Module 29
Intellectual Property
in an Online Environment
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Module 29 |
Intellectual property (IP) is the group of laws that protect the works of authors, composers, and other creators of "virtual works."
If you live in the United States, and you create a piece
of writing, music, video, or other artwork, then you, as the author,
automatically own the "copyright" (the right to copy) your work. This
happens regardless of whether you register it somewhere, or put a copyright
symbol on it.
There are some situations which may change this fact: for example, if you are getting paid for your time, then the copyright of your work generally belongs to your employer. (Your employment contract may or may not address this. If it doesn't, the rule of thumb is that work done on "company time" belongs to the company.)
You are not allowed to republish work (writing, music, video, artwork, et cetera) without the permission of the copyright holder.
For work that you produce, copyright law gives you the right to license (or give your permission for others to copy) any work that you create. This permission might be based on payment, or it might be free. You can give your permission with caveats: for example, that your work is free to copy as long as you are given credit as the author.
One of the few exceptions to the rules of copyright is the idea that works (or short excerpts of them) may be copied and distributed without permission if:
The laws governing "Fair Use" are vague at best. This concept is continually being challenged and refined.
In academia, the standards of fair use are somewhat more lenient than in a commercial setting. Extensive quoting, (with the appropriate reference and attribution) are common in works of analysis and discourse.
Fair use, however, is not a license to get works without paying for them. For example, if I want to use a clip from the movie "Pirates of the Carribean" in my classroom, I still must legally acquire the movie. Fair use does *not* exempt one from paying for the copy of a work.
A trademark is a symbol, generally a word or a phrase,
such as "McDonald's" that has been registered with the appropriate
government agency. This allows the owner of a trademark to prevent
its use by others. (For example, if you or I attempted to open a restaurant
called 'McDonalds', we would likely be sued for infringement by the
registered owner of the trademark.
This doesn't prevent anybody from *using* the trademark in speech or writing. It only allows the trademark owner to protect their brand from copycats and imposters. In general, trademark infringement only occurs in a commercial setting, not an academic one.
Works in the public domain are under the least restrictive license possible. There are no restrictions whatsoever for material in the public domain. This means you are free to copy, sell, modify, distribute, remix, etc... as much as you'd like, any work in the public domain.
The Public Domain license is automatically granted for anything that ____ or that has been under copyright for ____ years. After ____ years, copyrighted material reverts to the public domain. (Note that the limit keeps being extended, coincidentally just enough that Mickey Mouse, created in ____ has never entered the public domain.)
Open
source originated in the world of software, and could describe any
one of a handful of similar licenses. The canonical open source license,
the GPL
(Gnu Public License) is often referred
to as a "copyleft" license because of its posture 180 degrees opposite
the traditional "copyright" idea.
Under the GPL, you are allowed to copy and redistribute a work as much as you like so long as your derivatives are also licensed under the GPL. This has the effect of keeping the original work, and all of its variations and improvements, open to the public, for free.
Selling a work under the GPL is not forbidden, but the work must also be distributed freely, which somewhat defeats the purpose.
OSS (institute?) homepage: http://www...
The open source licenses have been rewritten to make more sense for non-software. The various Creative Commons licenses offer any combination of the following:
Creative commons homepage: http://www.....