COPYRIGHT AND COPYLEFT
WARNING:
Do Not use any literary interpretation of copyright law that you
read on the web unless it is DATED AT LEAST in the last 12 months!
Find a long list of exclusions to exclusive use rights now
included in the law
.
ARTICLES
Copyright
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;
This is the first copyright act in the world, the British Statute of Anne, from 1710.
" If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea, which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of every one, and the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it."-- Thomas Jefferson
The Letters of Thomas Jefferson: 1743-1826
NO PATENTS ON IDEAS
"He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself
without lessening mine: as he who lights his taper at mine,
receives light without darkening me." -- Thomas Jefferson
Plagiarism in Dylan, or a Cultural Collage?
"This song is Copyrighted in U.S., under Seal of Copyright # 154085,
for a period of 28 years, and anybody caught singin it without our
permission, will be mighty good friends of ourn, cause we don't give
a dern. Publish it. Write it. Sing it. Swing to it. Yodel it. We
wrote it, that's all we wanted to do."
"Technology, Education and Copyright Harmonization Act" (the TEACH Act)
The Technology, Education and Copyright Harmonization
(TEACH) Act
The New Legislation
On November 2nd, 2002, the "Technology, Education and Copyright
Harmonization Act" (the TEACH Act), part of the larger Justice
Reauthorization legislation (H.R. 2215), was signed into law by
President Bush. Long anticipated by educators and librarians,
TEACH redefines the terms and conditions on which accredited, nonprofit educational institutions throughout the U.S. may use copyright protected materials in distance education-including on websites and by other digital means--without permission from the copyright owner and without payment of royalties.
New Copyright Law for Distance Education
-
PDF
The New Legislation
* Background of Copyright Law Context of Distance Education
* Benefits of the TEACH Act Requirements of the TEACH Act
* Duties of Institutional Policymakers Duties of Information
Technology Officials
* Duties of Instructors Role for Librarians
* Conclusion
E RESERVES
The case, known as Cambridge University Press, et al. v. Patton et
al.,
involves a popular practice known as e-reserves, or electronic
reserves, on college campuses and the murky contours of copyright
and fair use in the digital age. But perhaps the most notable aspect
of the suit is that publishers are in essence suing their very
partners in the scholarly publishing enterprise (including a
university librarian), something critics say represents something of
a waterloo for publishing.
Georgia on Their Minds
For those unfamiliar with the practice, e-reserves takes its name
from the traditional library "reserve" model, where a professor
makes a limited number of physical copies of articles or a book
chapter available for students. Those copies were generally subject
to permission, and proper reproduction fees were paid to the
publishers.
In the digital world, that's all changed. Rather than make multiple
physical copies, faculty now scan or download chapters or articles,
create a single copy, and place that copy on a server where students
can access it (and in some cases print, download, or share). Since
the practice relies on fair use (creating a single digital copy,
usually from a resource already paid for, for educational purposes),
permission generally isn't sought, and thus permission fees aren't
paid, making the price right for students strapped by the high cost
of tuition and textbooks, as well as for libraries with budgets
stretched thinner every year.
Not surprisingly, e-reserves are widely used and are immensely
popular. Students and instructors love the convenience, ease of use,
and accessibility. They are efficient and fit with the way teachers
teach and students learn in the digital age. In addition, e-reserves
facilitate innovations, like distance learning and collaboration.
The problem, publishers say, is that e-reserves are unmonitored, and
the practice is so varied that the system is routinely abused. In
reality, the term e-reserve today represents pretty much any kind of
digital course content, whether managed by the library, placed in a
course management system (CMS) like Blackboard, or hosted on a
personal or faculty Web site. And e-reserves also encompass the full
range of course reading, from a fraction of supplemental reading to
100% of assigned works, denying publishers the reproduction fees (or
sales) they'd come to rely on.
It's interesting that the article mentions peer review as a service provided by the academic publishers . In fact, the publishers parcel out peer reviews to experts in the field for low or no compensation. These experts typically work at the same universities being accused of infringement. So if there really is a Waterloo, universities can prohibit their staff from peer-reviewing articles except for open access journals.
the purpose of the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license
2016
Creative Commons licenses under scrutiny—what does “noncommercial”
mean?
Commercial v. noncommercial use of CC licenses.
Where's the line of demarcation?
The case began, according to Great Minds, when the education company
discovered that FedEx stores were reproducing the materials without
Great Minds' permission. Great Minds said it contacted FedEx, and
FedEx said it would not pay royalties. In court documents, FedEx
said Great Minds' lawsuit "is a case of a flawed legal theory that
simply cannot prevail." "The law is clear that FedEx Office can
assist licensee school districts in exercising their rights under
the License and no additional facts can change that," FedEx said
(PDF).
Copyrights and Copywrongs Why Thomas Jefferson would have loved
Napster
Written in plain english, nice, easy-to-follow intro. on copyright
in the digital age. "Intellectual property law can be traced back to
Ireland in the fourth century, where renegade bishop St. Columba
snuck into Old Man Finnean's library and copied his psalter by hand,
and then gave copies out for free to local churches. Finnean had an
absolute fit, and dragged Columba's ass to court, which meant King
Diarmit's royal court. The King decreed “To every cow its calf, to
every book its copy”, and fined St. Columba 40 head of cattle for
making an unauthorized copy. Here's the deal, though: Finnean of
Clonard didn't write the psalter in question, which is a book full
of psalms, he just owned it. The issue decided by Diarmit was about
allowing the wealthy and powerful to control the flow of knowledge,
and allowing the commoditization of information."
Essentially, this is a battle over whether people who use emerging
technologies will be users as we were in the PC and the Internet
revolutions, or whether we will be consumers as the television era
treated people. Will we actively use the technology to create media,
as people did with the PC and the Internet? Or will we be passive
consumers of content that is sold to us by others, as the television
viewers are?
Copyright is Dead
July 2000
Excerpt from Mac Edition Soup Says
The legal principle behind copyright has been sold down by the
river, by: the motion picture industry, the recording industry and
the major publishers.
Intellectual property law can be traced back to Ireland in the
fourth century, where renegade bishop St. Columba snuck into Old Man
Finnean's library and copied his psalter by hand, and then gave
copies out for free to local churches. Finnean had an absolute fit,
and dragged Columba's ass to court, which meant King Diarmit's royal
court. The King decreed "To every cow its calf, to every book its
copy", and fined St. Columba 40 head of cattle for making an
unauthorized copy. Here's the deal, though: Finnean of Clonard
didn't write the psalter in question, which is a book full of
psalms, he just owned it. The issue decided by Diarmit was about
allowing the wealthy and powerful to control the flow of knowledge,
and allowing the commoditization of information.
Mickey Mouse goes into the public domain on1/1/2024 , just in case you wanted an exact deadline by which US Copyright Law will change.
Sec. 107. Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use
Reprinted under the Fair Use
https://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine of
international copyright law. Full copyright retained by the original
publication. (In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this
material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a
prior interest in receiving the included information for research
and educational purposes.)
House Panel Votes to Ease Copyright Restrictions
Chronice of Higher Education, 2.8.9 By ANDREA L. FOSTER
The enactment of a bill that would make it easier for educational
institutions to use films and songs in online instruction was all
but assured last month after a key House of Representatives
committee approved the legislation.
The House Judiciary Committee unanimously approved the bill, the
Technology Harmonization and Education Act,
S 487, on a voice vote without debate. It is identical to a bill the
Senate approved in June 2001.
The legislation would expand the exceptions under the Copyright
Act of 1976 that
allow colleges and schools to use copyrighted material for
instruction without securing copyright holders' permission
. The act allows distance-education providers to digitally
transmit nondramatic literary and musical works. Under the bill,
they would also be able to show students selected portions of
movies, plays, and other dramatic works.The legislation applies
only to accredited, nonprofit educational institutions.
<snip>
Copyright, Congress, Due Diligence, And Coase by Frank Forman
Economist at the U.S. Department of Education author of "The
Metaphysics of Liberty"
Silent Theft - The Private Plunder of our Public Wealth
PDF
About Counter - Copyrights [CC]
As an alternative to the exclusivity of copyright, the
counter-copyright invites others to use and build upon a creative
work. By encouraging the widespread dissemination of such works, the
counter-copyright campaign fosters a rich public domain.
U.S. COPYRIGHT OFFICE
COPYRIGHT and WRONG WHAT EVERY TEACHER SHOULD KNOW
COPYRIGHT PERMISSION FORM LETTER
Australian Copyright Update August 23,2002
in a landmark decision for defamation law, Australia's High Court
ruled that a Melbourne businessman can sue New York publishing
company Dow Jones & Co. in Australia over an article published
in the U.S. and distributed via the Internet. The article was
published in Barron's, a Dow Jones business and financial weekly.
Dow Jones also publishes The Wall Street Journal.
FIGHT CENSORSHIP
Source: New York Times (Circuits-D13) 6/18/98
Author: Michael Pollak