Copyright is one of several legal principles that make up the body of intellectual property law. Patent, trademarks, trade secrets, and the rights of publicity and privacy are also part of the intellectual property picture. This module will examine only copyright, a complex and evolving principle that has tremendous impact on the daily activities of learning centers. Copyright causes us to ponder such questions as:
Perhaps this is a starting point in your copyright research
and its ramifications for the learning center, or perhaps it is but
one of many steps you have already taken. Base your policies and
decisions upon your research, as well as guidance from the individuals
at your institution who are responsible for setting institutional policy
and defending you in an infringement case.
Nearly every nation is a signatory to the Berne Convention--an international treaty which states that copyrighted works created by a citizen of another country have the same copyright protections as the works created by its own citizens. Another way to look at Berne is that, regardless of what country a copyrighted work comes from, its use is governed by the copyright laws of the country in which it will be used.
The United States Constitution lays a foundation for Congress to create intellectual property laws that balance individual property rights with the need of the public to use this same property. Congress gave authors and inventors limited, exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries to encourage progress in the arts and sciences. The idea is if one can be sustained by and rewarded for their creativity, then they will continue to expand the knowledge pool and cultural artifacts of society. Content proprietors, including individual creators and the publishing and distributing industries, do have a right to exert a high measure of control over their property. The counterweight to exclusive rights is the need of the public to use copyrighted works to further knowledge and foster creation of new works. Thus, limitations, such as duration, on exclusive rights were set forth to provide eventual access to these valuable resources.
What are the exclusive rights?
Five exclusive rights are found in the U.S. Copyright Code, Section 106: reproduction, adaptation, distribution, performance and display. When the U.S. joined the Berne convention it also acknowledged the moral rights espoused by other Berne Convention signatories. The moral rights (attribution and integrity) codified in 17 U.S.C. 106A(a)(b) are particularly designed for the protection of visual artists. However, other federal and state laws also address the moral rights. The rights of creators, including examples, are:
Reproductive Right: the right to reproduce the work in copies
Some examples of reproduction include:
Distribution Right: the right to distribute copies of the work. Distribution occurs in the following examples:
Performance Right: the right to perform the copyrighted work publicly.
Display Right: the right to display the copyrighted work publicly.
Although performance and display rights do not mean precisely the same thing, they are quite similar. Let’s take a comic strip for example. If the strip is projected with an overhead projector to a public audience, the work has been displayed. If the same strip is then read aloud, or dramatized, it has been performed. Examples of public performances or displays include:
Attribution Right: the right of the creator to claim authorship of the work and to prevent the use of his or her name as the author of a work he or she did not create; protects the rights of visual artists. In addition to the visual artist’s rights set forth in 17 U.S.C. 106A(a), in the U.S. misappropriation prohibits the taking of someone else's work without obtaining their permission or giving credit to them. For example, give full credit in a resulting product and in any corresponding print materials. Cite the work according to the specifications provided by the copyright proprietor, or in standard citation form if no attribution style is not specified.
Integrity Right: the right of a creator to prevent the use
of his or her name as the author of a distorted version of the work, to
prevent intentional distortion of the work, and to prevent destruction
of the work. For example, “morphing” the image from its original
form to a new form without permission may infringe upon this right.
A public domain work is a work not protected by copyright.
Once a work has entered the public domain it may be freely copied, incorporated
into other works, or used in any other manner.
There are several ways a work can enter the public domain. Its creator can place the work in the public domain and abandon its copyright. This is different from the statement, “This work may be freely copied as long as credit is attributed,” or “This work may be distributed for educational purposes.” In these instances, the copyright proprietor has specified what may be done to the work, but they have not abandoned their copyright. To abandon copyright, one must state that the work is placed in the public domain and abandon all rights to it, including any right to attribution. In the United States works of the federal government are not protected by copyright (however the work of private contractors for the government may be copyrighted). Works consisting entirely of information that is common property, facts, titles, names, short phrases, familiar symbols, ideas, procedures and methods are in the public domain. Most works pass to the public domain when the duration of their copyright has expired.
Due to numerous revisions in the U.S. Copyright law since 1909, determining
when a work will lose its copyright protection and enter the public domain
can be difficult. The duration of copyright depends on when the work
was originally created, if it has been published, by whom (single author
or joint authors), in what context (an individual work or a work for hire),
and which version of the copyright law was in effect at the time of its
creation or publication. Laura Gasaway, Director of the Law Library
and Professor of Law at the University of North Carolina has created a
chart that will allow you to determine when a work passes into the public
domain.
| Date of work | Protected From | Term |
| Created 1-1-78 or after | When work is fixed in tangible medium of expression | Life + 50 years (or, if work of corporate authorship, 75 years from publication, or 100 years from creation, whichever is first) |
| Published more than 75 years ago | Now in public domain | None |
| Published between 1963 and 75 years ago | When published with notice | 28 years + could be renewed for 47 years; if not so renewed , now in public domain |
| Published 1964-77 | When published with notice | 28 years for first term; now automatic extension of 47 years for second term |
| Created before 1-1-78 but not published | 1-1-78, the effective date of the 1976 Act which eliminated common law copyright | Life + 50 years. All work that remained unpublished as of 12-31-2002 will pass into public domain on that date |
| Created before 1-1-78 but published between then and 12-31-2002 | 1-1-78, the effective date of the 1976 Act which eliminated common law copyright | Passes into public domain 12-31-2027 |
Except in a very limited set of circumstances, public domain works cannot regain copyright status. Thus, an original version of a sixteenth century poem that is included in an anthology of poems cannot regain its individual copyright status. The act of reprinting the poem does not extend its copyright. The collection however, considering its unique selection and arrangement of poems, and any commentary, can be copyrighted as a whole, while the individual poem remains in the public domain. Additionally, a new translation of the poem can receive new copyright, while the original remains a public domain work. The limited circumstances where a work once in the public domain has regained its copyright status has resulted from the GATT and NAFTA treaties. These treaties restored some foreign copyrights (particularly films) in the United States and extended their copyright to 75 years from the date of publication. The reason some of these copyrights were restored by treaty has to do U.S. copyright registration and renewal requirements prior to 1978.
Under the Berne Convention no notice of copyright is required. All works are assumed copyrighted unless specifically placed in the public domain by the copyright proprietor. The often heard “there’s no copyright notice on it so we can use it any way we want” is not true! In the United States, registration of copyright entitles the proprietor to some statutory remedies in an infringement case, but registration does not alter the status of the work.
Consider whether other intellectual property rights, such as trademark,
may apply when selecting a public domain work. For example, a Disney
character may be copyrighted and trademarked. When its copyright
protection expires, the trademark protection will still prevent its free
use.
So what is fair use? Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act describes fair use as a limitation on the exclusive rights given to copyright proprietors. As such, criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research is not an infringement of copyright if the use meets the test of four factors. What one can or cannot do under fair use is decided on the merits of each unique situation. To determine what is a fair use, all four factors must be considered and weighed against each other.
The first of the four factors which must be considered is the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes. Most learning center activities meet the latter criteria (e.g. non-profit education: teaching, scholarship, research). However, when one decides to market a work that was initially developed for internal institutional use, the purpose and character changes to that of a commercial nature.
The nature of the copyrighted work is the second test. The more factual the work, the more fair use applies. The more creative the work, the more likely it will be considered infringement rther than fair use. Additionally, whether or not the work has been published is relevant; it is unlikely that liberal uses of unpublished works would be fair uses.
The third test has multiple parts to consider: the amount of the work one wants to use (a complete copy, a significant portion, a small part), the substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole (does the portion used convey the essence of the original work), and the proportion of the copyrighted work in relation to the new work (1 out of 200 total images, an annotated work incorporating an entire text).
The fourth test, the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work, includes consideration of the original market for the work, as well as the market for licensing the work. Would the use make it unnecessary to purchase the work? Would the use replace the market for the work? Would the use bypass established licensing procedures?
The following chart is a graphical way of looking at the four factors, as well as other contributing criteria that may be taken under consideration, such as spontaneity.
Table 2: Fair Use Factors
| Factor to Consider | Possible Fair Use | Probably Seek Permission |
| Purpose and Character of Use
Nature of the Work Degree of Use Proportion of Use to Length of New Work Economic Effect of Use |
noncommercial, educational, scholarly, newsworthy
factual, based on public documents small portion of copied work small % of users work little or no devaluation
|
Commercial, entertainment
creative entire work large % of user's work substantial actual or probable devaluation; use becomes substitute for work |
| Exposure
Premeditation Honesty of Use |
Other Guidelines
Single use, small audience spontaneous good faith, credit to owner |
multiple use, large public audience
systematic, continuing deception, dishonesty |
When the current copyright code was revised in 1976 a number of guidelines were included in the congressional record of the legislation, although they are not found in the body of the law. These guidelines reflected compromise between members of the educational community and proprietary industries, and specified what was probably a safe harbor for off-air recording of broadcast television programs, the use of music and sound recordings, and photocopying of print works.
In 1976 video was just beginning to emerge as a viable educational tool. Computer-based, digital work was not an option for the teaching and learning communities. Times have changed! Now anyone with consumer-level equipment can copy or edit videotape, digitize images and sound, or place any combination of media types on the Web for instant browsing or downloading by thousands of people simultaneously. The way we teach, and learn, has changed. Our environment has changed, our tools have changed. Does copyright law need to change too? Are guidelines for digital work necessary? Many in the educational community think the answer is yes. They seek the “safe harbor” guidelines may afford.
In 1994 several working groups were established to develop guidelines for fair use in the electronic environment. The Conference on Fair Use (CONFU) grew out of the Clinton Administration’s call in the Green Paper to bring together both sides of the fair use issue - proprietors and users -- to develop guidelines for the educational community. Several task forces were convened to examine specific electronic uses of copyrighted work: digital images; distance learning; electronic reserves; and interlibrary loan and document delivery. At the same time, the Consortium of College and University Media Centers (CCUMC) assembled a similar group to discuss and draft fair use guidelines for multimedia development. Because of their similar mission, the CCUMC group became a part of the CONFU process. The drafting work of these groups has concluded. Some working groups, such as the one that devised the Multimedia Fair Use Guidelines had success in forming guidelines. Other groups could not reach consensus, such as the Interlibrary Loan working group. (See Appendix A for the URL’s for the CONFU reports.)
Whether or not you decide to adopt the new digital
guidelines in the work of your Center, keep the following in mind:
1) They are for the digital environment only,
not analog work.
2) The entire educational and proprietary communities
have not agreed these guidelines are “safe harbors.” They reflect
the hard work of representatives from the educational community and proprietary
industries to determine fair uses.
3) They are not law. A judicial decision
of fair use or infringement will be based on an examination of the four
factors.
A posted copyright policy is an excellent way to let patrons know that misuse of borrowed materials or equipment is at their own risk. Such a policy also protects staff. Some centers require patrons to sign a letter of copyright compliance before resources are loaned. (See Appendix B.) Even better is a campus-wide policy. Unfortunately, this may not be the highest priority for campus administrators. At one well-known institution all segments of the campus community are informed of their personal obligation to act ethically and of their personal exposure to prosecution if they choose not to. Several times a year, the Provost sends a memo outlining personal responsibility, warning of consequences, and explaining the fair use guidelines. Potential infringers are adequately warned that the University insists on ethical behavior and transgressors will receive no help or sympathy if caught. The same information is published in the personnel bulletin and given to new students and staff. Several other comprehensive institutional policies, such as that of the University of Texas system, are available on the Web.
Ignorance of the law is not a defense in a copyright infringement case, so become informed! Ignorance may mean the difference between willful and negligent infringement, but it will not excuse the infringement. Therefore, one should learn and apply all relevant copyright information to learning center management. The consistent application of appropriate procedures is the best way to minimize copyright liability.
One cannot turn a blind eye to infringements either. This does not mean that learning center personnel must police the activities of their clients. We are in service to provide resources, equipment, information and training to our clients to improve the teaching, learning and research environments. This mission can easily extend to providing copyright information and training as well. If one knows, or has good reason to believe, that Center resources are being used to infringe copyrights, then action must be taken to minimize culpability for the unit and the institution, and the client should be informed to reduce their own risk of prosecution.
For example, many faculty tape programs off broadcast television while abroad. If they request you to convert television standards from PAL to the NTSC, or add the tapes to the Center’s library, they may unknowingly be requesting you to infringe copyrights. While taping and long-term retention of a program may be permissible for a private individual, it is not permissible for a public institution to participate in its duplication (standards conversion creates a copy of the tape), retention or performance. People have become very accustomed to home taping of programs, and don’t realize that private activities and public activities have different sets of rules. In the United States, the Off-Air Taping Guidelines are clear about how long a program may be used in an educational context without licensing (securing copyright permission): 10 school days from the date of taping for use with students, and 45 calendar days to evaluate whether the program is desirable for licensing. After informing the patron of relevant copyright restrictions, Center personnel can offer to assist with licensing, or help to identify a substitute program. Following a copyright “no” with an offer of assistance helps sustain good relations with faculty.
Do not neglect the royalty-free resources available on your own campus, as well as royalty-free collections available for sale. Campuses have healthy library, museum or departmental collections of images, sound, music, video and text, where the copyright is owned by the institution. These are often unknown resources to those outside of their normal disciplinary use. Find out where these collections are and how you, your faculty and your student patrons can gain access to them. In addition, many companies are distributing royalty-free image or sound collections on CD that can be used in analog or digital campus projects. The advantage of these collections is that as long as the resulting work is used only within the institution, the resources may be used without additional payment of royalties.
One little known relief for employees of nonprofit
educational institutions is Section 504(c)(2). This section on statutory
damages states:
The court shall remit statutory damages in any
case where an infringer believed and had reasonable grounds for believing
that his or her use of the copyrighted work was a fair use under section
107, if the infringer was: (I) an employee or agent of a nonprofit educational
institution, library or archives acting within the scope of his or her
employment who, ... infringed by reproducing the work in copies or phonorecords...
Again, being able to document consistent practices,
particularly in the case of determining fair use applications, is an important
element of reducing liability.
Differentiate between instructional and educational uses. Instructional uses are intrinsically attached to a programmed course of study in which learning objectives are established and credit is awarded. Educational uses involve providing information or experience to the university community and, in many instances, to the general public. While the mission of conversation clubs or film festivals may be educational, they fall outside the regular curriculum. Some proprietors will grant licenses for instructional activities but not for general educational activities.
Beyond specific content identification (e.g., reference citation, location and duration of video segments, image specifications) include the sum and substance of the proposed product. What percentage of the finished project relies on the requested item? What is the relationship between the requested item and other pieces?
Ask for what you need. When planning a permission letter, make reference to the exclusive rights granted to content proprietors (reproduction, adaptation, distribution, performance and display). For example, a typical multimedia request would ask for:
In addition, to eliminate concern about possible
infringement when presenting projects at professional conferences, also
request permission to demonstrate the resulting computer application when
presenting a synopsis of the project.
Note the name and address of the publisher of
the resource, the name of the publication, its creator, publication
date, and the creators of any individual works from the publication that
you plan to use. Illustrated works generally provide a list of credits;
in most books, this list is located at the beginning or end of the book,
and occasionally credits are given in the captions of illustrations.
CDs and videos also provide credits in the printed material on the cases
that can be useful in tracking down copyright holders. If you have
the pertinent information for your resource for each of the items listed
below, you will be well prepared to request copyright permissions.
|
publication, publication author, publication date publisher, publisher address work author location
|
from the overall work such as the book or video title who put out the publication the piece you are using: a portion of the text, poem, image, song, a few seconds of video the "author" of a work may not be the publication author: the photographer or author of an individual piece of work the place of the work in the publication: page number, CD track, position of minutes and seconds on a videotape |
It is possible that all the information may not
be available on the resource itself or may be out of date. You may
also be dealing with incomplete resource lists compiled by someone else.
If this is the case, the reference section of your library can be a great
help in tracking down information. It is a good idea to check the
address of the publisher provided in any book over five years old.
(See Appendix D for useful resources.)
Another way to protect your copyright is to define the roles and rights of contributors, talent and staff. In a work-for-hire situation, the creators are still the owners of the copyright unless they assign and transfer all rights for the product to you. If the creator is a regular employee, and the work is done within the scope of employment, then copyright may belong to the institution. In these instances, have all participants sign model or waivers releases (see Appendix E for samples).
Oftentimes, we don’t think about needing a waiver of copyright in a work. One frequent example is taping a lecture by a visiting scholar. A variety of intellectual property laws are in question here: copyright as well as the rights of publicity and privacy. A simple model release authorizing the unit to videotape the lecture, and subsequently use it in other educational circumstances, or duplicate it, is much easier to do when scholars are on campus, than to try to track them down after they have left. Additionally, a signed release from a legal guardian must be obtained for talent under eighteen years of age.
Many institutions have intellectual property policies that govern copyright ownership. Some policies recognize both the faculty content contribution and institutional support contributions, resulting in a shared copyright between both. Staff are not usually awarded the same intellectual property recognition as faculty; their contributions are generally considered within the scope of their regular employment. Work done by students, or student employees, may have different rights attached to it than work done by faculty or staff. If future duplication, performance, distribution or adaptation is likely, make sure you know what you can do with the material, by having everyone involved sign a copyright waiver.
Finally, put a notice of copyright on the work. A simple © 1997 IALL, for example, makes it very clear who should be contacted if someone wants to ask permission of you to use your work! Even though it’s not required, it simplifies the process for everyone.
As administrators of media centers and media resources,
we need to ensure the legal and ethical use of copyrighted works, no easy
task in the best of circumstances. Our changing technological and
educational environments present additional challenges. For example,
what is a classroom, and where is it located? Why is using a digital
copy different from using its analog counterpart? The only way to
make prudent choices is to keep informed of the evolving copyright environment,
too. Appendices are included to assist you in continuing your education
and research on this complex topic. For easy hot links, refer to
Module 9 of the Management Manual, located at the IALL website, http://iallt.org.
Keep reading, and defining copyright, and its ramifications for the learning
center.
APPENDIX B: COPYRIGHT POLICY POSTINGS
APPENDIX C: SAMPLE PERMISSION LETTERS
APPENDIX D: PERMISSION RESEARCH RESOURCES
APPENDIX E: SAMPLE MODEL
RELEASE AND WAIVER FORMS
Many groups interested in copyright maintain WWW
sites for the benefit of
the user and/or the producer of copyrighted works.
Part I below lists
organizational addresses including non-profits
and commercial groups.
Part II has listings that lead to considerable
additional information.
Part III provides a range of articles and sites
related to copyright.
These sites were active in May, 1997.
Part I
American Association for Higher Education
http://www.aahe.org/
American Society of Information Science (ASIS)
http://www.asis.org
Association for Educational Communications and
Technology (AECT)
http://www.aect.org
Association for Information Media and Equipment
http://www.aime.org/
Association of American Publishers (AAP)
http://www.publishers.org/
Association of Reserach Libraries
http://www.arl.org/
http://arl.cni.org/info/frn/copy/copytoc.html
The Creative Incentive Coalition
http://www.cic.org
Educom
http://educom.edu
Electric Frontier Foundation
http://www.eff.org
International Intellectual Property Alliance
http://www.iipa.com/
International Association of Learning Laboratories
(IALL)
http://iallt.org/
Institute for Academic Technology
http://www.iat.unc.edu/
Library of Congress
http://lcweb.loc.gov/
Motion Picture Association of America
www.mpaa.org
Motion Picture Licensing Corporation
http://www.mplc.com/
National Association of College and University
Attorneys
http://www.nacua.org/
National School Boards Association(NSBA)
http://www.nsba.org
Software Publishers Association
http://w2.spa.org/
World Intellectual Property Organization
http://www.wipo.org/
===========================================================
Part II
CNI-copyright@cni.org - A discussion list sponsored
by the Coalition for
Networked Information, a joint project of the
Assoc. of Research
Libraries, CAUSE, and EDUCOM.
E-mail the message, SUBSCRIBE CNI-COPYRIGHT Your
Name, to the
Coalition's server, LISTPROC@CNI.ORG, leaving
the subject line blank.
Copyright Resources Online, 13 May 96
http://www.library.yale.edu/~okerson/copyproj.html
Well annotated with many useful links.
International Federation of Library Associations
and Institutions
http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/ifla/II/cpyright.htm
An exhaustive bibliography (with links),
periodicals, organizations
and other WWW sites, policy statements,
and international laws.
UMass Amherst
http://www.umass.edu/langctr/cr-fu.html
This site includes this resource list and
its links.
===========================================================
Part III
Agora Language Marketplace: Obtaining Releases
for Incorporated Material
http://agoralang.com/showcase/authors/copyrel
Becker, Gary H.
A Question of Fair Use: Copyright
and the New Technologies
http://www.infotoday.com/MMSchools/MarMMS/becker3.html
Brennan, Patricia and Karen Hersey
Strategic and Practical Considerations
for Signing Electronic
Information Delivery Agreements
http://arl.cni.org/scomm/licensing/licbooklet.html
Brinson, J. Dianne and Mark F. Radcliffe.
Intellectual Property Law Primer for Multimedia
Developers
http://www.lcds.pvt.k12.pa.us/ip-prime.htm
Educom Review: Legal & Policy Index, 26 Feb
97
http://educom.edu/web/pubs/review/legPolIndex.html
Carroll, Terry
Frequently Asked Questions about Copyright
(V. 1.1.3) Part 1-Introduction.
http://www.eff.org/pub/Intellectual_property/carroll_copyright_faq
CNI-copyright@cni.org
http://www.cni.org/forums/
Computers and Copyrights: Bibliography.
Compiled by Carolyn Kotlas, MSLS
Institute for Academic Technology Last
revised: January 17, 1997.
http://www.iat.unc.edu/guides/irg-04.html
Copyright Clearance Center, Academic Permissions
Service
http://www.openmarket.com/copyright/
Copyright Management Center, Indiana University
http://www.iupui.edu/it/copyinfo/home.html
Copyright Licensing Sources
http://www.ad-mkt-review.com/public_html/licensng.html
Electric Frontier Foundation
http://www.eff.org/pub/Intellectual_property/
Entertainment Law Resources: For Film, TV and
Multimedia Producers
http://www.laig.com/law/entlaw/
Government Documents (Order hotline: 202-707-9100.
Info specialist:
202-707-3000.)
http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright/
Guide to Copyright Issues in Higher Education.
http://www.nacua.org/Publications/pamphlets/copyright.html
Hamilton College Copyright Policy
http://nemo.hamilton.edu/html/library/AVpage4.htm
Livingston, Lisa
Educational Multimedia Fair Use Guidelines
http://www.cic.org/ccumc.html
MIT
http://web.mit.edu/cwis/www/faq/guidelines.html
Music rights:
ASCAP: http://www.ascap.com
BMI: http://www.bmi.com
Music Publishers' Association Copyright
Resource Center:
http://host.mpa.org/crc.html
National Music Publishers' Association,
Inc/Harry Fox Agency, Inc..:
http://www.nmpa.org/nmpa.html
Norris, Paul F. and Mark J. Bolender of Hendricks
& Lewis
Potential Pitfalls in Multimedia Media
Product Development: Clearing
the Necessary Content Rights
http://www.batnet.com/oikoumene/nobomediarights.html
Stanford University Libraries
http://fairuse.stanford.edu/
Syllabus Press
http://www.syllabus.com/
University of Texas System
http://www.utsystem.edu/ogc/intellectualproperty/cprtindx.htm
Yale University Library
http://www.library.yale.edu/~Llicense/index.shtml
Yahoo Intellectual Property
http://www.yahoo.com/Law/Intellectual_Property
================================
Part IV
Bill of Rights for Electronic Citizens. Frank
Connolly (American
Univ.), Steven Gilbert (EDUCOM), Peter Lyman,
(USC). March
13, 1990.
Guide to the Ethical and Legal Use of Software
for Members of the
Academic Community. EDUCOM EUIT. 202-872-4200.
IALL Journal of Language Learning Technologies
Copyright Corner. 1992 to Present.
Information Technology, Intellectual Property,
and Education. Syllabus,
Winter 1992, Number 20.
Kotlas, Carolyn. Copyrights and Copy Wrongs:
Sources of
Information on Computer Copyrights. Volume
25. Number 2. 1992.
Rosenfield, Harry N.
"The American Constitution, Free Inquiry, and
the Law."
In Fair Use and Free Inquiry, 2nd ed. (J.
Lawrence and B. Timberg). Norwood, NJ:
Ablex Publishing
Corp. 1989. Rosenfield supports reasonable
access to materials,
as a form of constitutionally protected freedom
of inquiry.
Salpeter, Judy. Are You Obeying Copyright Law?
Technology
and Learning. Volume 12, number 8.
1992
We appreciate your consideration of all who are sharing these resources. Please note that this computer room is staffed only a few hours per week. We expect to add more staff and computers gradually.
SCHEDULING
- You may schedule an appointment, in person or by phone. Remember to cancel if you can't keep your appointment.
SAVING YOUR FILE
- Files more than four weeks old, on our drives, will be erased at our convenience. We are NOT responsible for your files.
- Note that there is no security system to protect
files that you leave on our hard drives. Please do not leave any confidential
materials.
COPYRIGHT CONSIDERATIONS
- We may be able to add your software applications
temporarilv. However,
you must discuss this with us before doing so.
- Using copyrighted music, photos, text, and/or video, without permission, will limit your ability to use your completed project in any public way. Think twice before investing too much time in a project of limited use.
- We have extensive copyright information available which you are encouraged to request.
FOOD OR BEVERAGES
| I have read and agree to the above policies.
Print name: Date: Signature: |
When you borrow materials, you agree to:
Failure to comply can result in loss of FLRC
privileges
and/or administrative withdrawal or a hold on
registration.
Copyright information is available upon request.
«Contact_name»
«Copyright_holder»
Copyright Permissions
«Street»
«City, State, Zip»
Dear «Contact_name» Sir or Madam:
This letter is to request permission to use the «Media_type»(s) specified below from «Publication» published by «Publisher» in «Publication_date», in a multimedia application being developed by a professor of «Department» «Institution Name»_ for use in a course entitled «Course_Name». I understand «Copyright_holder» holds the copyright on these items:
«Location1»_, «Work1»
The course will «focus of course». The purpose of the multimedia application is to provide students with «focus of multimedia application».
For this application to be effectively implemented as a learning tool, the «Media_type»(s) must be digitized. Given course enrollment numbers (N+ per semester), more than one copy of the multimedia application will be necessary at the computing sites to enable students to complete their work in a timely manner. «In addition, if and when the technology becomes more effective, I would like to have the Media_type pressed to CD in order to provide a more efficient format for management and delivery .»
We request your authorization to use the aforementioned
«Media_type»(s) with any or all of the following conditions
and specifications:
1. Digitize or press to CD the specified «Media_type»(s).
2. Incorporate the specified «Media_type»(s)
into a multimedia application; the completed application will contain «text,
images, spoken word, music, video»_.
3. Make the resulting multimedia application
available for use in the classroom.
4. Make the resulting multimedia application
available in a networked environment on servers restricted to use «Institution
Name» students, faculty and staff, from which copying is prohibited.
5. Demonstrate the resulting multimedia application
when presenting a synopsis of the project.
6. Full credit will be given in the resulting
multimedia application.
To indicate your approval of this request, kindly sign and return one copy of this letter. I would appreciate hearing from you as soon as you can possibly manage.
Thank you for your time and attention in this matter. The inclusion of the «Media_type» in this multimedia application will provide students with a valuable resource.
Sincerely,
«Requester»
«Title»
«Publication»
Permission granted:_______________________________________________________Date:_______________
(name)
_______________________________________________________
(title)
Form of copyright acknowledgment (please indicate
exact wording of acknowledgment): __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Specifications or other conditions: _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
«Contact_name»:
contact person, if known
«Copyright_holder»:
individual or entity holding the copyright
- can be a publisher, producer, author, etc, may
be the same as the contact name or publisher
«Street»
«City,State,Zip»
«Media_type»
audio, image, text, video, graphic
«Publication»
full text name, program name, cd title
«Publisher»
or producer
«Publication_date»
year of publication
«Department», «Course_Name»
department of faculty developer and course
the application is being created for
«Location1»
where in the copyrighted work does the
piece come from? page number?
minutes/seconds into the work?
«Work1»
name of the specific piece - poem
name, image title
«focus of course»
general objectives of course
«focus of multimedia application»
learning objectives of multimedia application
- what students will do/get
N+ per semester
how many students per semester will be
affected? 500+?
«In addition, if and when the technology
becomes more effective, I would like to have the Media_type pressed to
CD in order to provide a more efficient format for management and delivery
.»
if storage or acces in another medium (CD,
laser disc) may be desired
«text, images, spoken word, music, video»
media types and quantities the entire application
will consist of
«Requester» «Title»
individual the copyright holder should
respond to
PERMISSION SEEKING RESOURCES
by Christina Powell
INTERNET RESOURCES
Library of Congress catalog and Copyright Office database
PRINT PUBLICATIONS
Publishers Directory, published by Gale Research, Inc
Working Press of the Nation, published
by National Register Publishing
WORKS OF ART
The World's Master Paintings, published by Routledge
INSTITUTION
unit name
MODEL RELEASE
I, _______________________________________________, give the <institution> unit name permission to produce a <media type> recording of me in conjunction with <author/creator name> <text name> on <recording date>. I transfer and assign all rights to this recording to the <Institution> unit name.
I certify that I am eighteen years of age or older.
SIGNED ____________________________________________________
DATE _____________________________________________________
WITNESS _____________________________________________________
INSTITUTION
unit name
TRANSFER AND WAIVER OF COPYRIGHT
I, _______________________________________________,
transfer and assign all rights to the work I created or performed for the
project presently identified as: ________________________________________________________________________
to the <Institution> unit name. I understand
this is a work-for-hire and do not expect compensation beyond the agreed
upon ________________________________________.
I certify that I am eighteen years of age or older.
SIGNED ____________________________________________________
DATE _____________________________________________________
WITNESS _____________________________________________________