| Copyright
Laws Someone owns the copyrights
to every image, unless it's been placed in the public domain or the copyright
has run out (which in most cases is 75 years after the copyright holder's death).
Someone had to create the image, and hence, they are the legal copyright holder,
whether known or not. Just because it's displayed in public (on the net or wherever)
does not make it public domain though. On the contrary, the copyright begins on
the date of being published somewhere for the first time (if they had the legal
right to publish it to begin with).
If the copyright
owner (image creator, photographer, whatever) placed it in the public domain it's
generally free to use. They may also make it available to use freely but place
some limitations on usage, such as requiring a link back or text credit. In this
case they
retain the copyright but grant you a free license to use it, and
they can also exercise their right to require you to stop using it.
On
the other hand, they may also be actively looking for copyright violations, or
may not care one way or the other.
The image you say
is all over the net may be public domain, but if you don't know that for certain
and have not obtained permission to use it, you are taking a risk. You'll have
to determine for yourself if using the image is worth the risk. Every site you
see the image on
may have obtained permission to use it, or they may all be
in violation of copyright laws. My advice is to always seek permission.
from
Boogie Jack's Almost A Newsletter - July 1, 2002 Most
video cassettes and DVDs in the open market are sold and rented with home viewing
rights only. Movie studios and their agents are the only ones who license sites
such as schools. Copyright protects the intellectual property/creation of the
author, computer programmer, or movie producer. These people depend on the royalties
obtained through sales of this property to earn their living. Movie Licensing
USA: http://www.movlic.com/ Licensing Agent
For Major Movie Studios, located in St. Louis, Missouri, has the rules for schools
and libraries to be sure they are copyright compliant. One example explains that
there are three criteria that exempt the use of copyrighted entertainment videos
or DVDs in a school from U.S. copyright law and that all three must apply: 1)
the showing takes place in a classroom setting. 2) a teacher is in attendance,
and 3) the movie is an essential element of a current curriculum being taught.
10 Big Myths about copyright explained: http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html
Copyright Advisory Network: http://www.librarycopyright.net/
" This Web site is a new way for librarians to learn about copyright
and to get help when they have copyright troubles. The purpose of this
site is to encourage librarians to discuss copyright concerns, and seek
feedback and advice from fellow librarians and copyright specialists..
We'd like to encourage communication and discussion - with copyright,
there are no definitive answers so your perspective or point of view will
add to a full exchange of ideas."
Copyright & Fair Use: http://fairuse.stanford.edu/
Copyrights & home pages: Not just for
teachers
The headline reads, "The Educator's Guide to Copyright and Fair Use,"
but this is a topic of interest to anyone planning to use other people's
artwork, photos, or text in his or her Web site or Net-researched homework.
Teachers are increasingly faced with the need to have classroom copyright
policies and teach kids the ethics involved. But they're not alone in
needing to get up to speed on the subject. A five-part series at
Education World, "The Educator's Guide to Copyright and Fair Use":
http://www.education-world.com/a_curr/curr280.shtml
Copyright: Guardian of Intellectual Property:
http://library.thinkquest.org/26658/cgi-bin/2-1.cgi
Copyright Permission Letter: http://www.bham.wednet.edu/copyperm.htm
Copyright Resources: http://halldavidson.net/downloads.html
Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the
United States: http://www.copyright.cornell.edu/training/Hirtle_Public_Domain.htm
This is a reference chart to help determine the copyright status of a
given work.
Crash Course in Copyright: http://www.utsystem.edu/ogc/intellectualproperty/cprtindx.htm#top
Downloaders
Disregard Legal, Copyright Issues: http://cyberatlas.internet.com/markets/retailing/article/0,,6061_2243371,00.html
"From Pokemon to Picasso: Art Rights
& Wrongs": http://library.thinkquest.org/J001570/
has a how-to guide for citing and using others' work, writing permission
letters, keeping a log of content and permissions, and more. The site
was created last year by New York City 5th- and 6th-graders Madeline,
Katie, and Kim for ThinkQuest: http://www.thinkquest.org.
Keeping it Legal: Questions Arising out of
Web Site Management: http://www.fno.org/jun96/legal.html
Kindergarten
Copyright: http://www.techlearning.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=13100799
Whatever
a person created after April 1, 1989 is copyrighted to that person.This article
tells how to make copyright laws meaningful to kindergarteners (and those much
older!) Legal Lowdown - Copyright : http://www.principals.org/services/lowdown101303.cfm
Set
your VCR, warm up the copier, download the Internet; but first, know the do's
and don'ts of copyright law for educators.
Arguably every
teacher has used a clip from a movie, an excerpt from a book, or a graphic from
the Internet. However, before your teachers record that National Geographic special
or copy their next USA Today article, they should be informed about the application
of copyright laws to education.
Reading: http://www.greece.k12.ny.us/taylor/suny/reading.htm
Self-Detection Test Instructions: http://www.plagiarism.com/self.detect.htm
But
Is It Really Free? Student Copyright Issues in Electronic Publishing
The Internet makes available tremendous
amounts of vital, fresh information and a rich diversity of resources. The distinctions between free and not free, legal and illegal,
become difficult to distinguish when a Web page declares its collected
resources are “free in the spirit of Internet cooperation.”
However, despite such proclamations—and despite the fact that it’s
technically very easy to copy images found at Internet sites—it is not
legal for educators to violate traditional copyright standards online.
Contrary to popular belief, it is illegal to go to a random Internet
Web site, copy one of its images, and place it into your own work.
Only the
owner of the work or his/her legal, designated representative can give
permission for its use. Some
sites will clam to be copyright free, yet they have taken work from other
sites or artists without permission.
When looking for a copyright-free site, check if the artist has
created the images. If the
artist created the work, he has the right to give it away.
If you see your favorite Disney character peering at you from the
screen, it’s not a copyright-free image.
If the Web page creator never owned the rights to the image, he
doesn’t have the right to give the image away.
Public domain is when copyright has expired, and the work is available
for public use. If a work
was created after January 1, 1978, it belongs to the artist for life plus
70 years. If a work was published
before 1923, it is now in public domain.
If it was published between 1923 and the end of 1963, its term
of protection is 23 years with renewal possibility for a total of 67 years. For more information, visit: http://www.unc.edu/~unclng/public-d.htm
Fair use is not always easily determined, but in general, it covers educational
use, research use, commentary, and criticism, and is meant to allow small
portions of copyrighted works to be used in limited ways. Especially in terms of multimedia, the Internet, and digital
work, a number of groups have proposed “fair use” and “safe harbor” guidelines
although none have been legally adopted.
The bottom line is that, in any case where the artist has not explicitly
granted you rights (by contributing to a CD you’ve purchased or posting
the images on the Web with the permission clearly stated) the only entirely
safe way to avoid copyright infringement is to obtain permission directly.
Answer these three questions to decide whether you need permission to
use a copyrighted work.
1. Is the work protected? This Policy does not apply to, and anyone may
freely use the following types of work:
Works that lack originality logical, comprehensive compilations (like
the phone book).
Unoriginal reprints of public domain works
Works in the public domain
Freeware (not shareware, but really, expressly, available free of restrictions-ware)
US Government works
Facts
Ideas, processes, methods, and systems described in copyrighted works
The presence or absence of a copyright notice no longer carries the significance
it once did because the law no longer requires a notice.
Older works published without a notice may be in the public domain,
but for works created after March 1, 1989, absence of a notice means virtually
nothing.
Educational institutions and governmental agencies are authorized to publicly
display and perform others' works in the course of face-to-face teaching
activities, and to a limited degree, in broadcasts.
If you need to get permission to use material either from the internet
or not, visit: University
of Texas intellectual property site at:
http://www.utsystem.edu/OGC/IntellectualProperty/permissn.htm
Sites that answers nearly all related copyright issue questions are:
Stanford University’s copyright and fair use guidelines: http://fairuse.stanford.edu/
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