A brief presentation given to a class of new library students on Copyright in Academic Libraries

1. Copyright
fair use & first sale
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2. Why Should Librarians Care About
Copyright?
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3. Copyright is the legal framework
under which Libraries operate.
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4. What You Need To Know
(The good-parts version.)
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5. US Constitution
Article One: Section Eight
Congress Shall Have The Power To:
Promote the Progress of Science
and useful Arts, by securing for
limited Times to Authors and
Inventors the exclusive Right to
their respective Writings and
Discoveries;
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6. Creators get a limited monopoly on their work for a
limited time.
After that limited time, ownership passes to the
public domain.
With some adaptation, these are still the rules today.
tl;dr
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7. What Can Be Copyrighted?
“Fixed in a tangible medium of expression.”
Books, DVDs, computer files, napkin sketches...
Original works
Creative works
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8. What Cannot Be Copyrighted?
Ideas
Facts
Government documents
(Patents & trademarks are similar but not the
same as copyright.)
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9. 1. the right of reproduction (public & private)
2. the right to create derivative works (public & private)
3. the right to distribution (public)
4. the right to performance (public)
5. the right to display (public)
6. the digital transmission performance right.
(public)
What does Copyright Protect?
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10. How Long Does Copyright
Last? (US)
Anything published before 1923 is out of copyright.
For anything published after 1977 copyright lasts the
life of the author + 70 years.
1923-1977: It’s complicated. 95 years, unless ...
... works for hire, unpublished, orphan works
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11. fairuse.stanford.edu
chillingeffects.org/
fairuse/
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12. ?
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13. Copyright is Broken
“I think the most important thing is to problematize
existing structures.”
@CopyrightLibn Nancy Sims
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14. Copyright was created when the
printing press was the dominant
information technology.
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15. Photocopiers Challenged
Copyright
The Internet Broke
Copyright.
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16. Broken Copyright Laws
Rules written to regulate press that cost six figures
and require skilled labor to operate aren’t effective
when every office has a Xerox or cassette recorder.
But there is a quality distinction between “real”
items and “copies.
Digital media breaks the economics of supply and
demand. When there are an infinite number of
perfect, free copies, what does one charge?
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17. First Sale & Fair Use
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18. First Sale:
If you own something, you call sell or lend it without
the permission of the creator. (Think: cars and
houses.)
Libraries own books and DVDs, thus we can lend them
to our cardholding users.
First sale does not apply to digital files in most cases.
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19. Fair Use
the purpose and character of your use
the nature of the copyrighted work
the amount and substantiality of the portion taken,
the effect of the use upon the potential market.
See more at: fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/fair-use/four-factors/
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20. copyright in
academe
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21. Code of Best Practices for Fair
Use in Academic Libraries
www.arl.org/storage/documents/publications/code-of-
best-practices-fair-use.pdf
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22. http://www.arl.org/storage/
images/fair-use-infographic-
aug2013-1200x7050.png
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23. ?
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24. 2. Nicholas Schiller
3. Marcus Hansson
13. Andrew Plumb
14. By Develop GmbH (Archiv der Develop GmbH, Langenhagen) [CC-BY-SA-3.0-de
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/de/deed.en)], via Wikimedia
Commons
14. By Jimbo Wales, Fredrik CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/
licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons
15. Jorge Cham (c) http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?
comicid=1200
22. Nhenze (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/
by-sa/3.0)
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