Copyright

One owner or author …

• If you, the author, wrote the original article, you are the owner of the article until you sign that right away through a publishing agreement/contract; copyright ownership can be transferred or licensed

More than one owner or author or joint ownership …

• All the authors have the same intentions that their contributions will be merged/consolidated into a single work;
• At the time of the work’s creation, this group intention exists; 
• The only requirements of joint authorship are to share in any profits received equally among the authors and that they cannot grant exclusive rights without written consent from other joint authors
  • N.B: to create a joint work, a written contract is not necessary (e.g., one author can grant another person to use the work without permission from the other authors)

When don’t your own copyright?

You do NOT own copyright when you create new works as part of your employment

• Some employers have policies that say what workers can do with their creations
• Other employers have policies that say workers own some of their creations
• It is common among academic employers, to give some copyright ownership to some of their employees like at Johns Hopkins

You do NOT own copyright also when you create new works for someone who is not your employer

• The work needs to specifically commissioned and there has to be a written agreement that the commissioning person/organization owns the copyright to your creations
• If the work is created by an independent contractor and the independent contractor signs a written agreement stating that the work shall be “made for hire,” the commissioning person or organization owns the copyright only if the work is (1) a part of a larger literary work, such as an article in a magazine or a poem or story in an anthology; (2) part of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, such as a screenplay; (3) a translation; (4) a supplementary work such as an afterword, an introduction, chart, editorial note, bibliography, appendix or index; (5) a compilation; (6) an instructional text; (7) a test or answer material for a test; or (8) an atlas. Works that don’t fall within one of these eight categories constitute works made for hire only if created by an employee within the scope of his or her employment.

Lastly, you do NOT own copyright if in a joint ownership of copyright happens when you create a new work with other people

• The U.S. Copyright Office considers joint copyright owners to have an equal right to register and enforce the copyright. The only requirements in joint authorship, is to share in any profits received equally among the authors

What exactly is protected by copyright?

• Original Works – it must not copy exactly someone else’s work. It must be original and creative
• Fixed Works – the work must exist in some physical form for some period of time
• Human authorship – it must not be authored by AI

Current copyright law protects copyrighted works for the life of the creator plus 70 years afterward.
Earlier works follow a variety of different rules to determine their copyright expiry.

Registration may be a benefit as it is required before a lawsuit can be filed in a copyright infringement case where someone infringes on a creator’s copyright. Section 102 details this aspect of the law regarding copyright infringement.

How can you register your copyright?
You can register your copyright by filing a simple application and depositing one or two samples of the work (depending on what it is) with the U.S. Copyright Office.

More specifically, there are two ways to file a copyright application:

1. File using the online eCO system (currently $35 to $55 per application); or
2. File using traditional paper forms (currently $85 per application). Copyright forms can be downloaded from the copyright office website (www.copyright.gov)

Note, the fees change periodically. Check with the Copyright Office for current fees.

How do you know that you copyright is registered? In other words, what is a valid copyright notice?

• A copyright notice should contain:
  • the word “copyright”
  • a “c” in a circle (©)
  • the date of publication, and
  • the name of either the author or the owner of all the copyright rights in the published work.
     

Exemption Cases:

• Federal government materials which is Public Domain content
• Fair Use cases
• Face-to-face teaching/classroom use
  • Copyright law places a high value on educational uses. The Classroom Use Exemption (17 U.S.C. §110(1)) of the Copyright Act only applies in very limited situations, but where it does apply, it is pretty clear - both instructors and students have broad rights to perform or display any works.
  • This exemption only applies in a classroom ("or similar place devoted to instruction"), for people who are there in person, engaged in face-to-face teaching activities. It also only applies at a nonprofit educational institution. If these three conditions aren’t met; the Classroom Use Exemption doesn’t apply.
  • The Classroom Use Exemption only allows performance or display. Making or distributing copies (i.e., handing out readings in class) is not covered by the Classroom Use Exemption (though it might still be allowed sometimes as a fair use.)
  • When the exemption does apply, instructors can play movies and music for their students, at any length (though not from illegitimate copies!). Instructors can show students images or original artworks. Students can perform music, read poems, and act out scenes. And students and instructors can do all these things without seeking permission or giving anyone payment. The law already allows it!
  • Though, licensing from particular sources may override your rights in face-to-face teaching; e.g., Netflix. When you sign up for Netflix, you agree via a click-through license to use it only for “personal uses”. Therefore, it would be illegal or copyright infringement to show a Netflix show in class.
• Reproduction by libraries and archives
  • Section 108 of the Copyright Act provides more detail; it supports things like interlibrary loan and possible access to archival materials

Getting copyright permissions, or licensing, should not be the first thing you do when thinking about copyright. When solving a copyright problem, it is ideal to follow these steps first:

1. Is the work protected by copyright (i.e., is it in the Public Domain?)
2. Is work subject to copyright exemptions? (e.g., face-to-face teaching?)
3. Is there a strong argument in favor of Fair Use? (consider the 4 factors for Fair Use)
4. When the work is protected by copyright, AND there are no copyright exceptions/exemptions or Fair Use does not apply, then ask for permission to use the work

The most important thing to do when obtaining copyright permission is to determine who holds the copyright for a particular work. Some steps to take when obtaining copyright permission:

In general, the permissions process involves a simple five-step procedure:

1. Determine if permission is needed.
   • Is the material protected under the law?
   • Would your use of the material violate the law?
2. Identify the owner.
3. Identify the rights needed in a permissions agreement.
   • For example, identify type of intended uses. 
4. Contact the owner and negotiate whether payment is required.
   • Generally, permission fees are linked to the size of the audience your work will reach. A large metropolitan newspaper will have to pay more to use a photograph than a small-town newspaper. Commercial uses, such as advertisements, cost more than nonprofit or educational uses. The fees for website use may depend upon the number of visitors to the site.
5. Get your permission agreement in writing.
   • Relying on an oral agreement or understanding is almost always a mistake. You and the rights owner may have misunderstood each other or remembered the terms of your agreement differently. This can lead to disputes. If you have to go to court to enforce your unwritten agreement, you’ll have difficulty proving exactly what the terms are. Get written permission agreements—do not rely on oral agreements.

When searching the U.S. Copyright Office page for information about a particular work, it’s useful to have the following bits of info:

• Copyright notice
• Title of the work
• Name of the author or publisher or copyright owner
• Year of publication or registration
• Keyword or registration number
• Title, volume, or issue of serialized publication
  • N.B. if you cannot identify/locate the publisher, you may have an “orphan work”

Copyright Permissions Tools: Licenses and Clearances

• A license is a legal right to do something that you would not otherwise be permitted to do. For example, you need a driver’s license to give you the right to drive a car. The owner of a copyrighted work can authorize someone else to use the work by granting a license to the user. For example, the owner of a photograph copyright can grant a license to someone else who wants to reproduce the photograph on greeting cards. If no license has been given, the copyright owner can sue for the unauthorized use of the work, referred to as “infringement.”
• The terms “license” and “permission agreement” are often used interchangeably. You may also find that, in some situations, a license or permission agreement is referred to as a “clearance agreement.” “Clearance” is a general term used to describe the process by which permission is granted.