copyright essentials

Copyright Essentials

LIB 100 : Library and Information Research StrategiesLe Moyne CollegeNovember 2, 2011

History of Copyright

• 1440 – Gutenberg’s printing press.• 1480s – European governments began

licensing books as a way to control them.• 1501 – Pope Alexander VI issued a bull against

the unlicensed printing of books.• 1559 – Index Expurgatorius, or List of

Prohibited Books.• 1709 – Statute of Anne in England granted

privileges and monopolies to printers of books.

1787: Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution

• "The Congress shall have Power ... To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.“

• Covers two separate ideas:– Copyright : Authors– Patents: Inventors

Copyright Act of 1790

• First U.S. Congress granted American authors the right to print, re-print, or publish their work for a period of fourteen years and to renew for another fourteen. The law was meant to provide an incentive to create original works by providing creators with a monopoly, but limited in order to stimulate creativity and the advancement of "science and the useful arts" through wide public access to works in the "public domain."


• provide an incentive to create original works by providing creators with a monopoly

• limited term in order to stimulate creativity and the advancement of "science and the useful arts"

• wide public access to works in the "public domain.“

• originally framed around published print works only


• The term of protection of copyrighted works was extended to twenty-eight years with the possibility of a fourteen-year extension.

• Congress claimed that it extended the term in order to give American authors the same protection as those in Europe.

1841: Folsom v. Marsh

• Court case establishing beginnings of "Fair Use" doctrine.

• Gives the reader of a copyrighted work more rights – allows specific kinds of scholarly uses of copyrighted works.

• U.S. is unusual in explicitly making this allowance to readers


• Established Library of Congress Copyright Office for centralized copyright registrations.

• Previously had been granted by U.S. courts at the state level.


• Broadened the scope to include all works of authorship, including music composers, and

• extended the term of protection to twenty-eight years with a possible renewal of twenty-eight.

Trends from 1790 - 1909

Copyright term• 14 years + 14 years (1790)• 28 years + 14 years (1831)• 28 years + 28 years (1909)

Materials covered

• Published writings (1790)• All works, including music (1909)

• Fair Use Doctrine (1841)• First Sale Doctrine (1908)• Common law• Bobbs-Merrill v. Straus

Reader allowances


• Preempted all previous copyright law.• Extended the term of protection to life of the

author plus 50 years. • Extended copyright to unpublished works.• Codified fair use and first sale doctrines. – Copyright Law of the United States and Related

Laws Contained in Title 17 of the United States Code

http://www.copyright.gov/title17/

1998: Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act

• Extended protection life of the author plus seventy years.

• Froze public domain date at 1923 – no longer advances each year.

Copyright

Public Domain• Copyright abandoned by

author or expired– Original author no longer

owns the work

• Publish or remix the work for profit– Work may be used freely

including derivative works.

– Penguin Classics or Dover– Pride and Prejudice

Commercial Publishing• Copyright usually assigned

to publisher– Publisher controls

distribution and profits– This is big business!–Movie industry–Music recording industry– Journal publishing

and Zombies



• Froze public domain date at 1923 – no longer advances each year.– “Mickie Mouse Protection Act”

• U.S. musicians, who recorded in the 1970s, including Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Don Henley, are able to reclaim ownership after 35 years – “termination rights”. – RIAA says: no – they were “works for hire.”– Musicians pay for recordings out of royalty advances.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_Term_Extension_Act

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/16/arts/music/springsteen-and-others-soon-eligible-to-recover-song-rights.htm?_r=1

Public Domain

Public Domain

http://librarycopyright.net/digitalslider/

http://librarycopyright.net/digitalslider/



• Froze public domain date at 1923 – no longer advances each year.

• Exception permits libraries and archives to treat copyrighted works in their last twenty years of protection as if they were in the public domain for non-commercial purposes, under certain limited conditions.

First Sale Doctrine

• Title 17, Section 104 • Allows the purchaser to transfer (i.e., sell, lend or

give away) a lawfully made copy of the copyrighted work without permission once it has been obtained.

• Allows individuals to sell books they have purchased.• Allows libraries to lend copies of books they have

purchased.

First Sale Doctrine• Masnick, M. (2011) "Legally Bought Some Books

Abroad? Sell Them In The US And You Could Owe $150k Per Book For Infringement." TechDirt. http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110817/18162715566/ (August 18, 2011)

• Court case: books legally purchased outside the U.S. can not be resold – fine of $75,000 / book or $600,000 total!

• Dissenting opinion: the original Supreme Court ruling on the First Sale Doctrine allowed the resail of books, so as not to restrict trade – which this new ruling clearly does.

• Library implication: can not lend books that have a foreign imprint – i.e., books published in the U.K.

Fair Use Doctrine

• Title 17, Section 107• Use of copyrighted works without permission

of copyright holder, provided that:– Socially beneficial results of the use outweigh the

exclusive rights of the copyright holder– Generally applies when the use is transformative,

proportional, and gives credit to original

Fair Use Doctrine• Four Criteria - validity of use can only be

tested on individual basis through court case1. Purpose & character of the use - educational or

non-commercial2. Nature of the copyrighted work - varies with

type of work; text most inclusive3. Amount & substantiality of the use - how much

of work would be used4. Effect of the use on the market - economic loss

to the copyright holder

1984: Betamax Case

• Sony Corp. of America v. Universal Studios• Universal Studios alleged that manufacturer of

video recorders (Sony) was liable for copyright infringement of their users

• Supreme Court ruled that recording of complete TV shows was “time shifting” and covered under “fair use”

• Makes TiVo and DVR legal

Fair Use Doctrine• Is it Fair Use?– Photocopying an article in the library?– Ordering an article from Interlibrary Loan?– Photocopying a book you have borrowed?– Photocopying a chapter of a book?– Ripping a CD you bought to your MP3 player?– Ripping a CD you borrowed to your MP3 player?– Ripping an MP3 from a CD you borrowed?– Downloading a movie via Bittorrent?

Fair Use Doctrine• Four Criteria - validity of use can only be

determined on individual basis through court case1. Purpose & character of the use - educational or

non-commercial2. Nature of the copyrighted work - varies with

type of work; text most inclusive3. Amount & substantiality of the use - how much

of work would be used4. Effect of the use on the market - economic loss

to the copyright holder

1998: Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA)

• Extension to protect software copyright (1980)• Prohibits gaining unauthorized access to a work

by circumventing a technological protection measure put in place by the copyright owner.

• Rationale for the “Copyleft” and “Open Source” software movements.– Like “Open Access”, you do this with

software licenses – MIT, GNU, even CC.

Replacement and Preservation for Libraries and Archives

• Title 17, Section 108• Last 20 years of copyright protection exempt– Access limited to researchers at that institution– Preservation – up to 3 copies if library owns

– Replacement – up to 3 copies if library owns

– Portions for Users – 1 copy of article or chapter from library copy

– Entire Works for Users – 1 copy of textual work (including illustrations) when not available for purchase at fair price

HathiTrust Lawsuit (2011)• Google Book Scanning Project (Dec 2004)– 10 million scanned volumes from library partners– Authors Guild lawsuit (Oct 2005)• damages against commercial partner (Google)• class-action lawsuit by Guild

– Settlement (Oct 2008) • allowed users of libraries to access digital copy of

this massive collection for research– Judge rejects settlement (Mar 2011)• ruled on class-action aspects of lawsuit

HathiTrust Lawsuit (2011)• HathiTrust – library partners of Google Book

Scanning Project (2008)– Orphan Works Project (June 2011)• identify in-copyright works for which the author

cannot be located• access only for libraries that owned original

– Authors Guild lawsuit (Sept 2011)• lawsuit against libraries this time• not class-action – individual authors seeking

injunction (not damages)• outcome still pending

2002: TEACH Act

• Technology Education and Copyright Harmonization Act– Allow content delivery to students outside the

classroom (non-face-to-face – e.g., Blackboard) – Authority to convert some works from analog to

digital formats. – Compliance required dissemination of copyright

policies and implementation of technological restrictions on access and copying.

Classroom Instruction• Title 17, Section 110– Face-to-face instruction• Performance - showing a video; playing a musical work;

performing a scene, etc.• Display - PowerPoint with copyrighted images or text;

projecting content from a website.

– Online classes – TEACH Act• Hosting articles or slides in BlackBoard• Access to streaming video• Must be limited to registered students, must be

password protected, must be taken down after class is completed

Trends from 1790 - 2002Copyright term• 14 years + 14 years (1790)• 28 years + 14 years (1831)• 28 years + 28 years (1909)• Life author + 50 years (1976)• Life author + 70 years (1998)

Materials covered• Published writings (1790)• All works, including music (1909)

• Fair Use Doctrine (1841 & 1976)• First Sale Doctrine (1908 &

1976)

Reader allowances

• Unpublished works (1976)• Software (1980)• DMCA – no circumvention (1998)

• Time-shifted copying of video and audio (1984)

• Exemption for libraries for last 20 years of coverage (1998)

• Preservation & replace (1998)• Copies for library users (1998)• Exemption for online course use

(2002)

• Copyright Essentials http://resources.library.lemoyne.edu/pubserv-copyright

• LIB 100 Topic : Copyrighthttp://resources.library.lemoyne.edu/lib100_copyright

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