(ryancr, Stealing, CC BY-NC 2.0)
Copyright can be an intimidating topic. But it doesn't have to be. This module aims to help clear up some of the confusion surrounding copyright policy. (Disclaimer, nothing in this module should be taken as legal advice!)
After completing this module, you will be able to:
(Common Sense Education)
Copyright does not have to be this elusive entity that you refuse to touch with a ten-foot pole. In fact, under the United States Constitution, Article I, Section 8 the function of copyright is to promote the progress of Science and the Arts. This clause protects the expression of literary, artistic, dramatic, software, and architectural works, essentially providing an author (for a limited time) the exclusive rights to written work or discoveries.
You create copyrighted works every day.
In fact, you own the papers you wrote for class assignments, the photograph you took of the sunrise this morning on your phone, as well as the presentation slides you created for class speech. Your ownership of those works is protected by law. Copyright is automatically placed on work for the lifespan of the creator + 70 years if they are original, fixed in a tangible medium and created by a human (unless you enter an agreement that states otherwise, of course). If you are looking to publish any of your academic work (which many undergraduates do), you will especially want to familiarize yourself with copyright rules and regulations.
What does it all mean?
(Kelly Sikkema, child picking strawberries in kitchen photo, Unsplash)
Holding ownership of work allows you to copy, modify, distribute, display and perform publicly. It also means that you are not allowed to simply copy, modify, distribute, display and perform other works except under special guidelines, such as Fair Use.
(Nick Youngson, Doctrine of Fair Use, CC BY-SA 3.0)
What if you find a picture online or in another publication that you just have to include in a paper? Don’t worry, even under copyright law you may be able to use it. Incorporated into copyright law, with limitations, is Fair Use. Fair Use allows work to be transformed or used without permission and is determined by having an appropriate purpose to use the work (the amount of the work used, the nature of the work used, and the effect of using the work). Often this is embodied in commentary, criticism, and parody. Using an image relevant to your research for example purposes most likely falls under commentary.
Fair Use sounds pretty ambiguous, which is why only courts can determine if a work is used fairly, but here are a few general guidelines for undergraduates wanting to use images or other work in presentations or theses:
Aside from copyrighted works, many resources can be found in the public domain. Once work has outlived its intellectual property rights, it enters the public domain and becomes freely available to the public for use without permission. Also, works produced by the U.S. Federal government are in the public domain, and some organizations, artists, and museums also have placed parts or all of their collections into the public domain.
(Umberto , Untitled, CC BY-NC-ND)
Creative Commons licenses allow creators to share their copyrighted work under specific conditions. They provide different layers of licensing that allow the owner of the work to decide how others can use their work, such as requiring credit to the owner or prohibiting the work to be used for commercial purposes. You will learn more about each type of license in our activity.
The content for this module was drawn from the following sources:
LAUNCH: Undergraduate Research, Texas A&M University. (2016, April 29). Understanding Copyright as an Undergraduate Researcher. Let Us LAUNCH “U” into Research! https://tamuugr.wordpress.com/2016/04/29/understanding-copyright-as-an-undergraduate-researcher/
Sevryugina, Y. V. (2020, May 20). Navigating science databases. Discovering scholarly literature by using science literature databases. Canvas Commons. https://lor.instructure.com/resources/cd04930f17bd489a8cbfcc9a946bd170
In this lesson, we briefly touched on Creative Commons (CC) copyright licenses. In this activity, you will learn more about them. There are six CC licenses, which each allow you different permissions for the copyrighted work:
Let's learn about what these terms mean. First, go to the CC website and read about the idea behind their licenses here:
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/
Next, it's time to compare the 6 licenses. You can do that by reading the overview here:
https://creativecommons.org/about/cclicenses/
For your assignment, either in the textbox in the LMS or in a Word document, answer the following questions:
1. You are an amateur photographer and would like to get some exposure for your work, hosted on a popular image sharing site. What CC license would you pick for your work and why?
2. You are giving a presentation for a class and would like to use images. Which of the 6 licenses will let you use images in this way?
3. You own a small business and are going to make a new marketing brochure with an image. Which of the 6 licenses will let you use images in this way?
See the Google doc here for quiz questions and answers. Please note, this document is stored on the PALNI team drive and is only accessible to those who work in a PALNI school.
All of the PALNI Information Literacy Modules are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
