FACULTY RESOURCES
Copyright
"To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries." - from Article I, Section 8 U.S. Constitution
Articles
Distance Education
Distance Learning Course Ownership
Who Owns Online Courses and Course Materials?
General
American Distance Education Consortium - intellectual property & copyright resource collection - excellent!
Copyright and Fair Use (Stanford University) - focus on digital environment
Marie A. D'Amico's Cyberspace Law - encompasses music, domain names, patents & trademarks, Internet, privacy, e-mail
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Basics
Intellectual Property Rights
Intellectual property and copyright are partners; copyright automatically
protects intellectual property. Under the 1976 Copyright Law-which
is our current mandate with some updates-the purpose was to encourage
and stimulate as many creative and scientific works as possible
as an overall 'good' for society. The economic reward was the exclusive
rights to the creative work for a limited period of time. Section
106 of the 1976 U.S. Copyright Act grants the copyright owner exclusive
rights in the following areas:
- Reproduction-The right to reproduce the work.
- Adaptation-The right to create and produce derivative works
based on the original piece.
- Distribution-The right to distribute copies.
- Performance-The right to perform the work publicly.
- Display-The right to display and transmit the work publicly.
The limiting parts in these granted rights depends on various
factors, such as when the work was created, published, or if
there is existing copyright. There is no longer a requirement to
apply for copyright registration,
but it is in the best interests of the creator who wants full protection
of the law against illegal infringement.
The Internet has been characterized as the most significant threat
to copyright since the 1976 law was enacted. The Internet is a vast
storehouse of information containing varying options of use: free
or public domain, by permission or not, by citing, or by Fair Use.
Most everything on the Net is protected by copyright: novels, articles,
screenplays, graphics, pictures, photographs, software, news articles,
databases, and e-mail. Copyright applies only to "original works
of authorship" that are "fixed in any tangible medium of expression."
Exceptions to this are ideas, known facts and government information.
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Fair Use:
The law broadly defines copyright protection and then provides a
number of exceptions to the copyright owners' exclusive rights.
The best known exception is 'fair use.' There are four factors to
be considered in a 'fair use' analysis in making a determination
of what constitutes 'fair use':
- Purpose and Character of Use-Is it of a commercial nature or for nonprofit educational purposes?
- Nature of Copyrighted Work-Is this worthy of copyright protection?
- Relative Amount-How much and of what quality or importance was copied?
- Effect Upon Potential Market-What is the extent of harm to the market of the original work caused by the infringement?
The last factor is the one most often cited as the most important
factor in determining 'fair use'-and that is because it involves
money. Has it harmed or weakened the marketability of the work?
The legal boundary between what is considered 'fair use' and infringement
is often blurred and subjective.
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Public Domain:
Laura Gasaway's
table of copyright expiration
Identifying the Public Domain is essential, as the formality of
registering, posting a notice or renewal (prior to 1989) are no
longer required to protect creative works.
Works published / unpublished before 1978.
If the work was published originally in the U.S. before
1978 without a formal copyright notice, it lacks copyright protection.
Between 1978 and 1989 a copyright owner could "fix" a missing notice.
You can only rely on the lack of a notice for works dating before
1978. If the work is unpublished it is protected even without
copyright registration. Foreign works before 1978 have their own
protecting laws-see "Circular 38b" at the Copyright Office website.
Also at the Copyright Office site you can search and access records
of copyright registrations and renewals filed since 1978
Works created after December 31, 1977
The lack of a copyright notice or registration is inconclusive of
the work's protected status. Proceed as though the work is protected
until you learn otherwise from the author or publisher. More than
likely, this means that almost any creative work in paper, 3-dimensional
or electronic form is protected by copyright.
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Web Sites - comprehensive
- Copyright and Art Issues (University of Oregon) - guidelines, policies, useful Web sites
- Copyright Clearance Center - permissions & licensing services
- Copyright Management Center (Indiana / Purdue Universities) - includes teaching & research, distance education, library issues, permissions
- Cyberlaw Encyclopedia (Alan Gahtan, LLP) - copyright law including articles, cases, organizations, treaties, and more...
- Franklin Pierce Law Center - indepth copyright, patent / trademark information site
- Government Document Pamphlets and Brochures (University of Buffalo) - includes registrations and other information
- The Copyright WebSite (Benedict Mahoney) - encompasses the basics, visual arts, digital arts, audio arts and more.
- Using Software: A Guide to the Ethical and Legal Use of... (EDUCOM & ITAA) - as it applies to academia
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Copyright Law
Digital Millenium Copyright Act
Distance Education
Full-text of copyright law
TEACH Act
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Copyright History
Overview of U.S. copyright
law from 1790-1996 ( Association of Research Libraries) - also contains
summaries from major court cases of interest to academia
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Patents and Trademarks
Definitions:
Patent - is a grant of a property right to an invention by
the government to the inventor thru the Patent and Trademark Office-maximum
grant is 20 years. The inventor holds the right to exclude others
from making or using, offering for sale or importing the invention.
Trademark - is concerned with a name, word, symbol, or type
of device that indicates a source of goods or services and that
distinguishes them from others' goods and services. A trademark
is not a trade name*
Searching Patents &
Trademarks
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Plagiarism
Plagiarism - act of copyright infringement by using another person's
work without giving credit - tantamount to stealing.
Articles
"Student
Plagiarism in an Online World" - concise article, includes useful links
"The Cheating
Game 'Everyone's Doing it,' from grade school to graduate school" - cover
article from U.S. New & World Report (11/22/99)
Basics
ACI Net Guide to Term Papers - warnings regarding papers from the Internet
Plagiarism: What It is
and How to Recognize and Avoid It (Indiana University) - useful section
on paraphrasing including acceptable/ unacceptable examples
Sources (Dartmouth
College) - comprehensive list of terms relating to plagiarism/copyright issues
including explanations and examples
Web Sites -comprehensive
Electronic
Plagiarism Seminar (Le Moyne College) - includes bibliographies (general & scientific misconduct), preventing and detecting, guides for educators
& students, free papers / papers for sale and more...excellent site!
Plagiarism (S. Stoerger)
- articles, tools, case studies, ethics and more
Plagiarism.org (Turnitin folks) - statistics,
education, technology
Citation Formats
Citation Styles Online - includes information on MLA, APA, Chicago, CBE citation styles
Wallace's APA & MLA citation
style - includes online how to guides, streamed PowerPoint tutorials, & other citation links
Tutorials/Self-testing Exercises
Paraphrasing (Purdue University Writing Lab) - examples
Quoting,
Paraphrasing, and Summarizing (Purdue University Writing Lab)
Writing Resources
Guide for Writing Research Papers (Capital Community College) - based on styles recommended by the American Psychological Assoc. (APA) & MLA- includes useful links
Guide to Grammar and Style (Rutgers)
Hints on Technical Report Writing (Dublin City University)
Online Reading and Writing Lab (Gallaudet) - comprehensive
Technical Report Writing (NASA)
The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing (Washington College)
The Writing Workshop (New York University)
Writing a Research Paper (Purdue University)
Writing and Presenting Your Thesis or Dissertation (various academic authors)
Writing, Citing and Evaluating Guides (University of British Columbia)
Writing Theses and Dissertations (Claremont College)
Detection
Papers
Glatt Plagiarism Services, Inc. - interactive program using student's own writing style. Useful for detecting
plagiarism when source is another student, a purchased paper, or a book. Offers
computer software teaching students to avoid plagiarism. Provides opportunity
to self-test for plagiarism.
Plagiarism.org - RIT Library is currently
offering this service to RIT faculty - contact Marianne Buehler
"The
Web's Plagiarism Police" by Andy Denhart - a cautionary tale
Software
MOSS (measurement of software
similarity) - system for detecting software plagiarism - free (Alex Aiken,
UC Berkeley)
Effective Library Assignments
Papers
Anti-Plagiarism Strategies for
Research Papers - offers strategies for detecting and discouraging plagiarism
Creating Effective Library
Assignments: A Guide for Faculty (Montana State University - Bozeman)
Guidelines
for Effective Library Assignments (University of Wisconsin - Madison)
Guidelines
for Library Assignments California Clearing House for Library Instruction
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Maintained by: Marianne Buehler
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