Copyright is protection within United States law that ensures creators of works control the rights to their projects. The rights given to these creators are the right to reproduce the work, the right to create derivative works from the original, the right to distribute the work and the rights to perform, display or show the work publicly.
Another special right the creator has is the right to extend these rights to others within lawful and statutory limits.
Copyright protection exists the moment the work becomes "fixed." Fixed simply means that the work exists in a semi-permanent medium and can be reproduced or perceived for more than a short time.
Copyrighted works include:
What cannot be copyrighted?
Copyright protection does not last forever. For any work created after 1977 copyright protection lasts for the lifetime of the author plus 70 years. After this time the work becomes a part of the public domain. Laws have changed through the years, and when a work reverts to the public domain depends on the date it was published.
To use a copyrighted work for anything other than personal use, you must either have the copyright holder's permission or you must qualify for a legal exemption such as fair use. Many educational uses do qualify as fair use, however many common educational uses may qualify only with explicit permission. The TEACH Act has expanded and explained the materials now usable in the online classroom. Where fair use is an exemption, the TEACH Act is a law and there are specific requirements to be satisfied to justify use of a work.
If your use does not qualify for a legal exception and if you do not secure permission from the copyright holder to use the work, your use is likely illegal. Unauthorized use and distribution of copyrighted works can deprive authors of a fair return on their work and inhibit the creation of new works. Respect for the intellectual work and property of others is an essential tenet of higher education.
Copyright does not last forever. World wide, copyright will expire between 50 and 70 years after the death of the work's creator. When copyright expires, the work enters what is called the public domain.
The public domain consists of any work not protected by copyright. Along with works where the copyright has expired, this can include other things such as;
-Works created by the federal government
-Works that did not submit the proper copyright paperwork prior to 1989
-Works that do not have a fixed, tangible form
Public domain sources are useful because these works are able to be used without anyone's permission due to them being owned by the public as a whole. These sources are typically very old but there are times where you may find sources in the public domain on open access sites and other places.
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