Cory Doctorow on Copyright vs. Universal Access
"Author, activist, journalist and blogger, Cory Doctorow, delivers a lecture on Copyright vs. Universal Access. Subtitled, The State of Play in the Global Copyfight, this lecture was part of the Q2C Festival at the Perimeter Institute in Waterloo."
posted April 30, 2010
http://www.tvo.org/TVO/WebObjects/TVO.woa?videoid?81441350001.
Matthew David, Brunel University Professor and author discusses the influence of peer to peer sharing and other internet-facilitated copying on the music recording industry. This discussion is the result of his book by the same name.
This series of podcasts will provide a good grounding regarding the issues for educators. Dr. Crews is well-known as an organized speaker and writer who presents the issues clearly and concisely.
"Each podcast is typically about 15 minutes in length, and the series is especially suited for giving members of the academic community a guide to the fundamentals of copyright for teaching, research, and other pursuits."
This discussion of the President's gift highlights the silliness of our U.S. copyright law situation, and the continuing extraordinary influence of special interests.
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/04/first-sale-president-obama-and-queen-england
A succinct series of pages regarding copyright and fair use, "BitLaw is created by Dan Tysver of the Minneapolis law firm of Beck & Tysver. "
This new report received attention in the Chronicle of Higher Education recently and is worthy of notice.
Recut, Reframe, Recycle: Quoting Copyrighted Material in User-Generated Video, by Pat Aufderheide and Peter Jaszi,
http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/files/pdf/CSM_Recut_Reframe_Recycle_report.pdf
"As online video burgeons, so do questions about what kinds of uses of copyrighted works are legal online. Inevitably, those questions will be settled at least as much by practice and private negotiation as by legal action. Recent discussions of filtering and monitoring practices for platform providers show the importance of identifying lawful uses, while meeting industry concern to limit unauthorized use of copyrighted material. This study showcases user practices in use of copyrighted works within their own online videos at the dawn of this process. It identifies nine common kinds of re-appropriation practices, including satire and parody, criticism, and video diaries. It shows that a substantial amount of user-generated video uses copyrighted material in ways that are eligible for fair use consideration, although no coordinated work has yet been done to understand such practices through the fair use lens."
In Selection from Cites & Insights 7, Number 8: July 2007, Walt Crawford gives his take on a NYT op ed piece about: “A great idea lives forever, shouldn’t its copyright?”
This abstract just arrived in a notice from the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School
Haochen Sun - "Overcoming the Achilles Heel of Copyright Law"
Abstract:
With the recent proliferation of international, regional and bilateral treaties associated with copyright protection, the three-step test has been hailed as the panacea for measuring the legality of all limitations on copyright. I will challenge the legitimacy of the three-step test as a one-size-fits-all standard for copyright protection and puts forward a proposal to reshape this test. It further argues that the inquiry into the legitimacy of the three-step test necessitates a careful reexamination of the conventional wisdom of copyright law in general and the nature of copyright limitations in particular. Central to this scrutiny are the inquiries into how we could re-imagine the legal status of users in the field of copyright law and whether right holders should be imposed social responsibilities as the quid pro quo for being granted with exclusive rights. Drawing upon modern jurisprudence and political philosophy, this article explores legal indeterminacy, conflict of rights, and rights and responsibilities in the framework of copyright law.
* "Overcoming the Achilles Heel of Copyright Law" is available via SSRN:
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1021027
* About former Berkman fellow Haochen Sun:
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/haochen_sun
"This document was developed by representatives of the Association of American Universities (John
Vaughn), the Association of Research Libraries (Duane Webster and Mary Case), the Association of
American University Presses (Peter Givler), and the Association of American Publishers (Allan Adler).
These organizations represent sectors which play central roles within higher education in the creation,
use, and management of copyrighted works. The principal objective of this project was to bring together
these groups, which have differing perspectives and often conflicting views on the appropriate use of
copyrighted works, to produce a document that conveys their common understanding regarding the basic
meaning and practical significance of copyright for the higher education community. The association
representatives above gratefully acknowledge the invaluable advice and drafting assistance of Professor
Laura Gasaway (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) and attorney Bruce Joseph (Wiley Rein &
Fielding LLP) in producing this document."
This 36 page document, produced in 2005, covers major topics of relevance to higher education.
http://www.publishers.org/about/campus_copyright_rights_responsibilities.pdf
Mr. Hirtle quite usefully reviews five author addenda that are designed for authors at the point of negotiating copyright with publishers. I'm planning on using it for my classes on copyright for authors and recommend it.
"Author Addenda:An Examination of Five Alternatives" by Peter B. Hirtle
Cornell University Library
D-Lib Magazine November 2006 Volume 12 Number 11
The title to this page is tangential to my purpose, which is to use it as an index of copyright topics. The UT pages, assembled by Georgia Harper, are some of the better and more practical pages on copyright for the US academic community, so I use them often and recommend them to others in all my classes. This page is a great succinct list of practical topics for any academic.
Even if you can't ask a UT lawyer, you certainly can use the pages to find many answers to copyright questions.
The topic list:
CONFU
Copyright on the Internet
Coursepacks
Distance Learning
FAQ
Guidelines
Interlibrary Loan
Images
Libel
Library
Licensing
Multimedia
Permission
Cprt. Policy
Privacy/Publicity
Registering Copyright
Reserves
Software
From the Dalhousie Journal of Information and Management, this article bears an interesting perspective on copyright issues.
Here's the outline:
Introduction
Copyfight
Creative commons
Viability of open licenses
Copyfight in the developing world
Conclusion
http://djim.management.dal.ca/issues/issue3_1/hare/index.htm
Posted by permission from Mary Ann Farris, this page is a very interesting overview of liability, damages, attorney fees and other remedies regarding infringement. So far in all lthe pages I've seen in the past nine years this is the only one that provides the information so concisely.
LorreBob sez: check it out
http://publishing.wsu.edu/copyright/how%5Fcopyright%5Fprotects/
"This Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use makes clear what documentary fi lmmakers currently regard as reasonable application of the copyright “fair use” doctrine. Fair use expresses the core value of free expression within copyright law. The statement clarifies this crucial legal doctrine, to help filmmakers use it with confidence."
http://centerforsocialmedia.org/rock/backgrounddocs/bestpractices.pdf
This site gives a very good overview of issues of interest to those who use and perform music:
Playing Music for Personal Enjoyment
Playing Music in Public
Music in Education
Music Composition
Music Plagiarism and Fair Use
Music Sampling
Music that Can be Used in Education Without Permission or License
And it also gives a list of resources regarding music and copyright.
Established in 2006 with substantial funding from Google, "...Its purpose is to provide legal support to a range of projects designed to clarify, and extend, the boundaries of "fair use" in order to enhance creative freedom."
The various blogs associated with the Center also should be reviewed from time to time for news and perspective on current copyright issues.
The whole site looks like it deserves some time for exploration. Here's how they describe the site: "A reference site to help identify public domain songs and public domain music . . . lists of public domain music, royalty free music recordings you can license, and public domain sheet music reprints . . . precisely the music you need for your business, organization, or personal use."
Here's how they describe the project: "The Public Domain Information Project was started in 1986 by Marji Hazen of Ashland, Ohio. Marji was particularly interested in folk music and began making a list of public domain folk songs. Over the years, the list expanded to include any PD music and Marji collected nearly 10,000 PD songs from libraries, used book stores, folk publications, and just about any other published source imaginable.
After the GATT Treaty and 1998 Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act added new complexities to PD research, Marji took the PD Info web site off of the web while she looked for a new webmaster. In early 1999 Haven Sound agreed to take over PD Info and keep the Public Domain Information Project alive and growing. Haven Sound is affiliated with a recording studio and audio post facility that works with young musicians and provides music and sound for independent film and video. Haven Sound's path crossed Marji's while looking for public domain music to use for independent film sound tracks with no budget for music. "
The Council on Library and Information Resources has provided several very interesting reports regarding copyright issues. Follow the link and you'll find the full text of the report named below online. On the same page are listed more reports of considerable interest.
"Since the beginning of commercial sound recording in the 1890s, Americans have been enthusiastic creators and prolific consumers of recordings. Almost every form of sound has been captured—from musical performances and whale songs to political addresses and oral histories. Entrepreneurs of the late nineteenth century created a consumer market for recordings, and the commercial sector has played a significant role in the growth of the recording industry and the innovation of recording technologies. Despite the popularity of sound, however, federal copyright was not extended to sound recordings until 1972. State laws protect all recordings produced before that date.
It is those state laws that libraries and archives must follow when making decisions about copying their fragile historical recordings in order to preserve them. Sophisticated tools for rerecording offer a means to copy fragile wax cylinders or lacquer discs once and forever. As a result, many libraries today can retire original copies from use and, at the same time, broaden access to these valued materials through the use of digital surrogates. But do these laws allow them to do that?"
I'm looking with interest at this Power Point presentation by Tomas Lipinski Co-Director of the Center for Information Policy Research at the University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee. It's part of a series of colloquia by University of Ilinois, and it has sparked my interest because of it's approach to the way legislation has changed the roles of insitutional actors regarding copyright.
To Mentor or to Monitor, That is the Question: Evolving Roles for Institutional Actors within the Copyright Law -- A Section 512 Analysis and Critique
http://www.library.uiuc.edu/committee/colloqm/lipinski.htm
"Proposed Legislation on Orphan Works: Solving the Problem or Escalating the Crisis?"
July 6, 1:00pm EDST
I've participated in several of the Educause web events and will recommend that you join in based on my experience.
This forum is a long-standing general forum where those interested in copyright from all walks of life gather. A source for news, controversy, argument and an overall good time for copyright hounds. This page includes the directions on how to subscribe.
About the CNI Copyright Forum
http://www.cni.org/forums/cni-copyright/cni-copyright.html
In another page from the Stanford Center, Peter Hirtle has written a good essay regarding the issues of digital preservation. Although issues of preservation copying exist with a legal context that is murkey at best, Hirtle remains encouraging for libraries and archives.
He cites two more works in his notes for further reading:
June Besek, "Copyright issues relevant to the creation of a digital archive: a preliminary assessment" (Washington, D.C.: Council on Library and Information Resources and the Library of Congress, 2003) http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub112/contents.html
Adrienne Muir, "Copyright and licensing for digital preservation" Library and Information Update, June 2003 http://www.cilip.org.uk/update/issues/jun03/article2june.html
Digital Preservation and Copyright by Peter Hirtle
http://fairuse.stanford.edu/commentary_and_analysis/2003_11_hirtle.html
The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction has published a clearly-written version of guidelines from the Consortium of College & University Media Centers regarding multi-media use.
I think this is worth considering as a model for institutions to use for laying out clear policy and guideline statements.
The date they post on the page is 1997.
Copyright in an Electronic Environment
http://www.dpi.state.nc.us/copyright1.html
This blog will be specializing in copyright issues that are important to higher education. Currently those issues involve open access and the current attempts in higher education to bring down barriers to access that copyright can enforce.
The blog will look more like an extensive webliography than a discussion forum for copyright.
The University at Albany Libraries web site on copyright is here:
Intellectual Property, Copyright, and Fair Use Resources
http://library.albany.edu/digital/copyright.html
The blog will serve as a complementary resource that captures the day to day development of copyright issues, good copyright resources for the scholarly community and "how to" web resources for copyright compliance, and advocacy.