The digital world continues to grow by leaps and bounds and the line that regulates copyright becomes increasingly blurred. This is due in large part to the fact that the institution that is responsible for regulating, promoting and protecting copyright is based on an obsolete model of the seventeenth century. The Copyright Office urgently needs structural changes that adapt it to the needs of its 21st-century customers. The general public and especially educators should have a broad knowledge of copyright and the laws that govern them.
What are the copyrights?
Copyright is the legal right of owners to reproduce, display, transmit or modify the work they have created. Copyright protection belongs to its creator / author if the following three requirements are met: fixation, originality, and minimal creativity. Also, Also, copyrightable works are grouped in the following categories:
- Literary works
- Musical works, including any accompanying words
- Dramatic works, including any accompanying music
- Pantomimes and choreographic works
- Pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works
- Motion pictures and other audiovisual works
- Sound recordings
- Architectural works (Copyright Basics, n.d.).
The Copyright Law gives five rights to a copyright owner:
- the right to reproduce the copyrighted work
- the right to prepare derivative works based upon the work
- the right to distribute copies of the work to the public
- the right to perform the copyrighted work publicly
- the right to display the copyrighted work publicly (Bitlaw, n.d.).
However, these rights are limited by fair use and several other limitations established in the Copyright Law. the Fair Use admits the use of copyrighted materials without the consent of the copyright owner for specific purposes. The fair use of a copyrighted work includes but is not limited to; reproduction in copies, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research. Fair use involves four factors to include when analyzing whether a use is fair.
- the purpose and character of your use
- the nature of the copyrighted work
- the amount and substantiality of the portion taken, and
- the effect of the use upon the potential market (Stim, n.d.).
Copyright owners can grant some or all their rights to others, or allow others to use their work freely such as an open source license and Creative Commons.
References
Bitlaw. (n.d.). Rights granted under Copyright Law. Retrieved from https://www.bitlaw.com/copyright/scope.html
Copyright Basics (n.d.) Brigham Young University, Copyright Licensing Office. Retrieved from https://sites.lib.byu.edu/copyright/about-copyright/basics/
Fair Use (n.d.) Brigham Young University, Copyright Licensing Office. Retrieved from https://sites.lib.byu.edu/copyright/about-copyright/fair-use/
Stim, R. (n.d.). Measuring fair use: The four factors. Stanford University Libraries. Retrieved from https://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/fair-use/four-factors/
