Copyright

=Copyright and Intellectual Property on the Internet=

What Teachers Should Know About Copyright?
media type="custom" key="6163559" align="right"The easy availability of the Internet and the potential for mass distribution of content relatively cheaply and simply has raised a number of questions about the place of copyright laws in the Digital Age. What can and cannot be copied or shared on the Internet has become a flashpoint for a long overdue debate on what exactly is copyright and what alternatives are there to the traditional intellectual property laws.


 * Copyright** is, simply put, //**the right to copy**//. The creator of a work of intellectual property, such as a picture, a story, or a character in a television program, has the right to copy. Often, the creator, order to profit from his ideas, will sell the copyright to a second party. These second parties then have the right to determine what that property can be used for. For example, you may write a book. In order to get people to read your book, you will need a publisher, so when a publisher agrees to print and market your book, that company has the right to make copies and you are compensated by the terms of the contract you sign. While a customer may buy your book, he or she does not have the right to copy that book or distribute it. The rights to the ideas still belong to the copyright holder, who is either you or the publisher or both, depending on the terms of the contract.

Copyright is very complex. When the laws were made, it was virtually impossible for the average person to copy a book and distribute it. However, with the advances made in photocopying and computer technology, it has become a problem for the rights holders, who obviously don't want their ideas and content being distributed without any sort of compensation. However, technology has made infringement of copyright so easy that millions of people do it on a regular basis without a second thought. Infringement is defined in Canada as the unlawful use of copyrighted material. This includes plagiarism, which is passing off the work of someone else as your own.

Some examples of infringement include:
 * reprinting an article without the copyright owner's permission;
 * playing records at a dance without the copyright owners' permission;
 * giving a public performance of a play without permission;
 * photocopying magazine articles for a class of students without permission; and
 * taping your favourite band at a music concert without permission.

Some examples of non-infringing uses include:
 * quoting a few lines of the article in a research paper (fair dealing);
 * playing CDs at home;
 * giving a public performance of a play by Shakespeare (no copyright exists/public domain);
 * obtaining permission from the author and paying a fee to him or her (if requested) in order to use an article; and
 * borrowing a musical tape from a friend to copy onto a blank tape for private use (a royalty payment to the owner of the song rights has been paid when the blank tape was purchased).

Much of the content put up on the Internet is under some form of copyright. It is important, therefore, to understand and respect copyright law when using sources made available on the Internet.

However, tougher and more comprehensive laws are being drafted that will change copyright in Canada. This may change how copyright affects how teachers do their jobs.

What Exceptions Are There To Copyright?
There are several exceptions to copyright laws. Also, there are alternatives to the traditional model of copyright holding and infringement, such as the Creative Commons.

Certain uses of copyrighted material is allowed under conditions known as //**fair dealing**//. Fair dealing (in Canada; in the U.S. this is called Fair Use) basically protects the user from prosecution when the material is used in a number of specific ways, including private study, research, review, or reporting. For example, if you quote a section of a book for a research report, you are protected by fair dealing laws. Newspapers are protected by fair dealing rules when they reprint quotes from a book or media production without paying royalties. Fair dealing is actually quite limited in how it can be used. Here is some more info and handy guide for fair use. In Canada, copyright typically lasts until 50 years after the death of the creator. After that time, the work is said to be in the //**public domain**//. Royalties and permissions are not necessary after this point. This is why the works of historical authors and artists, such as William Shakespeare, are free to be used for any purpose. Even many films and photographs
 * Fair Dealing**
 * Public Domain**

The situation changes, however, when the copyright is corporately held. Also, this term has been changed to 70 years in the United States and it is likely that Canada will soon follow this path. Even so, people can publish work with the express purpose of putting it in the public domain. Once a work is in the public domain, it is free to be used by anyone, even for commercial purposes without permission.

//**Access Copyright**// is not so much an exemption from copyright as it is a license to use copyrighted material for specific purposes. Many teachers are under the false assumption that the right for teachers to make photocopies of a worksheet or copy a few pages out of a textbook to hand out to the class is protected under fair dealing rules. This isn't true. Technically, this is copyright infringement. The reason that teachers have the ability to do this without being arrested is because the Access Copyright agency has negotiated an agreement with publishers and paid a licensing fee on behalf of all teachers in all public schools in Canada (except Quebec). Under this agreement, teachers are allowed to make copies of certain materials for certain purposes under certain conditions.
 * Access Copyright**

The license negotiated by Access Copyright gives teachers and students the permission needed to copy from books, magazines, journals, and newspapers where the right to copy from those materials is not covered by fair dealing or other exceptions under the Copyright Act of Canada. This frees teachers to copy materials needed for their classes without having to worry about obtaining permission every time while still respecting copyright law and the creators of the materials they are using.

What Alternatives Are There To Copyright?
Some sites, such as Wikipedia, take a different approach to copyright. Wikipedia used to use the **GPL**, or **GNU Public License**, which gives anyone copyright and the right to remix content provided any remixed work carries the GPL. They have since moved over to a **Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license**. What this means is that content loaded up to Wikipedia is free to use, reuse, remix, and edit by anyone who wishes to do so, provided the source is credited (attribution) and any derived work is shared under the same license (Share-Alike). Many people feel that traditional copyright laws are inadequate and unnecessarily restrictive in an open environment like the Internet. Many new ideas have been brought forward to provide alternatives to copyright. These alternatives have been known collectively as "**Copyleft**."

Copyleft is not so much a license or a set of laws, but is an idea that exists in opposition to copyright laws. Under the idea of copyleft, anyone has the freedom to use, copy, share, change, or distribute the work in question with minimal restrictions. Typically, any derivative works must be licensed under the same license. The most popular copyleft licenses are known as the Creative Commons.

media type="custom" key="6163603" align="right"The Creative Commons are a set of licenses developed in 2002 to give creators a more flexible system to protect their copyrights. Under a Creative Commons license, some rights are reserved, as opposed to the “all-or-nothing” of traditional copyright. The purpose of this is to make content freely available over the Internet for certain uses.
 * Creative Commons**

If a creator wants to release his or her work under a Creative Commons license, they can choose from the following terms:
 * //Noncommercial or NonCommercial//: Permits others to copy, distribute, display, and perform the work and make derivative works based upon it provided it is not done to make money.
 * //Attribution//: Permits others to copy, distribute, display and perform the work and make derivative works based upon it only if they give the author or licensor credit.
 * //No Derivative Works//: Permits others to copy, distribute, display and perform the work only if they do not change it.
 * //ShareAlike//: Permits others to distribute derivative works only under a license identical to the license that governs your work.

(adapted from A Guide to Copyrights: Copyright Protection, Canadian Intellectual Property Office, Government of Canada, accessed on 03 March 2007 at @http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/sc_mrksv/cipo/cp/copy_gd_protect-e.html)

Here is a video that explains Creative Commons licensing.

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What Should Teachers Do About Copyright?
Teachers need to be aware of the issues of copyright. Many teachers make copies of books and materials without understanding the complexity of what they are doing.

Teachers are protected from some legal ramifications of copyright infringement by the Access Copyright agency, however, there are limitations to the ability to copy under the Access Copyright agreements. It is important for teachers to know and understand these limitations so that they can remain within their legal rights when making copies for their students.

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Links:

 * Copyright Board of Canada
 * Copyright Act
 * Full Text of Bill C-32
 * Access Copyright
 * Michael Geist's Blog - An expert on Canadian copyright and digital rights issues
 * Digital Copyright Canada - A site dedicated to fair and equitable copyright reform
 * Creative Commons Canada
 * Wikipedia: Canadian Copyright Law
 * Canadian Discussion on Copyright