Copyright for Schools: A Practical Guide - Softcover

Carol Ann Simpson

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1586831925 ISBN 13: 9781586831929

Publisher: Linworth, 2005

Synopsis

The comprehensive, up-to-date guide explaining what you need to know about copyright for your school—your must-have copyright reference! *Access up-to-date developments in copyright, related specifically to schools; *Gain insights from an expert on how copyright should be handled at your school; and *Use this practical guide to unravel school-related copyright issues and take leadership on this issue with teachers and administrators. Its clear presentation of the law with relevant examples makes this resource easy to understand and especially valuable.

Facing new developments and intricacies of copyright determination, teachers and administrators are unsure about how to determine and ensure copyright compliance. They are looking for specific answers. In an easy-to-understand exposition of copyright, this 4th Edition volume provides the most-up-to-date, authoritative presentation and analysis of copyright for both print and digital information, detailing what you need to know about copyright for your school. It also explains the fundamentals and clarifies the complexities of copyright relevant to schools and why it is so important to understand and comply with copyright. This practical guide focuses on those issues relevant to K-12 schools, enabling media specialists to educate staff and take leadership in determining copyright policies.

About this title

About the Author

Carol Simpson, JD, EdD, is associate professor in the College of Information, Library Science and Technologies of the University of North Texas, and practices school law.

Reviews

This resource, which has become the definitive guide for librarians, only gets better and better as Simpson dives into murky and ever-changing digital waters. She expands the scope of the previous edition (2001), particularly in aspects of law and technology. Following general chapters on copyright law, public domain, and fair use are chapters on specific types of materials and uses: print, audiovisual, multimedia, music, computer software, and distance learning. Each section presents typical activities that occur in a school setting, such as students adding clip-art to Powerpoint projects or a librarian bookmarking Web sites for the next day's class. The issues are discussed in terms of the rules and guidelines for use. Specific questions, such as, I have a teacher who… are answered in boxes throughout the book and hit the mark for most library-media dilemmas. Sample forms appear within chapters for off-air taping requests, permission requests, and more. An interesting chapter titled The Software Police sheds light on software piracy and measures being formed to prosecute violators, aided by provisions under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Simpson's accessible style is reflected by simple language and an uncluttered format. A sample copyright policy, copyright and plagiarism guidelines for students, and a copyright infringement reporting form are among the topics that appear in the appendixes, followed by an extensive cross-referenced index. This exhaustive revision is a first purchase for school librarians.–Vicki Reutter, Cazenovia High School, NY
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Revised, expanded, and updated, this classic primer for K-12 library professionals now consists of 16 chapters. Chapter 1 covers the basics of copyright law. Chapter 2 brings together information about public domain materials, while chapter 3 addresses fair use and its four main criteria. Chapters 4, 5, 6, and 7 focus on specific formats, including MP3. Chapters 8, 9, and 10 center on distance learning, the Internet, and computer software. Chapters 11 through 15 consider administrative topics such as school library exemptions, permissions, and copyright policies. Chapter 16 provides 15 appendixes ranging from a sample copyright compliance agreement to a reproducible copyright -questions-and-answers brochure. Most chapters include a works cited list. Simpson's book adds another strong voice to the professional copyright section that should already include Complete Copyright (ALA, 2005), Copyright for Teachers and Librarians (Neal-Schuman, 2004), and Copyright in Cyberspace 2 (Neal-Schuman, 2005). Esther Sinofsky
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

It has a name: Title 17, United States Code, Public Law 94-553, 90 Stat. 2541, as amended. Kind of dry sounding, isn t it? Who would guess that this could be one of the most obtuse, complex and arguably the most hated law affecting schools today? But that is it: US copyright law.

If you are reading this book, you have somehow been affected by the law. Either you want to use someone else s material, and you were stopped/cautioned by a colleague or superior, or you are reading about it for a class you are taking, or perhaps you have been assigned duties dealing with copyright protected materials and you want to protect yourself and your institution. Regardless of the reason, you need to know something about copyright law and you need to know it quickly. Quickly may be more than you can expect, but getting to know the law is a matter of a few key concepts. Once you have those in mind, they apply fairly regularly to just about any situation you might encounter.

Copyright dates back several centuries, to English common law. Tradition holds that the Statute of Anne is the first true copyright "law," though there had been attempts prior to that date to control copying of materials. Even chaining books to shelves and restricting the copying to trained monks in monasteries was a form of copyright enforcement.

As early as the beginning of the 18th century, publishers and authors in England had a legal right to control reproduction of their works. The United States based its original copyright law on the English version as well as providing protection through wording in the U.S. Constitution: " . . . securing for limited times to authors . . . the exclusive right to their . . . writings . . ." (Article I, Section 8). While many school people may be surprised, Washington actually signed the first U.S. copyright law in 1789. Most people believe that copyright is a much more recent invention. The U.S. law has been rewritten several times over the ensuing years. The last major revision occurred in 1976, with minor modifications in the years since.

Copyright has changed over the years. From the first US copyright law signed by George Washington in 1789, to the current iteration passed in 1976 and tweaked almost annually since, copyright has had a significant impact on the US. But knowing what happened before is only useful in obtuse cases dealing with old material. For most school employees, 99.999% of their copyright questions can be addressed by the current law. So what you need to know is: What does a copyright owner own, and what must I exercise caution in using?

The six rights that a copyright owner owns are the rights of: reproduction, adaptation, distribution, public performance, public display, and digital transmission of sound recordings. Knowing what a copyright owner owns is key to understanding how to interpret most copyright situations. Starting initially as simply a right to copy (hence the term "copyright") or print, the rights of the copyright holder in the United States have gradually expanded to be six rights accorded to the original creator. Should someone infringe, or violate, a copyright, a single infringement may violate all six rights at the same time, but copyright is violated if even one of the six exclusive rights is abridged.

What the creator does with the rights given in a copyright is his own business. Rights are similar to property rights in that the owner may rent, lease, lend or sell outright any or all of the rights in the work. The rights may be sold as a bundle, or can be meted out, either as an exclusive or non-exclusive basis. For example, if you purchase a video program with public performance rights, it is unlikely that you would be the only person who has purchased those performance rights. It would be likely that the copyright owner has offered a public performance license to many people, besides you.

It is also possible that the right(s) sold/licensed are not for an infinite period of time. It is not unusual for an author to sell the rights to a book to a publishing company. However, in the contract of sale there may be a clause that states the rights to the work revert to the author if the book does not remain in print for a specified number of years. Why is that significant to schools? It s not uncommon for a teacher to have a favorite book of short stories or a spelling workbook, or other teaching tool, which is many years old. The work will likely be out of print. Nevertheless, the teacher would like to use several sections of the work in class. Because the use will be repeated from term to term, the teacher would need to get permission to use the materials or pay a royalty since the plans she has for the material exceed the permitted educational limits. The choice of permission or royalty belongs to the copyright owner. However, the publishing company may be out of business, and there appears to be no one from whom to get permission or to whom to pay a royalty. In such a case, it would be worth investigating the author(s) of the work as the copyright may have reverted to the author when the work went out of print.

In discussing the various rights, below, consider that this is a baseline discussion of what the copyright owner owns, and does not take into consideration any possible exemptions found in the law or in associated guidelines. In addition, rights may be modified with permission or license. With a license granted to do any of the actions prohibited in the discussions of the rights, the end user can do whatever they have gotten permission, or paid a license, to do.

Edition details

• Publisher: Linworth
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1586831925
• ISBN 13: 9781586831929
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 4
• Number of pages: 224