rights Statute of Anne 1610 – Author’s rights – Limited time United States Constitution – To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;

The Founder’s Debate Jefferson – Against monopolies He who receives an idea from me receives [it] without lessening [me], as he who lights his [candle] at mine receives light without darkening me. Washington – Citizenship and the Public Domain Madison – Father of Constitution (and compromise)

Key Point Balance innovation and incentive

U.S. Copyright Law 1790 – Borrowed from Anglo Law , registration, no additional renewal 19 th Century Incremental Additions 1909 – Mark Twain Player piano, broader scope and additional years

1976 Copyright Law Definition – Original work in a tangible medium Scope – Enormous! Cocktail napkin poem Terms – 50 + life of author – 75 corporations – 1998 Copyright Extension Act: Add 20 Damages – Huge! $750-$150,000 per infringement

Exceptions Classroom Face to Face Use – Extended under TEACH Act 2001 Check List conditions: – Session times, authentication, etc. Compulsory Licensing – T.V. and Music in restaurants, e.g. Not ASCAP, however: trade association Fair Use

Kind – What is being used, e.g. visual arts, book, music, blue prints The more salable, the less likely permitted For What – Quote in newspaper, sample for commercial purposes Not for profit = good; for profit = not good

Fair Use Amount – 10% rule Reaffirmed as a rule of thumb under the Georgia State case (although remember, not for profit context) – Tricky: Kernel Exception to the Exception Random House v. The Nation Market Effect on Rights Holder – Negative = negative, and visa versa

Fair Use: Case Law Wild Card Transformative Use – Use of work to commend or repurpose (with new technologies) Perfect 10 v. Google – The most hopeful of the exceptions under fair use, although not a panacea Used unsuccessfully in file-share infringement cases No hope for copyright reform in the near future, so it is still a case law adaptation, not statutory law, which makes its more tied to specific circumstances

Amendments to 1976 Law No Electronic Theft Act, 1997 – Profit not necessary for infringement Copyright Extension Act – Additional 20 years – Mickey Mouse Law – Eldred v. Reno Separation of powers argument Perpetuity by installment

Policy Issues Awakening the meaning of copyright to public policy – Free speech – Democracy – Balance between innovation and incentive – Corruption of Congress

Digital Millennium Copyright Act 1998 Section 500 – Process by which content owners can alert I.S.P. to alleged infringement – Four safe harbors for I.S.P. Two most important to higher education – Conduit … – Notice and take down Section 1200 – Substantive violation of copyright law by breaking encryption – Felton case

Higher Education Opportunity Act 2008 “Peer to peer” provisions – “Technological solution” to the file sharing problem Notice and take down Bandwidth shaping Notice to high users of bandwidth Content filtering – Annual notice to students – Annual review

What’s Happening Today?

Status of Fair Use UCLA streaming case Georgia State e-reserves case HathiTrust mass digitization case

After SOPA/PIPA Register of Copyrights Copyright Alert System Updating copyright law

On the Horizon Copyright and MOOCs

Questions