a mini copyright guide to Web 2.0

a mini copyright guide to Web 2.0

believe me - although this post seems to start by listing all the reasons why you can’t use other people’s music, film clips, photos, news articles, etc in your blogs, wikis, and so on - please keep reading because then we get to the good bit about how you can use (some) other people’s music, film clips, photos, news articles, etc, in your blogs, wikis, and so on.

first of all, the tiniest possible amount of copyright info that you need to know for the rest to make some sort of sense - especially Things 8 and 11: Open Access and Creative Commons

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what is copyright?

© protection applies to ‘works’: these include fiction and non-fiction, journal articles, recipes, plays, poetry, lyrics, photographs, drawings, maps, diagrams, blogs, wikis, websites, software, etc., etc., etc.  © also protects ‘subject matter other than works’ such as sound recordings, TV and radio programs, films, etc
© protection is automatic and comes into force immediately a work is given ‘material form’ - as soon as the photograph is taken, as soon as the email is typed, as soon as the diagram is drawn, as soon as the blogpost is written…
© protection applies to analogue and digital works (aka ‘the web is not a ©free zone’)
© protection gives the © owner exclusive rights to: reproduce/copy the work; publish it; perform it in public; adapt or translate the work; and to communicate it online - including via P2P, a blog, or an email
© protection lasts for a looong time (in many cases 70 years after the death of the author) - but it does eventually expire, and then the work enters the Public Domain where anyone can do anything they like with it

+ moral rights and performers’ rights

moral rights accompany copyright protection in all works, and performers’ rights apply to live performances - these rights are also automatic, but unlike copyright, they remain with the original creator and/or performer even if the copyright is assigned elsewhere.

moral rights require users of a work:
• to attribute the creator
• not to falsely attribute a work
• not to treat a work in a derogatory way or in a way that brings the author’s reputation into disrepute

performers’ rights apply to live performances (though not to sports events); they mean that you must have the performers’ permission if you want to:
• record/film a live performance
• communicate a live performance online e.g. by webcast
• communicate the recording of live performance online
• use a recording (whether authorised or not) of a performance as a soundtrack

so,

almost any digital or analogue work you come across is protected by copyright and moral rights, and, possibly, performers’ rights; and almost anything you want to do with someone else’s work - post a recipe online in a blog or wiki, reproduce a journal article in a newsletter, use some music as background to your website - is the ‘exclusive’ right of the copyright owner

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however … there are exceptions to the ‘exclusive rights’

although the protection given to a © owner appears total, a few things (not ‘Things’, just ‘things’) to remember are that:

1. the © Act makes ‘exceptions’ to the exclusive rights of a copyright owner so that the public can make some use of a work for some purposes without having to seek the owner’s permission e.g. Fair Dealing for critique and review, and Fair Dealing for reporting the news  - NB it is unlikely that the provision for research and study will allow you to copy a work (or part of a work) in order to communicate it online on an openly accessible site

2. the copyright owner can choose to cede some of their automatic and exclusive rights and release the work under an Open Content licence, such as Creative Commons - making the work more accessible to more people for more purposes (‘Web 2.0: easier, faster, friendlier’ is using the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 Australia licence as the default for blogs etc. created in the program - you can choose another for your work if you prefer)

3. many websites provide the means to ‘share’ ‘embed’ or otherwise use their materials in a personal email or blog, or via Facebook, Youtube and other social networking sites - if these means are provided on a website you are being given an implicit licence to do these acts (although not to undertake other, especially commercial, activities)

if the above, or other, exemptions and licences are not available, the following activities are likely to be copyright infringements:

• copying a song to use it as the soundtrack for a vodcast or to remix it
• create a video using snippets of a movie or tv program
• copying photos from Google Images or Flickr to use on your own website, blog, etc
• copying an item from someone else’s blog to post on your own

… and lots of ways to copy and use third party content

remember, there are many legitimate ways in which you can use third party content without infringing copyright:

• get permission from the copyright owner
• decide if one of the Fair Dealing provisions apply - e.g. the provision for critique and review may allow you to reproduce thumbnail images of a sewing pattern in order to critique its reliability, sizing, etc; you may also be able to copy or adapt a work if it is for the purpose of ‘parody or satire’ (see ss. 41 41A and 42 for further details)
• use a work that is in the Public Domain (because copyright in it has expired)
• find a song/photo/video clip that is licensed with an appropriate Creative Commons or other Open Content licence
• use materials from websites that provide the means to ‘share’, ‘embed’, or otherwise reproduce their contents
• check the ‘terms of use’ or ‘copyright statement’ of a website: these may allow you to use the content in certain ways
• always attribute the work (unless you are specifically required or permitted not to)

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much more detailed information on copyright and web 2.0 tools can be found in the Blog, Podcast, Vodcast and Wiki Copyright Guide for Australia at http://creativecommons.org.au/blogguide

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Australia License .

It is based on the Blog, Podcast, Vodcast and Wiki Copyright Guide for Australia http://creativecommons.org.au/blogguide © 2009 Queensland University of Technology. Produced by the ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation. Available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Australia License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5)