Fair Use and Copyright: What You Need To Know by: Rose DesRochers

While running a writing community for the last three years many questions have come up regarding copyright. What is copyright? “The legal protection given to authors which protects them against unauthorized copying of their work.”

All writers at one time or another have quoted something someone else has written. I see it all the time throughout the writing industry. Maybe you quoted the lines of a poem or a line from an article or the words from a song. I quoted the work of another author in the above paragraph, where I defined copyright.

Given my example above, did I just infringe on copyright? Should I have gotten permission from the said author to quote them? No, under what is known as “fair use", I may quote the author without asking permission.

There is a misconception in the writing world about what fair use is and what copyright is. You might think that you can use anyone’s written work as long as you give them credit and provide a link to the source. Do not confuse the meaning of copyright and fair use.

An example of infringement of copyright would be if you posted someone’s poem on your website and did not ask permission from the poet, or you posted a full copyrighted article taken from a website that covers worldwide news but did not obtain permission from the author of the news article. However, quoting two lines from the news article with a link to the entire article would generally be considered a fair use. Except for the facts in the article, news articles are protected under copyright laws.

Though you may not get sued because you reposted a few news articles, you did infringe on the author’s copyright and this could have been easily avoided by linking to the original article and only summarizing a few lines.

You won’t be surprised at the number of people who infringe on copyright and have no knowledge that they are doing so. So when is one allowed the right to fair use? Fair use is allowed for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research.

Anyone who thinks, you can use another’s written work as long as you give them credit and provide a link to the source is obviously misinformed about the laws of copyright. Check the http://www.copyright.gov for more information on copyright and please respect the rights of others.

Acknowledgement: Help & FAQs - Jargon Explained (AF) [James Hardiman Library - NUI ...

About The Author Rose DesRochers, Canada admin@todays-woman.net http://www.todays-woman.net Rose is a published author and web columnist. She is also the founder of Today's Woman a supportive online community for men and women over 18. Their goal is to help writers succeed in the writing industry by offering a useful selection of services including author interviews, regular columns, interactive forums, and a place to share your writing for critique by your peers. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License. admin@todays-woman.net

Copyright Procedures; Quick and Easy

By: Lyle Cochran

The digital age of cyber publishing and intellectual property raises many questions about copyrighting. If you have never published anything in your life, you still hold copyrights. If you do publish your work, how do you know your copyrights are in place? Copyrighting is not complicated or difficult, there is a quick and easy way to copyright any creative material you produce.

Copyright law in the United States is extremely generous toward the creators and owners of new works. Legal copyright protection is in effect immediately and automatically upon the creation of any "original work of authorship" that is "fixed in any tangible medium of expression."

In other words, a copyright notice is not necessary for your work to comply with U.S. Copyright law. For example, when authors, webmasters, amateur writers or anyone else submit creative material of any kind for publishing, that creative material is automatically copyrighted. No copyright notice is necessary to be legally binding.

The laws are so generous in fact that the notes or scribbles you mindlessly make while speaking on the phone are considered copyrighted material, even if you wad it up and toss it in the trash at the end of the call. This does not mean that copyrighting should be taken lightly. There are significant legal advantages to using a copyright notice.

Copyrights can also be given away in part or in whole and must be agreed to in writing. The details of this are way beyond the scope of this writing. All authors and publishers have taken part in copyright agreements knowingly or unknowingly.

Quick and Easy Copyrighting:

The conventional copyright notice consists of 3 elements. The the word "copyright" or the copyright symbol, the year, and the name of the copyright owner.

Copyright © 2006 [Your Name or Company]

To comply with current copyright law and to copyright any computer generated creative materials follow this formula. First, add the copyright notice as described above to the end of the document. When you have finished editing, save your document as a file.

Finally, print the complete document with the title or file name and the current date. Set these to be printed in your printer settings or use the header and footer options of your text editor. Optionally you can simply type the title and date along with your copyright notice manually.

For example:

Copyright © 2006 Lyle Cochran

Copyright Procedures, Quick and Easy, July, 19, 2006

The printed hard copy becomes your Master Document. This document should be protected at all cost as it is proof that you are the author of the created material.

Other medium:

If your creative material is on some fixed and tangible medium other than computer, your hand written signature and date is usually enough copyright protection until you can apply for copyright.

Summary:

I know that the procedure outlined here sounds too easy, but it is the procedure recommended by the U. S. Copyright Office. This short procedure is valid and will stand on its own in litigation. Remember that the original date is key and a hard copy adds considerable weight to ownership.

If you wish to make your copyright bullet proof, you can begin copyright procedures online at the United States Copyright Office. ( http://www.copyright.gov/ )

Quotes Resource: http://www.copyright.gov/

About the Author

Lyle Cochran is a PC technician with over 10 years experience and webmaster of Cheap Computer Solutions, where you can learn the secret to finding cheap computer hardware parts and retailers online. The number one site for cheap computer how-to shopping guides. Download your free Cheap Computer Parts Organizer now.

Copyright © 1997-2006, Lyle Cochran, bytepowered.org

(ArticlesBase SC #43327)

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/ - Copyright Procedures; Quick and Easy

Useful Copyright Information

   

 by: Stuart Simpson

When you write down a story, poem, song, lyrics, software, computer program or paint or sculpt something, you can create a copyright from your work. Copyrights allow the owner of the work to keep others from using it without the owner’s permission. Copyright protects the “expression of an idea”, but not the idea itself. For example, a copyright can protect a specific story about a dog going to the moon, but can’t copyright info about animals in space.

Copyrights must meet 3 criteria:

1. Must be original.
2. Must be expressed on paper, audio or videotape, computer, clay or canvas.
3. Must be creative to some degree – you can’t copyright a static list.

Frequently asked questions about copyrights:

How can I protect my work?

1. Place a copyright notice on your work in this format: “copyright year name”. This keeps people from saying, “I didn’t know it was copyrighted” in case you have to file suit.
2. Register your work with the US Copyright office. Register within 3 months of the publication date at a nominal cost of $30.

Does a copyright last forever?

No. If a work is published after 1-1-1978, then the copyright is good for the author’s life plus 70 years. If the work was copyrighted as an anonymous work or it belongs to an employer, then the copyright lasts 95 years.

What is this about my employer owning my copyright?

Yes, that is correct. If you did work for an employer and it fits the “work made for hire” law, then your employer owns the copyright.

So, who really owns the copyright?

If you create the work while employed, then the employer owns the work. If you created the work as contract labor, then they most likely will own the copyright.

What can I do with my copyright?

You can display, print, distribute, or perform the work. Your main goal is to make money off the copyrighted material. Usually.

If I can’t do anything with my copyright, can I sell it?

Sure – You can sell or transfer the copyright. You can also license the copyright, which allows limited uses. That could allow another company to publish or perform your work if you wanted to concentrate on working on other things. But, if you transfer unconditionally, then the new owner has all rights and it’s called an “assignment.” Be sure to record the transfer at the US Copyright office in case of an infringement.

What if someone uses my copyright without my permission?

You can file a lawsuit in federal court to keep them from using the work, get monetary damages and sometimes recover attorney fees.

What defense would they have?

• Did you sell or authorize its use?
• Their work was created independently – wasn’t copied.
• Statue of limitations reached between their first use and filing the lawsuit
• They didn’t know the work was protected
• Fair use defense

What is the “Fair Use Defense?”

If the copyright work is being used for journalism, criticism or research, then the court has to determine fair use by how much of the work was used, the effect on the copyright, and why it was used. It doesn’t give free reign, only the court can decide for sure.

I hope this information proves helpful in your copyright search. This is a very condensed version of what copyrights are all about. Contact a lawyer for further details.

About The Author Stuart Simpson has gathered some information about copyrights, patents, and trade secrets at http://www.intellectual-property-help.com/.