Waggoner Library: Master: CAI, Curriculum & Instruction: Copyright

Fairy Use Tale

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. Copyright covers both published and unpublished works. Copyright law is written to encourage the growth of knowledge by giving authors and artists limited time exclusive rights to use and profit from their creations. If a song or book or anything else is under copyright protection, you cannot use it without the author's permission. Usually, a music copyright owner will charge fees called "royalties" in exchange for permission to use his music.

What does copyright protect?

Copyright, a form of intellectual property law, protects original works of authorship including literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works, such as poetry, novels, movies, songs, computer software, and architecture. Copyright does not protect facts, ideas, systems, or methods of operation, although it may protect the way these things are expressed. See Circular 1, Copyright Basics, section "What Works Are Protected."

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.

When is my work protected?

Your work is under copyright protection the moment it is created and fixed in a tangible form that it is perceptible either directly or with the aid of a machine or device.

Source: "Copyright in General". Copyright.gov. U.S. Copyright Office. http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-general.html

Learn more about fair use, campus policy, images & more from the Copyright Research Guide.

What is Public Domain?

Anything which legally has no owner is said to be in the public domain. Once there was even public domain land, but now public domain is pretty much limited to intellectual property where copyright protection has expired or the creator has formally given his work to the public. There is no "official" list of public domain property because something becomes public domain due to the absence of any law giving anyone claim to ownership. In effect, if no one on this entire planet can find any law which gives them legal claim to a property, then that property is in the public domain.

What is intellectual property?

Intellectual property is any product of the human intellect where ownership can be claimed and protected by law. This includes creative works such as music, lyrics, books, poetry, or art as well as more typical business applications such as inventions, chemical and biological advances, or computer software systems. Intellectual property is most often protected by copyright, patent, and trademark laws.

- taken from the Public Domain Information Project, FAQ's

Copyright Genie
1. Help to find out if a work is covered by U.S. copyright 2. Calculate its terms of protection & 3. Collect and publish the results
Section 108 Spinner
Section 108 of the U.S. Copyright Code allows libraries & archives, under certain circumstances, to make reproductions of copyrighted materials without the permission of the copyright holder. This simple tool can help you determine whether or not a particular reproduction is covered by this exemption.
Fair Use Evaluator
This online tool helps collect, organize, and document the information needed to make a fair use determination and to support a fair use claim, and provides a time-stamped PDF document of the analysis.
Digital Copyright Slider
Created by Michael Brewer and the American Library Association Office for Information Technology Policy, Copyright Advisory Committee. The scale applies to works published in the U.S.
Digitial Image Rights Computator (DIRC)
DIRC is a set of guidelines developed by Visual Resources Association, based on generally accepted practices within the visual resources community regarding image acquisition and use in the educational environment. It not law but rather guidelines.
Exceptions for Instructors in U.S. Copyright Law
The U.S. Copyright Code provides for the educational use of copyrighted material without the permission of the copyright holder under certain conditions. To find out if your intended use meets the requirements set out in the law, use this free, online tool.

Images

Looking for an image for a presentation or paper? A bit concerned that you don't really know if it's copyright protected or maybe in the public domain? Not sure how to cite an image? What about statistical charts? If you found it on Google images is it copyrighted?

The Images & Copyright Research Guide has the answer to these questions and more. Click to view the full guide.

Image: Lewis Hine National Child Labor Committee Collection, from Public Domain Archive. http://publicdomainarchive.com/public-domain-images-hine-lewis-national-child-labor-committee-collection/

Copyright or Wrong? A Brief Guide to Finding and Using Online Images with Kyle Stedman, 2016.

Musical Works and Sound Recordings

A Musical Work and a Sound Recording of a Musical Work have separate and extremely different copyright protection.

Musical Work- Song, Sheet Music Composition	Lyrics, Melody, and Musical Arrangement of Notes that Define a Song or Musical Composition
Sound Recording-CD, Record, MP3, WAV	The Process of Fixing Music or Sound on a Medium that can Reproduce and Play Back the Music upon Demand

For example, The children's song, "Mary Had A Little Lamb" is absolutely in the public domain worldwide, and it can be freely used by anyone. However, in the USA, no sound recordings of "Mary Had A Little Lamb" are in the public domain. It is imperative that you understand the difference between a musical work and a sound recording when using public domain music.

Rule of Thumb for Public Domain Music and Sound Recordings

Musical Works published with a valid Copyright Notice of 1922 or Earlier are in the public domain in the United States.
Essentially ALL Sound Recordings are under copyright protection until 2067 in the United States.
Copyright protection outside the USA is determined by the laws of the country where you wish to use a work. Copyright protection maybe 50 to 70 years after the death of the last surviving author, 95 years from the publication date, or other copyright protection terms.

- taken from Public Domain Information Project, Copyright Law.

Copyright Policy: Trevecca Nazarene University
Trevecca's Copyright Policy can be found in Section 4.3 of the Faculty and Human Resources Handbook. Access requires your network login.
TNU Intellectual Property Rights Policy
Policy to protect the rights and interests of University constituents as well as the University itself; and to provide University constituents with information that will guide understanding of intellectual property and its application at Trevecca Nazarene University.