the internet & copyright laws internet basics & beyond mrs. wilson
TRANSCRIPT
The Internet & Copyright Laws
Internet Basics & BeyondMrs. Wilson
What is Copyright?
Copyright is a protection that covers published and unpublished literary, scientific and artistic works, whatever the form of expression, provided such works are fixed in a tangible or material form
If you can see it, hear it and/or touch it—it may be protected
Laws grant the creator the exclusive right to reproduce, prepare derivative works, distribute, perform and display the work publicly
The Internet
The Internet is a relatively new frontier; the Web even newer.
Because of the unique nature of digital media, some of the copyright laws that apply to printed material in the physical world don't work as well in cyberspace.
As a result, there are gray areas that are hotly debated.
However, some general principles apply.
If you think of a web page as an original creation, then it follows that you can't reproduce it in whole or in part without the permission of the original creator.
Even if you are not reproducing part of someone else's work for commercial purposes, you should still get permission.
The Internet
US Copyright Laws
In general, text, graphics, animation and other intellectual property that is published on the Internet is protected by U.S. and international copyright laws.
You cannot use someone else's work unless you first get clearance from the copyright owner.
Biz Gets a Haircut
Biz Markie, former human beat box and internationally famous MC, sampling Gilbert O'Sullivan?
It makes one pause, but it did happen.
On Biz Markie's album I Need a Haircut, the song Alone Again contains the familiar melody of Gilbert O'Sullivan's 1972 hit Alone Again (Naturally), as well as the titled refrain.
Biz Markie….
The original Biz album is now out of print, probably due to the infringement contained therein.
The album has been re-released with the offending song cut from the album.
Additional fallout from the infringement: Markie's subsequent album is titled All Samples Cleared!
Ownership
Before you slap a copyright notice on your website, you should have a clear understanding of what exactly it is that you consider to be protected by copyright.
There are many elements to a website, including Text Graphics Script Data Code
If you created everything on the site, you can be reasonably comfortable in your ownership.
However, if you had someone else create text copy, or download some clip art, or used scanned photographs from your archives, or hired a web design firm to load all of your content into an attractive package, then you need to think a little harder.
Ownership
The Famous © Symbol
Why does it say Copyright ©2004 rphs.org at the bottom of my webpage?
Those are the dates that I created and/or modified the layout, text, graphics and other material displayed on this web site and saved it to my hard drive
Only I, as the author and creator of this work, am entitled to use, reproduce and distribute this material unless someone else who wishes to use it obtains my prior written permission to use it as well, and only in the manner that I previously approve
What does this mean?
Nobody may access my web site and copy my layout, text or graphics until I provide a written document that states:
Yes, you can use my work, but only in the manner that I deem appropriate
This especially goes for those who want to use my material for lucrative purposes
Infringement
Anybody who uses, copies or distributes my material in any manner, for commercial or personal purposes, without my written permission, would be committing an infringement* of my copyright
As a principle of law states:
"Ignorance of the Law does not make one exempt from compliance thereof."
*a failure to obey a law or regulation
Questions
Can you link to anyone you want?
Do you have to get permission to link to someone else's page?
Can someone prevent you from linking to their page?
Can you prevent someone from linking to your page?
Is there such a thing as a doctrine of Implied Public Access on the Web?
"Free" Web Graphics and Linking Images Graphic images provided by "free" or
"linkware" graphics sites are not public domain
These images, although provided to you for "free" (no $), are not being given to you in ownership
You must comply with the owner's terms and conditions, so make sure that you comply with them in full when you use or display the graphics in question
If the owner says, "only use for your personal homepage," only use it for your personal homepage
Theft of Copyright
Plagiarism From the Latin plagiarius, meaning
abductor First law enacted in 1790
HTML Code & Copyright
Hey - everyone knows that HTML coding and webpage layouts cannot be copyrighted!
If you see a certain page layout and like the way it looks, you could "legally" reproduce something similar if you write the coding all by yourself without copying any of the source code from the original page
The actual intangible idea may not be copyrighted
What is copyrighted is the tangible result of the idea, which would be the layout written out in HTML coding and saved to a hard drive
Hot-linking and Spider Harvesting Hot-linking, or linking directly to another
website's images and/or spider-harvesting (robots programmed to index pages and pull images onto another server) is not only bandwidth theft, but may also be construed as copyright infringement in some cases
Frames
The use of frames to ease navigation within a site is perfectly acceptable
It is not acceptable to "lock" or "trap" other web sites or pages in one's frames
If I pull someone else's page with original poetry on it into my own site through the use of frames may mislead others to believe that I am the author of the poetry
Example…
Proceed with Caution…
If you are not 100% sure that the material is in the public domain (sometimes "free sites" offer copyrighted material), do not use it
You may be violating somebody's copyright
