Casey Doyon

SLM 521

6-24-02

 

Copyright, Piracy and Ethics

 

Scenario #1

You find an outstanding World Wide Web site on the Internet and want your web page to contain some of the glittering wonderfulness of this site. You can down load and use what part of the web page without infringing on copyright

This activity is allowable if it is used for an educational website.  The restrictions are as follows it can be up to three minutes or 10 percent, whichever is less, of a single copyrighted motion media work.  In regards to the text it can have 10 percent or 1,000 words, whichever is less, of a single copyrighted work of text.  It is unlike that you want to copy a poem, but if you do you are allowed an entire poem of less than 250 words or up to 250 words of a longer poem but no more than three poems by one poet or five poems by different poets from a single anthology.  Maybe it is music you desire, copy up to 30 seconds or 10 percent, whichever is less, of music and lyrics from a single musical work.  Pictures are a great addition, if you choose to add these to your site beware!  You can have up to five photographs or illustrations by one person and no more than 15 images or 10 percent, whichever is less, of the photographs or illustrations from a single published work.  Lastly, what would you do without a table or database?  Don’t worry, you can have this too.  Just make sure it is only up to 2,500 fields or cell entries or 10 percent, whichever is less, from a numerical database or data table.  Multimedia must credit the source, display the copyright notice, and provide copyright ownership information.  This information needs to be clearly stated on the opening screen and on any additional print materials.  They need to show notice that certain materials are included under the fair use exemption of the U.S. Copyright Law and have been prepared according to the multimedia fair use guidelines and are restricted from further use.

Have fun and copy within your rights!

 

Scenario #2

Mr., the parent of one of our most intellectual students, has paid to download a wonderful computer software program for his little Einstein. Mr. Jamweimer wants "our school" to be the best and sends a copy of the download file to be used by the students on the computers at school. P.S. all of the kids use it and win Nobel prizes in science, literature, physics, chemistry, and playground.

This activity is not allowable.  Under current law, fair use applies only to software that has been purchased. The user and the user only are licensed to use the software, and they do not own it.  Its use is governed by the licensing agreement rather than by the fair use doctrine. Most licensing agreements do not allow users to copy and distribute commercial or shareware software, although some may permit copying a small section of code to illustrate a programming technique.  Therefore Mr. Jamweimer would be in violation of this by sending a copy of it to the school.  He can use this only for his own computer and the users at his home.  If he wants to share this great resource, he should buy the software program for the school.  All the students could use it there.

 

 

Copyright Sites to refer to:

 

Read about the basic issues associated with copyright. http://www.education-world.com/a_curr/curr280d.shtml

 

Ten Common Copyright Permission Myths: http://coursesites.blackboard.com/bin/common/course.pl?course_id=_53356_1&frame=top&m=20021324121306

 

 

This page was created 6-24-02.