THE COPYRIGHT LAWand Fair Use Guidelines for Educational Multimedia

COPYRIGHT LAW

Laws designed to protect intellectual property rights and provide potential monetary rewards for inventiveness and hard work. The ease with which material can be copied,

digitized, manipulated, incorporated into a presentation and delivered to a mass market has prompted a concern about the adequacy of copyright laws as they apply to the multimedia industry.

COPYRIGHT ACT OF 1976

Protects certain kinds of “original works of authorship”—whether published or unpublished

Protects works “fixed in any tangible form of expression”

THE COPYRIGHT LAW COVERS . . . Literary works (books, poems, software)

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

DOES NOT COVER . . .

Ideas

Facts

Titles

Names

Short phrases

Blank forms

TRADEMARKS & COPYRIGHTS ARE DIFFERENT A trademark is a name, symbol, or other

device identifying a product Trademarks are not covered by the

copyright law, but by the Trademark Law Trademarks are frequently marked with

a registered trademark symbol--® Example: Coca Cola ®, Nike®

HOW DO I OBTAIN A COPYRIGHT? You automatically own the copyright to

any work you create as soon as it is fixed in a tangible medium.

You can indicate ownership by using the expression “copyright by” or the © symbol.

You can register for ownership with the U.S. Copyright office; this does provide you with additional legal benefits.

EXCEPTION TO OWNERSHIP In the case of works made for hire, the

employer and not the employee is considered to be the author.

Section 101 of the copyright law defines a “work made for hire” as: A work prepared by an employee within the

scope of his or her employment; or A work specially ordered or commissioned

for use

RIGHTS OF THE OWNER

You have the right to: Reproduce the work Distribute copies of the work Make a “derivative” work (make copies or

changes from the original) Publicly perform the work Put the work on public display

If you perform any of these tasks and are NOT the copyright owner, you are infringing on their rights. Example: copying software, sharing MP3 files,

photocopying, uploading materials to websites, etc.

WHAT OPTIONS DO WE HAVE?

Fair Use Guidelines for Educational Multimedia

Public Domain Royalty-Free Products

FAIR USE GUIDELINES

Portions, or in some cases the entirety, of copyrighted works may be used

Legitimate uses include “criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research.”

FAIR USE FACTORS

For use to fall under the Fair Use guidelines, the following factors must be considered: Purpose and character of use—commercial

or non-profit educational purposes The nature of the copyrighted work The amount and substantiality of the

portion used The effect of the use upon the potential

market value of the product

FAIR USE LIMITATIONS

Motion media 10% or 3 minutes, whichever is less

Text material 10% or 1000 words, whichever is less

Music 10% or 3 minutes, whichever is less

Photographs /

Illustrations

5 images per photographer/ artist; 10% or 15 images from a collective work

CREDIT YOUR SOURCES

“Educators and students are reminded to credit the sources and display the copyright notice and copyright ownership information . . . . ”

PUBLIC DOMAIN

Property rights that belong to the community at large, are unprotected by copyright or patent, and are subject to use by anyone You should have documentation that the item is

in public domain before using it Anything published before 1923 Anything created by the U.S. Federal Government

Public domain is not the same as freeware or shareware:

•Freeware: software that is provided without a charge

•Shareware: copyrighted software that is available free of charge on a trial basis

ROYALTY-FREE

Prepared material that can be used—legally—without paying a fee to the artist, publishing company, etc.

Some royalty-free material is available at no cost; however, most material must be purchased.

Royalty-free doesn’t necessarily mean FREE—you may have to pay for it.

REMEMBER . . .

Credit your sources!

When you create a work, you own the rights to that work.

Creating projects for the classroom is not necessarily the same as creating projects for competition—know the guidelines.

REMEMBER . . .

It is permissible to download limited amounts of material for use in a student project, but you can’t download material from one web site and post it to yours.

Know that royalty-free doesn’t mean unlimited rights—but it does expand your options

There is a difference in personal use, educational use, and the workplace.