This document discusses copyright issues related to using sound recordings and images in open online courses. It outlines copyright durations for sound recordings in different countries and exceptions to public performance rights for sound recordings in the US. It evaluates different sources of open audio content and images, noting that aggregators, special collections, and public domain works are generally most suitable for educational use. The document also notes challenges around using images both when the underlying work and image have copyright protection.

1. Open Uses of Sound
Recordings and Images
Francesca Giannetti
fgiannetti@utexas.edu
MOOC-SIG | June 24, 2013
This work is licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution-
NonCommercial 3.0 Unported
License.
Monday, June 24, 13

2. Copyright of Sound
Recordings
• in UK: year of publication/creation + 50 years
• in European Union: year of publication/creation
+ 70 years
• in USA: It’s complicated, but roughly speaking
pre-1972 enters PD in 2067 while >=1972 is 95
years from publication
• Handy-dandy chart: http://copyright.cornell.edu/
resources/publicdomain.cfm
Monday, June 24, 13

3. Public Performance of Sound Recordings
(USC Title 17 Ch 1 § 114)
• Tier 1: Public performances that are
entirely exempt from the performance
right.
• Tier II: Digital audio transmissions - subject
to statutory license.
• Tier III: Everything else.Thought to involve
a high risk of copying. Requires negotiation
of license with copyright holder.
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Tier I exemptions: live performances, analog transmissions, AM/FM broadcasts, public radio
Tier II types: webcasters, satellite radio, cable broadcasters, radio broadcasters that stream
content on Internet
Tier III types: on-demand streaming services, other service that does not adhere to “sound
recording performance complement” (i.e. limitations on number of selections from a
particular album or performer that can be played in 3-hr period)

4. Which influences the types of digital
music services out there...
• OA aggregators
• Mostly PD (in EU), greatest content from
European DLs
• Special collections
• Often unpublished works, or really old orphan
works
• Music downloads
• On-demand streaming
• Internet radio
• User-driven sites
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OA aggregators: National Jukebox, Internet Archive (USA); Europeana, ECLAP (EU); British
Library Sound Archive (UK -- blocks non-EU residents).
Special Collections: Belfer Cylinder at Syracuse U., UCSB Cylinder Project,Toscanini Centennial
Series at UNT, Stanford’s Monterrey Jazz Festival
Internet radio: includes Stanford University’s Riverwalk Jazz Collection: http://
riverwalkjazz.stanford.edu/. Broadcasting license is less expensive than on-demand.
User-driven sites: Soundcloud, Grooveshark, YouTube

5. These ones are the probably most
useful for open educational purposes
• OA aggregators
• Mostly PD (in EU), greatest content from
European DLs
• Special collections
• Often unpublished works, or really old orphan
works
• Music downloads
• On-demand streaming
• Internet radio
• User-driven sites
Monday, June 24, 13
Music downloading sites like iTunes can be useful too, but UT’s contract with edX stipulates
that course materials be free of charge to enrolled students.

6. When underlying work
is in copyright
• “Free” on-demand sites:
• Spotify (based in
Sweden)
• Rdio (US-based)
• Rhapsody (PC only)
• Xbox Music (PC only)
Go to on-demand music streaming services first.Where
there are gaps in the catalog, try user-driven/hybrid sites.
• User-driven sites:
• Grooveshark (hybrid)
• Internet Archive
(Community Audio)
• Soundcloud
• YouTube
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Rdio has better Lat-Am coverage (Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Mexico) than Spotify (Mexico). Both
services are about equal in terms of Asian coverage (but no China, no Japan, no South Korea
in either). Europe and North America are almost equally well served.

7. When underlying work
is in PD
• ECLAP e-library for performing arts
• Europeana (use their EDM search short-
cuts e.g.“who:Lully what:sound”)
• Internet Archive (Audio Archive)
• National Jukebox (acoustical era recordings
only)
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8. Finding Images
• Clear-cut answers regarding the various possible
uses of an image can’t always be had
• Uses that entail the most restrictions, whether
underlying work or its photographic image are in
PD or protected by copyright, relate to print
publication and online availability to general public
(!?!)
• VRA’s Digital Image Rights Computator and Copy
Photography Computator help navigate instances
of fair use
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DIRC at best tells you “fair use likely” or “use with caution”
Typical fair use safeguards, like using only a small portion of a work, or using a low-
resolution/thumbnail of image, are not particularly satisfying solutions in the visual arts.
Is a MOOC an instance of making an image available online to the general public?

9. Finding Images (2)
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It’s easy enough to find images licensed for reuse on the internet where the underlying work
is eligible for copyright protection. But can we really use them??

10. Where we are with Jeff Hellmer’s
Jazz Appreciation MOOC
• Jazz Appreciation MOOC Playlist
• Jazz MOOC Images
Your feedback is welcome and appreciated!!
Monday, June 24, 13

11. #moocs #trending
• A Look at MOOCs, a group on HASTAC
• The Minds Behind the MOOCs, and Major Players in the MOOC
Universe, awesome infographics
• Great satirical piece, if you want to laugh/cry:
• Ginsberg, Benjamin.“Forget MOOCs--Let’s Use MOOA.”
Minding the Campus, June 13, 2013.
• Article/opinion round-ups:
• Bogost, Ian, Cathy N. Davidson,Al Filreis, and Ray Schroeder.
“MOOCs and the Future of the Humanities:A Roundtable
(Part 1).” Los Angeles Review of Books (June 14, 2013).
• Koh,Adeline.“Weekend Reading:The MOOC Catchup
Edition.” The Chronicle of Higher Education. ProfHacker, June
14, 2013.
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12. Bibliography
• Besek, June M. Copyright Issues Relevant to Digital Preservation and
Dissemination of Pre-1972 Commercial Sound Recordings by Libraries
and Archives. Council on Library and Information Resources,
December 2005. http://www.clir.org/pubs/abstract/reports/
pub135.
• Brooks,Tim.“Copyright and Historical Sound Recordings: Recent
Efforts to Change U.S. Law.” Notes 65, no. 3 (2009): 464–474.
• International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. Recording
Industry in Numbers. London: IFPI, n.d.
• “17 USC § 114 - Scope of Exclusive Rights in Sound Recordings |
Title 17 - Copyrights | U.S. Code | LII / Legal Information
Institute.” Accessed June 24, 2013. http://www.law.cornell.edu/
uscode/text/17/114.
Monday, June 24, 13