The University of Vermont: Digital Information and Copyright


	The University of Vermont Digital Information and Copyright Color flatbed scanners, 35mm slide scanners, audio digitizing boards--all these simple to use and now relatively inexpensive devices enable faculty or students to copy onto their computers' hard drives enormous quantities of media. These media types could be original works, public domain materials, royalty-free-license-free materials, or copyrighted materials. The purpose of this document is to help you become aware of copyright issues as you begin developing multimedia materials for your curriculum or WWW pages. This document is not intended to be legal advice (for that, see U.S. copyright law), rather its purpose is to provide some guidelines for you as you develop your multimedia project. Definitions Guidelines Dealing with Copyright Special Considerations A Final Note Additional Resources Sample Letter Restricting Access to World Wide Web Resources Definitions Copyright: Protection under U.S. law and international convention of published and unpublished works. These protected works include literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and other original works. Derivative Work: A work that has been modified. Fair Use: The use of a limited amount of a copyrighted material for education, criticism, commentary, news reporting, or research. Public Domain/Royalty-Free: Works that may be copied without charge. Guidelines You are responsible for adhering to standard copyright laws and policies. Be sure that in the creation of your WWW pages you have not included any information that should be marked as the property of a copyright holder, such as (but not limited to) text from contributors, photographs, or graphics. You should assume that the same restrictions and obligations that govern print documents will also apply in the copyright protection of WWW pages and documents. In the context of this UVM server, educational use and fair use guidelines do not apply. Electronic publishing is much like publishing in any other medium; generally, materials cannot be used without the author's permission. This is not an issue if one is publishing a collection of personal works, but it is crucial when distributing the works of others. Written consent from the copyright owner is required in order to use or serve copyrighted works. Documentation of consent must be kept in your records and made available to university officials upon request. These requirements apply to anything copyrighted, including (but not limited to): paintings photographs sculptures newspaper/magazine/journal articles poetry novels software screenplays student papers Dealing With Copyright One of the biggest concerns regarding copyrights, permissions, and educational use is the exploding use of multimedia. It is not the purpose of this document to alarm you or create an undue sense of difficulty in pursuing multimedia projects. This document is meant to provide a checklist as you explore these new and powerful educational tools. Create your own materials: The University strongly encourage you to make use of original works, public domain materials and royalty-free, license-free materials as often as possible. Create a journal of content sources: We recommend that you keep a journal of your multimedia project from the very first idea. Log all development - the computer programs being tested and used, the intended method or computer for delivery, and all image, audio, and visual clips being considered - as well as your permission-seeking efforts. Write for permission to use the materials if you intend on using the materials for an extended basis, plan on showing the project campus, or want to make your project commercially available. Because UVM is an educational institution rather than a commercial developers of multimedia products, you usually find media copyright holders are cooperative and generous. Because you are educators rather than commercial developers, if you are not going to be attempting to take your multimedia projects to market, it may be sufficient to ask copyright holders for the following permissions: the right to digitize certain pieces of material; the right to use that material within the context of the planned project; the right to continue using the project from semester to semester (indefinitely if possible); and the right to place a copy of the project on the campus network, with access restricted to faculty and students affiliated with the UVM. This sample letter may be of assistance in obtaining copyright permissions. Special Considerations While most, if not all, textual material published before 1919 is now in the public domain, textual material published after this date may still be protected. Additionally, non-published textual material may be protected. This means, for example, that with collections of authors' papers given to a university library, unless the estate assigned all the rights to the university, the university owns the physical documents and may allow the public to look at them, but may have no rights to extract from, compile, or in any way publish or release the use of those texts to others, within or outside the institution. For sound recordings, first contact the music publisher for the music and lyrics (if you plan to display the musical notation or the lyrics on screen). Then contact the record company to clear the specific performance you want to use. For recorded speeches you need the permission of the author of the speech, speaker, and owner of the audio or video recording containing the speech. Many, but not all, government publications are available in the public domain. A Final Note U.S. copyright law was created to balance the rights of authors with the free exchange of ideas. It is the desire the University to respect the rights of all authors of original material and do everything possible to follow the letter and spirit of the copyright laws. Additional Resources Brinson, J. Dianna, Radcliffe, Mark F. Multimedia Law Handbook: A Practical Guide for Developers and Publishers. Menlo Park, CA: Ladera Press/1994/ISBN: 0-9639173-0-7 The Copyright Website MIT Copyright Page Sample Letter Copyright Owner XYZ Publishing, Inc. White Plains, NY 10604 Dear Copyright Owner: I a writing to ask permission to reprint a listing from Copyright Today magazine. Information on the listing is below: Publication: Copyright Today Date: April 1993 Vol./No.: Vol. 15, No. 4 Title: The Stock Report pp: 104-109 I intend to use this listing in instructing a business law class. Excerpts from the paper will be scanned and made available on the campus network in one course for undergraduate business students at the University of Vermont. The paper will be kept as a reference work with a limited distribution. The work will not be copied for sale. I anticipate using the article again in later semesters. Thank you for considering this request. I am including a copy of this letter for your convenience. Sincerely, Pat Q. Mediaperson
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