HTTP://WWW.COPYRIGHT.GOV/

Copyright Basics

How is a copyright different from a patent or a trademark?

Copyright protects original works of authorship, while a patent protects inventions or discoveries. Ideas and discoveries are not protected by the copyright law, although the way in which they are expressed may be. A trademark protects words, phrases, symbols, or designs identifying the source of the goods or services of one party and distinguishing them from those of others.

All are considered “intellectual property”

What is Copyright?

Copyright is a form of protection grounded in the U.S. Constitution and granted by law for original works of authorship fixed in a tangible medium of expression. Both published and unpublished works are protected.

Copyright law was originally intended to provide a short term “monopoly” for authors for the purpose of encouraging creativity (14 years plus 14 years renewable)

What Rights Does a Copyright Owner Have?

Section 106 of the 1976 Copyright Act generally gives the owner of copyright the exclusive right to do and to authorize others to do the following:

To prepare derivative works based upon the work; Only the owner of copyright in a work has the right to prepare, or to authorize someone else to create, a new version of that work.

The new portion of the original work must be unique enough to warrant a copyright of its own. The copyright in the derivative work covers only the new material appearing for the first time.

To distribute copies or phonorecords of the work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending;

To perform the work publicly, in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and motion pictures and other audiovisual works;

To display the copyrighted work publicly, in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and pictorial, graphic, or sculptural works, including the individual images of a motion picture or other audiovisual work; and

In the case of sound recordings, to perform the work publicly by means of a digital audio transmission.

To reproduce the work in copies or phonorecords;

Who Can Be An Author

A Student

A Professor

A Government or Agency

A Company

A Society or Organization

Who can hold the rights to an authors work

Author’s Estate

Publishing Company

Professional Society

Employer

Individual unrelated to original author (Intellectual property)

WHICH WORKS ARE PROTECTED?

Copyright protects "original works of authorship" that are fixed in a tangible form of expression. The fixation need not be directly perceptible so long as it may be communicated with the aid of a machine or device.

Copyrightable works include the following categories:

literary works;

musical works, including any accompanying words

dramatic works, including any accompanying music

pantomimes and choreographic works

pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works

motion pictures and other audiovisual works

sound recordings

architectural works

software

WHAT IS NOT PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT?

Several categories of material are generally not eligible for federal copyright protection. These include:

Works that have not been fixed in a tangible form of expression (for example, choreographic works that have not been notated or recorded, or improvisational speeches or performances that have not been written or recorded)

Titles, names, short phrases, and slogans; familiar symbols or designs; mere variations of typographic ornamentation, lettering, or coloring; mere listings of ingredients or contents

Ideas, procedures, methods, systems, processes, concepts, principles, discoveries, or devices, as distinguished from a description, explanation, or illustration

Works consisting entirely of information that is common property and containing no original authorship (for example: standard calendars, height and weight charts, tape measures and rulers, and lists or tables taken from public documents or other common sources)

Material that has high probability for use

Material that was never copyright protected

Material for which the copyright is held by ND or your Professor

Material where permissions have been granted

Works for which copyright has expired

Material whose use would have a strong fair use justification

Material never copyright protected

Work was not fixed in a tangible medium

Materials created by employees of the Federal Government as part of their job

Various state documents and judicial opinions

Standard plots and stock characters

Copyright is assigned to Notre Dame or Professor

Still have to have permission

Copyright holder will still retain copyright; allows use through a Creative Commons type license that OCW class materials will have

Permissions have already been granted

Permission has been granted to use the material in the OCW projecthttp://www.nd.edu/~ocw/Samples/CooperativeIPOwners.html

Permission has been granted for entire portion of the work you wish to use

Permission has been granted by all IP interestshttp://www.nd.edu/~ocw/Samples/MultiIPinterests.html

Works for which copyright has expired

Work has entered Public Domain

Determining PD status can be quite complicated; Congress has extended length of copyright term several times

Factors like published or unpublished, registration with the copyright office, or anonymous authorship can come into play

http://collections.stanford.edu/copyrightrenewals/bin/page?forward=home

Material whose OCW inclusion would have a strong fair use justification

Use of material would satisfy fair use criteriahttp://www.copyright.iupui.edu/checklist.htm

Terri will make the ultimate decision; use checklist to be aware of information Terri will need to proceed

Minimal Fair Use

Work is under copyright. Because no license has been granted, image is labeled “All Rights Reserved.” • Image has been firmly

embedded in an academic context• Image is in 72 dpi, inserted as a cell background and covered with a transparency to inhibit captures. These moves protect RS’s commercial interests in the image.• Prior requests for license do not undermine fair use case.

Examples

The professor you are working with received an email from a colleague in response to a question he had posed to him. The response contained a lot of helpful information including some charts and graphs the colleague had devised.

The prof would now like to use at least part of the email as a resource in his OCW course. As a courtesy, he would like to ask his colleague for permission to share parts of their correspondence. However, the colleague is out of the country and cannot be reached. As the email was addressed to your prof and was in response to his specific questions, he feels that they are his property and he can post them on the internet. What do you think?

You took a photograph of a Monet painting last summer and are willing to let your professor use it for his OCW course. Do you have the right to tell him he can?

Your professor is working with some pictures from the US Army website. He would like to post the photos on his OCW website. Do you see any problems

with this?

There are a number of articles your professor uses for her class every year that she would like to link to in her OCW course. The articles are copyrighted, but the library has a site (campus wide) license for the ND community to use these articles for coursework. Since the OCW project is university sanctioned, can she include them?

Sources for Course Materials

Make the Most of JSTOR Articleshttp://www.nd.edu/~ocw/Samples/JSTOR.html

American Memory Collectionhttp://memory.loc.gov/ammem/browse/index.html

Google Scholar

Targeted web searches (“open access”, “creative commons”) and advanced search features.

Additional Helps

Digital Copyright Slider http://librarycopyright.net/digitalslider/

Digital Image Rights Computatorhttp://www.vraweb.org/resources/ipr/dirc/page_1.html

Checklist for Fair Usehttp://copyright.iupui.edu/checklist.htm