by Sue Tinnish

847.394.9857

stinnish@ameritech.net

 

You want new ….
You want different …
You want innovative …
You want to borrow from something done before…

Many of us have only a passing familiarity with the principles of copyright law and the area of intellectual property. The Internet’s technology, ease and flexibility have made it incredibly easy to have access to, copy or even forward information. For the first time, the average person sitting at a computer can gain access to a wide range of every type of copyrighted material and can easily copy or communicate that material virtually instantaneously.

In a digital format, it’s not so easy to determine if a work has been copied. Original photocopy machines left tell-tale signs that a work was a copy. Later, color copies made near perfect originals. Now it is next to impossible to ascertain whether and at what point in the process a copy has been made or a performance has occurred.

From students to authors to people involved in planning meetings, copyright law is important to understand. There is a price to innovation and in many cases it’s determined by copyright laws or other areas of intellectual property rights.

Copyright or © is a legal protection for authors. Copyright law affords protection from “copying” of material. Ideas and facts are not protected by copyright laws. Individual words can not be copyrighted. Copyright only protects the particular way an author expresses facts or ideas. Ultimately, copyright laws allow authors to profit from their work.

Like many laws, copyright laws have been amended since first created in 1790. Some parts of the law are ambiguous or poorly written. And no law can cover all situations in all circumstances. (And hence lawyers can make a profitable living!)

Materials that are protected by copyright include:

• Writings
• Musical works
• Cartoons
• Plays
• Photographs
• Maps
• Artworks, sculpture
• Movies
• Pantomimes and choreographed works
• Recipes
• Architectural drawings

Copyright law protects published and unpublished works. Copyright protection for all works created after 1978 begins the instant a work is created – whether it is registered or not with the US Copyright Office. It is not even necessary to publish the copyright notice. Some works may not be copyright protected but exist in the public domain. Public domain works are available for copying or using without gaining permission from the author.

How do you tell if a work is copyrighted? Unfortunately, there is no straightforward rule. To understand when a copyright has expired, you need to know when the work was published.

• Everything published in the United States before 1923 is in the public domain.
• Works published in the United States between 1923- 1963 and not renewed are in the public domain.
• All unpublished works by authors dated over 70 years are in the public domain.
• Foreign works published before 1901 are in the public domain.
• Foreign works published 1909-1923 with copyright notice are in the public domain.
• Copyright protection for current works (published after 1977) generally lasts for the extent of the author’s life plus 70 years.
• Works made for hire – that is works that are created as part of a job are protected for 90 years from the date of publication or 120 years from the date of creation whichever comes first. Examples: Training materials.

Examples of Public Domain works:

• Louise May Alcott’s Little Women
• Leonardo DaVinci’s Mona Lisa
• The Lone Ranger but not E.T. or Hopalong Cassidy
• Any facts

Copyrightis a complex issue. If you find a work that you want to copy, adapt or otherwise use and it is not in the public domain, you have three alternatives:

1. Find something that is in the public domain

2. Obtain permission to use the work

3. Use the work without permission relying on the principle of the “fair use” which allows copyrighted material to be used for free in limited situations.

Fair use is a concept only legally recognized in the United States. No other country in the world gives the public latitude to use copyrighted works without permission. Under the fair use privilege an author is permitted to make limited use of another author’s work without asking permission.

When is it fair to use someone’s materials?

• When you comment or criticize
• For news reporting
• For research or scholarship

Three other considerations for fair use:

• The type of work – factual works (technical, scientific) vs. works of fancy (novels, poems, plays)
• The amount and importance of the material used
• The effect of the use of the material on the potential market or the value of the copyrighted works

People sometimes unknowingly violate copyright laws. The wide amount of information available via the web and electronic distribution makes it easy to have access to information and to add it to a presentation, brochure or other marketing information.

You may not realize that you are infringing upon an author’s rights. Here are some flagrant examples of violating copyright laws:

• Copying training materials (this is an example of a work made for hire) to reduce the cost of purchasing additional materials from a training company.
• Photocopying of articles from magazines for mass distribution.
• Using a song as background music in a video production.

Works on the Internet do not automatically qualify to be considered public domain. Nor does out of print mean out of copyright.

If you are concerned about copyright issues, you can:

• Research the topic in more depth using these resources:

1. US Office of Copyright http://www.copyright.gov/
US Office of Copyright

2. Brad Templeton writes a brief introduction to copyright law at http://www.templetons.com/brad/copyright.html
Brad Templeton’s Intro to Copyright Law

He also has the 10 Myths about Copyright which is definitely worth a read at http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html
Brad Templeton’s 10 Myths

3. Copyright website at http://www.benedict.com/
Copyright Website LLC

4. Using Copyrighted Works For Meetings, Seminars & Conferences by J. Wesley Cochran, Professor of Law, Texas Tech University, August 1999 at
http://www.unc.edu/~unclng/copy-corner12.htm
Prof. Cochran

• Ask permission to use the work. (This can be time-consuming.)
• Use royalty-free content. You can purchase for a one-time fee for unlimited use (with some restrictions) of music, stock photos or graphics in presentation materials.
• Use works of the United States Government. By statute, U.S. Government works are not protected by copyright. This would include photographs from NASA, database and statistics (like the US Census data).
• Gain explicit agreements from your speakers that protect your organization from claims that the speaker used copyrighted materials (e.g., a PowerPoint® presentation) without permission. Speaker agreements also should ensure that the sponsor has the right to record and replay the presentation or reproduce the handouts for distribution or sale to non-attendees. Speaker agreements also should include language that allows the sponsoring organization to reproduce the presentation materials in any form or media (e.g., on the sponsor’s Web site). This idea taken directly from Association Meetings, Dec, 2000 by Jed R. Mandel at http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0CXQ/is_6_12/ai_68965444
• Link Well. Links to web sites may be freely reproduced for hyperlinking. Always proper cite a website and depending upon your usage notify the web page provider. Also avoid deeply linking to a specific page. Some websites prohibit deep linking which allows you to avoid the home page.
• Obtain Music Licensing. Unless a song is clearly within the “public domain,” any music–live or recorded–played at an event is subject to copyright protection. Event sponsors may need copyright licenses from one or all of the music licensing organizations (ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC). Each organization has a “playlist” of music for which it is authorized to give licenses on behalf of copyright owners. They can provide you with a blanket license tailored to the meetings industry.

· Research sources for Public Domain works:

1. The on-line Books Page at www.digital.library.upenn.edu/books
On-line Books

2. www.ibiblio.org contains links to many websites with public domain materials
www.ibiblio.org

3. Wikipedia contains many links to public domain at http://en2.wikipedia.org/wiki/wikipedia:public_domain_resources
Wikipedia Public Domain

4. Audiovisual and sound recordings at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) at www.archives.gov
NARA

5. Maps at the US Geological Survey (USGS) at www.usgs.gov or the National Archives Cartographic and Architectural Branch at www.nara.gov
USGS

6. Art works through web searches using the artist’s name or check Art History Resources on the Web at http://witcombe.bcpw.sbc.edu/arthlinks.html
Art History Resources

Strive for new, different and innovativemeetings. But respect other people’s work. Plagiarism is an ethical issue. While you may no longer be in school and concerned about plagiarism, you should give credit for ideas and facts that you borrow from authors.