copyright

Fair Use Week (and Every Day)

February 25, 2015 by Amanda VerMeulen

Fair Use is like a muscle; unused, it atrophies, while exercise makes it grow.

—Patricia Aufderheide & Peter Jaszi in Reclaiming Fair Use

February 27th marks the end of Fair Use Week, which makes this post a little late to the party. Despite my tardiness, I still think this event merits mention. Like so many other issues, copyright is likely something we’re all vaguely aware of hanging around in the distance alongside “the cloud,” “big data,” and other buzzwords we hear on a regular basis but will never admit we don’t fully understand. Somewhere way beyond this mythical Realm of Copyright is Fair Use. It’s likely in a shed, out in the middle of nowhere, where only teachers and college professors venture to visit from time to time.

Before I get totally lost in my painful mixed metaphors, let’s take a minute to learn a little more about Fair Use.

Thanks to the Copyright and Digital Scholarship Center at the NCSU Libraries, we have a good, plain-language definition of this elusive concept:

“Fair use is an exception to copyright that permits unauthorized use in cases where where the value of the use to society is greater than the harm done to the rightholder…fair use is about what you are doing, what you are using, how much you are using, and if your use undermines the value of the original.”

You may have read about the 4 Factors of Fair Use, those murky, checklist-but-not-really-a-checklist items that are meant to help you determine when you’re taking advantage of Fair Use and when you’re really just taking advantage. These 4 Factors are (again from NCSU Libraries):

the purpose and character of your use,
the nature of the work,
the amount and substantiality of your use
the effect of your use on the market for the original.

Fair Use is rarely clear-cut, and many artists, educators, writers, and filmmakers refrain from using any copyrighted materials in their work or classrooms for fear of copyright infringement. The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is but one of many organizations that are trying to change that. This year, between Feb. 23 and the 27th, ARL is sponsoring (or sponsored, depending on when you read this) Fair Use Week, an annual celebration of the Doctrine of Fair Use.

On the Fair Use Week website you’ll find an events calendar filled with lectures (both in person and online) and a collection of resources on copyright and Fair Use including videos, blog posts, best practices, essays and a fantastic infographic, which has been made free for reuse and copied below. According to ARL, “every week is fair use week,” so take some time to learn about Fair Use…then maybe move on to attempting to understand “big data.”

A Win for Libraries

November 22, 2013 by Amanda VerMeulen

Have you heard about the recent ruling of the Google Books case?

The case began eight years ago when The Authors Guild filed a suit against Google for violating copyright law by scanning copyrighted books and making them available electronically. Finally, last week, U.S. Circuit Judge Denny Chin dismissed the lawsuit and issued this (30 page) statement.

Why does this ruling matter?

Accessibility.

Essentially, the ruling judge decided that Google’s efforts in scanning tens of millions of books, which are still under copyright, falls under the guidelines for fair use and is therefore legal. How is that possible? By scanning these books, Google provided added value, which is unavailable in print form, by allowing users to search books electronically. This feature greatly increased the accessibility of the books’ contents, which the judge decided was more valuable than any possible violation of copyright. In addition, Google provides access to only the most relevant pieces of a text in the briefest form, with outside links to retailers and libraries where users can acquire full text access legally.

Why are librarians so excited?

To quote Ian Chant’s article from Library Journal:

In the opinion issued today, Judge Chin agreed that Google Books is not a place where readers can go to pirate books but a tool to help people find books that may be of interest to them. Chin cited libraries as a particular beneficiary, noting that “Google Books has become an essential research tool, as it helps librarians identify and find research sources, it make the process of interlibrary lending more efficient, and it facilitates finding and checking citations.”

Simply stated, Google Books has increased the accessibility of books, and enabled librarians to do a better job finding, researching and sharing those books with their patrons.

What do librarians love?

Information access.

That’s my book . . . or is it?

April 8, 2013 by Amanda VerMeulen

Kirtsaeng v. John Wily & Sons, Inc.
Capitol Records v. Redigi, Inc.

If you are a court watcher, a librarian, or someone who thinks you own a book, DVD, or a digital file after you buy it, then the recent rulings in these two court cases had you sitting on the edge of your seat.

Never heard of them? How about the First Sale Doctrine? Have you ever sold, regifted, or donated a book, DVD, or music CD? Assuming you acquired the copy you own legally, the First Sale Doctrine allows you to do any of those things. It does not allow you to make 100 copies of the work and then sell or donate them. The copyright owner (e.g., publishing or record company) only controls the first sale of the item.

What happened? Supap Kirtsaeng, a student from Thailand, asked friends and family to send him 600 (!) copies of a textbook produced in Asia at a lower cost than the same one published in the US. After they arrived he sold them on eBay for a tidy profit. So the publisher, John Wiley & Sons, sued him claiming that the first sale doctrine does not apply to goods produced outside the U.S.

The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Mr. Kirtsaeng and that is a good thing. It means that your friendly neighborhood library can loan you a book published in Europe or Asia, that you can buy a car made outside the U.S. and resell it, that a museum really can put a painting on display by Picasso, and that you can resell or give away books or other copyrighted items that you buy while studying abroad.
Now. . . how about if you own a digital music file, an mp3 or file purchased on iTunes? Can you resell it? Redigi thinks you can. Capitol Records sued Redigi, a company that manages selling digital music. Redigi actually has a seller install software that pulls files from a customer’s hard drive so they can’t even access the music they are selling once Redigi extracts it. So what’s the problem? The files aren’t really transferred. They’re copied. And a federal court ruled that the first sale doctrine doesn’t apply to copies.

Confused yet? Copyright, intellectual property, fair use, first sale doctrine, file sharing. It can get complicated. It’s your right to know and your right (and responsibility) to use your information and images ethically and legally. Know your rights! Check these sources for more information:

Electronic Frontier Foundation
Copyright Basics (U.S. Copyright Office, Library of Congress)
Columbia University Libraries Copyright Advisory Office

Images May be Subject to Copyright

January 30, 2013 by Amanda VerMeulen

Join the Dean of Faculty, the Library, and the Art & Art History Department on Friday, February 1, 2013 in the Glendening Annex for

Images May be Subject to Copyright, a mini-symposium on images, copyright and fair use for students, faculty and staff with Dr. Kenneth Crews, Director of the Copyright Advisory Office at Columbia University

Here’s the schedule:

9:30am-11:00am
Learn about the basics of copyright, get tips for owning your work and taking advantage of fair use for your own class work and scholarship. Bring questions!

12:30pm-2:00pm
What do you want to know? Open Q&A with Dr. Crews, light lunch, and conversation. Bring examples of your work, and of course, more questions.

To learn more about this event, contact Celia Rabinowitz.

Fair Use Week (and Every Day)

A Win for Libraries

That’s my book . . . or is it?

Images May be Subject to Copyright

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