The Center for the Advancement of Research and Teaching

Intellectual Property and the Internet

Session:

• Intellectual property rights and the internet and electronic communication
• Fair use doctrine, particularly regarding electronic resources
• Abuses of intellectual property, concerns for privacy, and other issues in electronic communication.

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Primary Laws and Agreements:

• Privacy Act of 1974
• Copyright Act of 1976: Baseline legal ground for copyright protection.
• 1976 Agreement on Guidelines for Classroom Copying in Not-For-Profit Educational Institutions.
• Communication Decency Act of 1996 [RIP]
• Telecommunication Act of 1996 - If a carrier or service provider attempts to monitor the content it carries, it can’t be held liable for not finding everything forbidden.
• 1997 Fair Use Guidelines for Educational Multimedia

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Presentations:

• Sarah Nesbeitt: Copyright and fair use
• Arthur Dirks: Fair use in multimedia
• Protecting your intellectual property
• Fera Karakaya: Privacy and policy
• Arthur Dirks: Plagiarism

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Fair use guidelines for multimedia.

Finalized October, 1997. Opposed as too restrictive by some CONFU organizations, including American Research Libraries (ARL)

Four Fair Use Factors:

1. Purpose and character of use (commercial or nonprofit educational) [usage guidelines]
2. Nature of the work (creative, compilation, or derivative)
3. Amount and substantiality to be used [portion limitation guidelines]
4. Effect of the use on the potential market for the work [time limitation, and copy and distribution guidelines]

The four factors are not exclusive. Other factors that may be relevant are the availability of the work, the ability to determine whether the work is still under copyright, and the ability to locate the copyrightholder.)

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Usage Guidelines:

Students

• May incorporate copyrighted material into their own works for a specific course.
• May use in the course for which work was created.
• May use in portfolios as examples of academic work.

Educators

• May incorporate copyrighted material for their own teaching and support of their own teaching.
• May use for face-to-face instruction
• May assign to students for directed self-study
• May use in instruction delivered to a remote site over a secure electronic network in real-time, and in review materials, provided access is limited and there is copy protection. If copy protection is not available, use is limited to 15 days, after which one copy may be placed on reserve.
• May use in materials presented or displayed to peers.
• May use in portfolios as examples of work.

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Time Limitation Guidelines:

• May use copyrighted material in a particular work for teaching purpose up to 2 years.
• Any use thereafter requires permission for each copyrighted portion incorporated in the work.

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Portion Limitation Guidelines:

Limitations apply cumulatively to each educator’s or student’s multimedia projects for the same academic semester. Select the smaller choice:

• Motion media: Up to 10% of a work or 3 minutes
• Text: Up to 10% of a work or 1000 words.
• Music, Lyrics, and Music Video: Up to 10%, or 30 seconds.
• Illustrations and Photographs: Up to 5 images by an artist. 10% or 15 images from a published collective work. Photograph of work by another must have its own artistic value to avoid infringement.
• Numerical Data Sets: Up to 10% of a database or table, or 2500 cells.

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Copying and Distribution Limitations:

• No more than 2 use copies, one of which may be placed on reserve.
• An additional preservation copy may be made.

Permission is required for:

• Commercial reproduction and distribution.
• Broader distribution than two use copies.
• Use over networks (except in instruction delivered to a remote site over a secure electronic network in real-time).

• Credit the source with full bibliographic description where available.
• Opening display should note that certain materials are included under the fair use exemption for educational multimedia, and are restricted from further use.
• Alterations in copyrighted works are allowed to support specific instructional objectives, and should include note that alterations have been made.

Remember: Many people have no sense of humor.

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Guidelines Text

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Protecting Your Intellectual Property

Law Journal: Internet Law

Most real world law still applies in the cyberworld. The interest or protection in the law remains the same. What is forbidden off the net is forbidden on the net.

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Original ownership (before all other rights) may or may not be author:

• In most industries, employers own the works created by employees on company time.
• An independent contractor owns the copyright except as contracted.
• Courts have traditionally recognized that higher education is different in that faculty are considered to own their intellectual products.
• Nevertheless, intellectual property created under “work for hire” is owned by the institution.
• Advice, especially under work for hire: If you want to own the material, establish that up front. The interpretation of “work for hire” may be in dispute.

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Email is copyright protected, but it is the institution that owns the copyright.

Communications privacy act does not apply to log files or message headers, and does not protect stored communication (i.e. backup servers), only “in wire” or live communication.

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Assume everything on the web is under copyright, and assume everyone is out there grabbing stuff.
Protect your work with a limited-use notice:

• Circle C © is not required.
• Recommend including date and time published and link to email.
• Register with the copyright office ($20).
  • Required if you want to sue, but not required to maintain copyright.
  • If the content is ripped off, it must be registered within 3 months to allow statutory damages and attorney fees.

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• Univ of Texas "Copyright Law in the Electronic Environment"
• Georgia Regents Guide to Understanding Copyright and Educational Fair Use
• Copyright & Fair Use: Stanford Univ. Libraries

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Plagiarism:

Anthony Krier, reference librarian at Franklin Pierce College said in May,1997, he had 30 term-paper sites. In October, 1997, he listed 70. Link sites now show twice that number. Many charge per page, many provide custom writing, and many are available free.

Doing business in a state brings one under the jurisdiction of that state and its laws.

Boston University sued 8 sites in October, 1997, for wire fraud, mail fraud, racketeering, and violation of Massachusetts law prohibiting the sale of term papers. 15 states have such laws. Apparently, the sites giving away papers are less vulnerable.

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Too many fraudulent paper sources to monitor.

Some strategies include:

• Require bibliographies, outlines, and drafts early. Monitor subsequent changes in direction.
• Require bibliographies and drafts to be submitted with the paper.
• Ask students to defend their papers in person.

“If you can use a paper from one of these mills,” Dr. Spence said, “then the course hasn’t been very well designed.” [Chronicle of Higher Education, October 31, 1997, A34.]

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Links:

• Copyright office homepage
• Univ of Texas "Copyright Law in the Electronic Environment"
• Georgia Regents Guide to Understanding Copyright and Educational Fair Use
• Copyright & Fair Use: Stanford Univ. Libraries
• CONFU (Conference on fair use) documents and resources
• Law Journal: Internet Law
• 1997 Fair Use Guidelines for Educational Multimedia
• Arthur Dirks home page
  
• BSC Home
  

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