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Copyright
Copyright is a tricky issue that centers around a person's legal rights to works they create. In the academic world, and as a student, your main association with copyright issues will be when you are considering using an image, song, pamphlet or handout, or other work that was created by someone else, in any of your academic projects.

Before you distribute, copy, display or perform any copyrighted work, you must get permission from the copyright holder, usually the original author. However, there are some exceptions to this rule when information is used for educational use. Read the “Fair Use” and “Public Domain” sections for more details.

Only the author or owner of the copyrighted work can give permission to use, copy, distribute, or display it.

Some Copyright Basics
  • Copyright refers to the right of a creator (an author, painter, inventor, composer, etc.) to maintain control over his or her creative works.
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The Copyright symbol
  • According to U.S. Copyright Law, any original work, including books, music, movies, videos, computer programs, artwork and designs, and patents, is legally protected.
  • This protection extends to both published and unpublished works. In other words, anything that is created is automatically covered under the copyright law, even if no paperwork is filed with the U.S. Copyright Office.

Some Details About Copyright

If you really want to learn more about Copyright, read Section 106 of the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976

In the Copyright Act, it details rights of the owners of copyright. In particular it states that*:

. . .the owner of copyright under this title has the exclusive rights to do and to authorize any of the following:

 
1.
 to reproduce the copyrighted work in copies or phonorecords; 
2.
 to prepare derivative works based upon the copyrighted work; 
3.
 to distribute copies or phonorecords of the copyrighted work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending; 
4.
 in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and motion pictures and other audiovisual works, to perform the copyrighted work publicly; 
5.
 in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and pictorial, graphic, or sculptural works, including the individual images of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, to display the copyrighted work publicly; and 
6.
 in the case of sound recordings, to perform the copyrighted work publicly by means of a digital audio transmission.* 
 
* Library of Congress, Copyright Office. (June 1999). Copyright Basics. [Online]. http://www.loc.gov/copyright/circs/circ1.html
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Adapted with permission from Oasis, San Francisco State University http://oasis.sfsu.edu

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