Copyright In The Online Learning Environment

Copyright in the online learning environment

Raise your hand if you agree:1. When you write a blog post or email,

it’s copyrighted.2. The Hobbit (the novel) is in the public

domain. 3. If you use 10% or less of a work, it’s

Fair Use. 4. It’s legal to embed clips of music, video

or text in an online classroom for educational purposes

Copyright is complicated ambiguous always changing

through new statutes and court cases

You aren’t alone Copyright Information Web Site

http://www.esc.edu/copyright on the library web site, under the Services

tab

Copyright the author’s exclusive rights to their

work make copies distribute copies (for $ or not) make and distribute derivative works license others to do these things

Limited in duration by exemptions made for certain uses

Copyright covers the original expression of ideas

not facts, data or the ideas themselves as soon as they are fixed in a tangible

medium of expression written, recorded, saved, posted…

Public domain Virtually everything is copyrighted

unless its copyright has expired or it was a publication of the U.S. federal

government Public domain means absolutely free

Free as in gratis (no cost) Free as in libre (no restrictions on use)

Is it in the public domain? wildly complicated! use the Public Domain Helper

on the Copyright Information Web Site

Creative Commons pre-packaged, one size fits all licenses

that work within copyright law and hold up in court

Why? severe restrictions on using copyrighted

content online even inside Angel/Moodle!

public domain and Creative Commons works are not subject to those restrictions!

Creative Commons Licenses Attribution Attribution, Non-Commercial Attribution, No-Derivs Attribution, ShareAlike Attribution, Non-Commercial, No-Derivs Attribution, Non-Commercial, ShareAlike

Use the Creative Commons web site to put a CC license on your own work to find CC licensed works to use

Show of hands Is anyone here comfortable sharing

what they know or have heard about how Fair Use works?

Balance of four factors each of the four factors needs to be

addressed they don’t all have to be favorable,

although it’s ideal

Purpose and character of the use is it a use that copyright law recognizes

as socially beneficial? education, research, scholarship criticism, commentary, parody news reporting NOT art, literature, creativity

is it transformative? not just copying or repurposing, but

creating something new?

Nature and character of the work being used Is it published or unpublished? Is it non-fiction or literary, artistic,

dramatic, creative?

Amount and substantiality of the part being used quantitative

no safe maximum proportional to the size of the work

qualitative how important is it to the work as a whole

Market effect could it substitute for the original? could it negatively impact the market

for derivative works? even if the author hasn’t created those

derivative works yet!

Market effect online making and sharing perfect copies is

cheap effortless instantaneous

no practical barriers to flooding the market

artificial technical barriers

Can you use Fair Use online? YES Be extra careful!

educational or critical purpose ideally a transformative work use as little of the work as you can limit access behind a password (keep it in

the Angel/Moodle course) put media on a streaming server to limit

copying

Is it Fair Use? you don’t have to remember it all! Fair Use Helper

on the Copyright Information Web Site

Label it Fair Use From chapter 11 of Silent Spring by Rachel

Carson, 1962. This is a fair use under Title 17 section 107 of the U.S. Code.

Carson, R. (1962) Silent spring. New York, NY: Houghton-Mifflin. This is a fair use under Title 17 section 107 of the U.S. Code.

This excerpt from Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962) used under Fair Use (Title 17 section 107 of the U.S. Code.)

Getting permission not public domain? not open content? not fair use? you need to get permission

and probably pay royalties

Royalties? How much? figure on 30 cents per student, per page music, video, images: unpredictable every center and department has its

own way of handling the budget for copyright permissions

have an idea of how much you’re willing to spend before you negotiate the license

Label it used with permission From chapter 11 of Silent Spring by Rachel

Carson, 1962. Used with permission from the copyright owner.

Carson, R. (1962) Silent spring. New York, NY: Houghton-Mifflin. Used with permission from the copyright owner.

This excerpt from Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962) used with permission from the copyright owner.

How to get permission Copyright Permission Guide at the

Copyright Information Web Site

Show of hands if you have heard that you can be

personally sued for copyright infringement in courses that you create?

Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) limits college’s liability for faculty and

staff copyright infringement but doesn’t protect the individual faculty or

staff member requires college to carry out DMCA

takedown procedures requires college to terminate computer

accounts of “repeat offenders”

The good news! before they can sue you, they have to

issue a takedown notice, and if you comply, you’re safe.

How a takedown works1. copyright owner or their representative

spots infringing content2. they contact the VP of OIT3. VP of OIT has the page or site with the

infringing content taken down4. owner/maintainer of that page or site

is notified

Comply with the takedown? you can put your page or site back up,

minus the infringing content no lawsuit, no criminal penalties

Issue a counter-notice? your page or site goes back up with the

allegedly infringing content the copyright owner has 14 days to sue

you. you will have to go to court to argue that

you had permission or it was Fair Use do not do this without talking to a

lawyer first!

The short, short version DMCA takedown notices are very

disruptive, so to avoid them: use the Copyright Information Web Site to

make sure your content is not infringing before you put it up

if you have doubts, Ask A Librarian direct colleagues to these resources if you

are concerned that they are infringing

To spark your memory: We talked about

Public Domain and the Public Domain Helper

Open Content, the Creative Commons Fair Use and the Fair Use Helper Getting Permission and the Getting

Permission Guide DMCA Takedowns and how to avoid them

Questions? Issues raised? Still confused? Anything I didn’t cover? Want to see something again?

Thank you! Copyright Information Web Site

http://www.esc.edu/copyright on the library web site, under the Services

tab Ask A Librarian

http://www.esc.edu/askalibrarian librarian@esc.edu ext. 2222