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copyleft copyright copyright infringement Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 fair use intellectual property license patent public domain trademark work for hire
Copyleft is a relatively new concept that originated among software developers but now is being used in a variety of fields. To "copyleft" a work, the creator of a copyrighted work usually issues a license allowing others to use, copy, modify or distribute the work under certain conditions, without asking permission. In essence, by copylefting the work, the author gives other people or organizations more freedom to use the work than they would have under copyright law, without putting the work in the public domain and giving up all right to protect it.
Only the copyright holder has the right to declare a work copylefted. Once a work is copylefted, the decision can't be reversed.
Organizations that are dedicated to copyleft issues and/or provide copyleft licenses include the Free Software Foundation and the Open Source Initiative (for software) and Creative Commons (for text, audio, images, video and educational works).
Copyright is a form of protection that United States law (title 17, U.S. Code) gives to the creators of original intellectual works, such as books, music, artwork and films. Copyright law gives copyright owners the exclusive right to reproduce, distribute, perform, display or license their work.
Creative work cannot be copyrighted unless it is in a tangible form (such as on paper or video). Works are automatically copyrighted when they are put in tangible form and do not need be registered to be copyrighted.
Copyright laws vary by country. The U.S. Copyright Office says, "There is no such thing as an 'international copyright' that will automatically protect an author's writings throughout the entire world." However, as a result of international agreements, most countries honor each other's citizens' copyrights.
Copyright infringement occurs when a copyrighted work is reproduced, distributed, performed, publicly displayed or made into a derivative work (a work that is based on but changed somewhat from the original) without the permission of the copyright owner.
Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) updated U.S. copyright law for the Internet era. One change the act made was to give educational institutions that qualify as Internet service providers (including DCCCD) protection from liability for copyright infringement by students or employees, as long as the institution follows certain rules. That means if you infringe on someone’s copyright while using district computers or related district resources, you will be held responsible - not the district.
DCCCD has designated district legal counsel as its agent to receive claims of copyright infringement and to remove or disable illegal content. (See "District/Instructional Web Pages" in regulation CR of the DCCCD Board Policy Manual for more information.)
For more details, see the U.S. Copyright Office’s summary of the DMCA (PDF - 6.31 MB).
The "fair use" doctrine, part of U.S. copyright law, allows you to use copyrighted works legally, without permission, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship or research.
To determine whether use of a copyrighted work is a "fair use," you must consider all four of the following factors:
Intellectual property is anything created by the human mind that has commercial value and can be protected under federal law. U.S. law defines four types of intellectual property:
Intellectual property must be expressed in a tangible form (for example, on paper or video) to be protected.
A license is a contractual agreement in which a copyright owner (or the owner's authorized agent) gives another person or organization permission to exercise one or more of the exclusive rights they hold as the copyright owner. Licenses usually involve the payment of a fee or royalty but can also be free.
A patent is an agreement in which the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office gives an inventor the right to exclude others from making, using or selling an invention for a limited period of time (usually 20 years). Patents may be issued for a new process or machine, a new design for a product or a new variety of plant, among other things.
Public domain refers to works that are not protected by copyright and are publicly available. They may be used by anyone, anywhere, anytime without permission, license or royalty payment. A work may enter the public domain because the term of copyright protection has expired, the work is not eligible to be copyrighted or the work was created by the federal government.
A trademark is a word, phrase, symbol or design, or a combination of these things, that a company uses to identify its products.
work for hire
Usually, the person who creates a copyrighted work is considered its author. However, if an employee creates that work as a part of his or her employment, it is considered a "work for hire," and the employer is considered to be the copyright owner.
DCCCD Board Policy defines work for hire as it relates to district employees in policy DBD (local).
Also see U.S. Copyright Office Circular 9, Works Made for Hire Under the 1976 Copyright Act (PDF - 71.7 KB)
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