©
THE COPYFIGHT
Copyright, DRM, and EULAs

DGN
“ Bad artists copy. Great artists steal.”
—Pablo Picasso
DYJ

TRADITIONAL COPYRIGHT
Copyright exists in various forms
©Literary; Dramatic; Musical; Artistic; Typographical
arrangement in print; Sound recording; Films.
In 1992, copyright was extended to cover computer
programs

COPYRIGHT...
...Exists wherever an individual or company creates a
work.
A “work” should be original, exhibiting a degree of
labour , skill or judgement.
The idea for a book isn’t protected – but the execution
of it is. Names, phrases, colours are not protected—
but their combination in a logo is.

DURATION
For literary, dramatic, musical or artistic works:
publishing copyright lasts 70 years from the end of the
year in which the author of the work dies.
Sound recordings and broadcasts: mechanical
copyright lasts for 50 years from the end of the year of
creation/release

DURATION
Copyright in FILMS lasts for 70 years from the end of
the year in which the last director/author/composer
dies.
Typographical arrangement: copyright lasts 25 years
from the end of the year of publication
Broadcast/Cable: 50 years from the end of the year in
which the broadcast was made

WHAT CAN’T YOU DO?
It is an offence to perform any of the following acts
without the consent of the owner:
Copy the work.
Rent, lend or issue copies of the work to the
public.
Perform, broadcast or show the work in public.
Adapt the work.

FAIR DEALING
(what you can do)
Private and research study purposes.
Performance, copies or lending for educational
purposes.
Criticism and news reporting.
Incidental inclusion (see next slide).
Copies and lending by librarians.
“Time shifting”.
Back up copy of a computer program.
Playing sound recording for a non profit making
organisation, club or society.

INCIDENTAL
Incidental inclusion would cover any copyright
material that appears by accident rather than by
design.
As with most aspects of the law, the question of breach
depends on the interpretation of a word: incidental.
It’s incidental if there’s background music behind an
interview — but what if the interview is about the
music being heard?

FAIR USE
While UK law talks of “FAIR DEALING”, the principle
of “FAIR USE” applies in the USA
FAIR USE is more extensive, and includes provision
for TRANSFORMATIVE works as opposed to merely
DERIVATIVE works.

TRANSFORMATIVE vs.
DERIVATIVE
This is another problem area of the law, where one
person’s transformative can be another’s derivative.
A film based on a novel is clearly derived from the
novel — but what if the ending, and some of the
characters, are changed? (Breakfast at Tiffanys!)
If a derivative work displays creativity and originality
over and above the original work (“new expression”) it
could be said to be transformative, and therefore not in
breach of (and protected by its own) copyright.

FILM EDUCATION
Provides link between the UK film industry (e.g.
British Film Institute) and education.
Produces resources and lesson packs for teachers of
Media, English, PSHCE etc.
Their “Film Theft” DVD resource for KS3 includes the
following message:

IN OTHER WORDS...
On their own educational resource, which they want
teachers to use in lessons, they include a licence which
indicates it should only be used for “private home use”
– including all the lesson plans, PowerPoints etc.
Is their “educational” message likely to be unbiased?
Are there dangers involved in using such resources in
schools?

THEY SAY...
“ Our aim ... was not to ‘wag the finger’ at either
students or teachers regarding intellectual property
theft... Rather, we ask students and teachers to
evaluate the information that they are given and make
their own choices.”
Really? If they really thought there was a chance that
these younger (KS3) students might find evidence in
support of “intellectual property theft”, would they
have produced the resource in the first place?

IN SUPPORT OF THEFT?
Using value-laden words like theft, it’s clear which side
of the divide Film Education are on.
But can you think of any arguments in support of
“intellectual property theft”?

THE SHAKESPEARE TEST
Given that UK copyright law doesn’t allow for adapted
work, it seems that many of Shakespeare’s plays would
have been in breach of the law – if it had existed then
– since he based many of his plays on earlier works.
Furthermore, since he never published his plays in his
own lifetime, the fact that we know about them is
thanks to an [imagined] breach of copyright law – had
it existed then.

BBC ARCHIVES
In the early decades of television broadcasting, the
BBC and other broadcasters habitually destroyed or
discarded programmes after they were first shown.
Early episodes of Doctor Who, Dad’s Army, and many
others, might have been lost forever... if not for people
who made “illegal” home recordings.

TREASURE HUNT
For example, the only
surviving record of Bob
Dylan’s first TV
appearance in 1962 is a
home audio recording
made by sticking a tape
recorder in front of the
telly.

TREASURES
What we’re talking about here are cultural treasures:
artefacts that speak to the future about the way we live
now, the way we lived then, and the ways in which our
society has changed.
Media Institutions usually lack foresight, and cannot
predict the likely changes in perception and
technology.
The BBC clearly did not anticipate the currrent
appetite for repeats, DVD boxed sets etc. when they
threw stuff away.

TRUSTWORTHY?
Why should we trust media
institutions to do the right
thing with our cultural
treasures?
Even relatively recent film
texts, for example, are hard
to come by, with existing
prints in poor condition or
lost altogether.

TRUSTWORTHY?
When The Who released
their 1979 documentary
The Kids Are Alright on
DVD, the film was in a
very poor state and needed
extensive restoration.
What’s the best solution to
ensure artefacts are kept
for posterity?

THE LONG NOW
Visit www.longnow.org to learn about how this
foundation is trying to plan for the long term.
What are the issues surrounding data storage,
preservation, art, and culture for the next 1,000 years
or so?
In the shorter term, how will your grandchildren learn
about how you live now? How many digital photos do
you ever print? Who pays your Flickr account after
your death?

“MOVEAGE”
One issue surrounds data storage.
Hard drives fail, CDs, DVDs and optical drives may
have a shorter shelf life than you think (especially
home-burned discs), formats and standards change...
Some suggest that we need to keep data moving in
order to preserve it. It’s not about storage, it’s about
moving it from old to new technology in a regular
cycle.

COPY!
The only way to do this effectively is to keep copying
data (whether film, photo, text, or other) — to make as
many copies as possible.
Who are the best people to do this?
Should we trust media producers to do it?
Or should be do it ourselves — all of us, all the time, so
that as many copies exist as possible, so that our
descendants stand a chance of seeing or hearing it?

It’s increasingly common to find works that are made
available using one of several Creative Commons
licences.
Photos, music, literary works, videos: many available
free for non-commercial use, as long as you attribute
the original producer/artist and (often) “share and
share alike”.

It’s increasingly common to find works that are made
available using one of several Creative Commons
licences.
Photos, music, literary works, videos: many available
free for non-commercial use, as long as you attribute
the original producer/artist and (often) “share and
share alike”.

DRM
DRM stands for Digital Rights Management – related
to some forms of copy-protection
DRM is controversial because in some cases it restricts
what would otherwise be FAIR DEALING or FAIR
USE.
DRM also locks users into certain technologies.
Imagine if you had bought a vinyl LP in 1959 that
would only play on a Philips turntable!

RESTRICTIONS
DRM can limit the number of viewings; or place a
time limit on viewings; or limit the devices to which a
file can be transferred.
Arguments against DRM include the fact that it
attempts to extend copyright law in an undemocratic
way

INCONVENIENCE
DRM is usually defeated or circumvented by those
determined to do so.
In other words, it’s ineffective, and all it does is add a
layer of inconvenience.
Some call this a “malicious feature”, designed to hurt
the end-user.
Like kicking your customer as she walks into the shop!

ANALOGUE HOLE
The “analogue hole” is the major weakness of all DRM
systems.
Most digital information is sooner or later turned into
an analogue signal – which can be easily recorded in
the old-fashioned way.
Even if some quality is lost, isn’t that better than
something being lost forever? Like Bob Dylan’s first
British TV appearance in the winter of 1962?

MALICIOUS?
An example of the “malicious feature” in action was
experienced by Sky+ users in October 2008 – when
they found that they could not archive Sky+ recordings
onto DVD recorders.
It turned out that Sky had “accidentally” turned on a
feature that restricted the personal archiving– even
though it is specifically allowed for in UK copyright
law.

MORE MALICE?
Some DRM systems require an online connection and
the presence of a DRM server to authenticate files for
playback. Inconvenient, to say the least.
MSN Music, Yahoo! Music Store and Walmart have all
been involved in controversy when they proposed
switching off their DRM servers, leaving their
customers stranded with useless files.

PLAYS FOR SURE?
When Microsoft introduced their Zune media player
in 2006, it did not support content that uses
Microsoft's own PlaysForSure DRM scheme they had
previously been selling!

SPYWARE, MALWARE
In 2005, Sony Music introduced a DRM technology on
some of their audio CDs.
This was software that installed itself on PCs without
authorisation from the end-user!
The software included a Root Kit – something buried
so deep in the operating system that it created a
security vulnerability.
The resulting controversy means that DRM is no
longer included on any audio CDs.

A LICENCE?
Did people buying vinyl LPs in the 60s and 70s think
they were only buying a “licence” for the music?
Did you have to sign an End User Licence Agreement
(EULA) to buy a 45 RPM single in 1979?
The answer is no—and yet this is exactly what you now
have to do to “purchase” music from iTunes.
Again: can we really trust these organisations to
ensure the usability of these files in the future?
Will they even exist or be in the same business in 10 or
20 years?

EULAS
End User Licence Agreements regularly try to
convince us that we’ve entered into a binding contract
by clicking, scrolling, receiving an email, or – in one
case – by walking under a sign.

READ CAREFULLY
By reading this slide, you agree, on behalf of your
school, to release me from all obligations and waivers
arising from any and all NON-NEGOTIATED
agreements, licenses, terms-of-service, confidentiality,
non-disclosure, non-compete, and acceptable use
policies (“BOGUS AGREEMENTS”) that I have
entered into with your school, its partners, licensers,
agents, and assigns, in perpetuity, without prejudice to
my ongoing rights and privileges. You further
represent that you have the authority to release me
from any BOGUS AGREEMENTS on behalf of your
school.
Adapted from CONTENT by Cory Doctorow: – http://craphound.com/content/

EULA
“ We seem to have sunk to a kind of playground system
of forming contracts. There are those who will tell you
that you can form a binding agreement just by
following a link, stepping into a store, buying a
product, or receiving an email. By standing there,
shaking your head, shouting “NO NO NO I DO NOT
AGREE,” you agree to let me come over to your house,
clean out your fridge, wear your underwear, and make
some long-distance calls.” —Cory Doctorow, Content

DID YOU KNOW...
...That the MySpace EULA stated that the copyright in
all songs uploaded to the site belonged to... MySpace?
...That if you download a movie from Amazon Unbox,
you agree to let them install spyware on your computer
and delete any files they find that they don’t like?
...That the original Terms of Use of the Google
Chrome browser indicated that anything you uploaded
through it belonged to... Google?

EXTENSION
The British government is proposing the extension of
mechanical copyright from 50 years to 70 – in spite of
the fact that experts say that musicians or artists will
not benefit and consumers will suffer.
What’s going on?

THREE STRIKES
All over the world, the entertainment industry are
putting pressure on governments to introduce the so-
called three strikes law.
Under this, those accused three times of copyright
infringement would lose their internet connections —
forever.
So you could lose not just your social network, but
your shopping, your banking, your post office, your
information source, your online photos, diaries,
memos, etc. — all without being found guilty of
anything. All they’d have to do is accuse you.

THE ©OPYFIGHT
According to Cory Doctorow, history shows that when
copyright and technology meet, it’s always copyright
that ends up changing.
But some say the entertainment industry are trying to
“put the internet genie back in the bottle” by propping
up existing copyright law.
Meanwhile, law-abiding end users are being punished
by “malicious features.”
And young people are being exposed to largely one-
sided messages from the entertainment industry.

GOING VIRAL
Perhaps the most hypocritical aspect
of the entertainment industry’s
attitude to copyright is their use of
viral marketing campaigns.
They issue a video – e.g. a movie
trailer – knowing that it will be
copied and circulated and will
generate publicity.
In other words, they’re happy to let
you breach copyright — but only
when it suits them!

CHANGING ECONOMY?
Do some research on the ways in which the internet is
changing the economy. Is it an “information
economy”? What are the implications of that?
Some critics speak of an “attention economy” in which
the most valuable commodity is the attention of the
customer. Do you agree?
Many bands have already discovered they can make
more money selling T-shirts than CDs – so, given that
music is cheaper to produce and distribute than ever
before, why not give the music away in order to sell
more T-shirts?