“ 10 Big Myths about Copyright Explained”

1. “10 Big Myths about Copyright Explained” By: Brad Templeton Presented By: Nichole Au December 6, 2007

2. Copyrights explained • A copyright is the legal exclusive right of the author of a creative work to control the copying of the work. • Several copyright misconceptions exist that people should be wary of so they don’t get into legal trouble.

3. Myth #1 “If it doesn’t have a copyright notice, it’s not copyrighted.” • This was true in the past, but not today. • Most major countries use the Berne copyright convention. • In the US, almost everything created privately and originally after April 1, 1989 is copyrighted and protected whether notice is posted or not.

4. Myth #2 “If I don’t charge for it, it’s not a violation.” • It’s still a violation if you give it away, especially if you damage the commercial value of the property. • Even if the work has no commercial value, it is still technically a violation, even if it is unlikely that this will result in legal action. • Charging can affect the damages awarded in court.

5. Myth #3 “If it’s posted to Usenet, it’s in the public domain.” • Nothing creative in the modern world is in the public domain unless the owner explicitly puts it in the public domain. • Some argue that posting to Usenet implicitly grants permission to everybody to copy postings, but an implicit license will never supersede an explicit one. • Also, this would assume that the poster had the right to post the item in the first place.

6. Myth #4 “My posting was just fair use!” • The “fair use” exemption to (US) copyright law was created to allow parody, commenting, news reporting, and research and education about copyrighted works without the permission of the author. • This allows you to be able to express your own works, but not necessarily to be able to appropriate other people’s. • Intent and damage to commercial value are to be considered.

7. Myth #5 “If you don’t defend your copyright, you lose it.” and “Someone has that name copyrighted!” • Copyright is effectively never lost in modern times, unless given away. • You can only trademark names or titles, and this can be weakened or lost if not defended. • You can’t use a trademark to make people confuse you with the owner of the mark or if it steals the value of the mark.

8. Myth #6 “If I make up my own stories, but base them on another work, my new work belongs to me.” • Derivative works, including “fan fiction,” are works based or derived from another copyrighted work, and are therefore belongs to the original owner. • This includes the use of characters or settings. • Criticism and parody are major exceptions.

9. Myth #7 “They can’t get me, defendants in court have powerful rights!” • Copyright law is civil law, which means you get sued, not charged with a crime. • “Innocent until proven guilty” and “proof beyond a reasonable doubt” don’t apply in the same way in copyright suits.

10. “Myth #8 “Oh, so copyright violation isn’t a crime or anything?” • In the US, commercial copyright violations involving more than 10 copies and value over $2500 was made a felony. • “Don’t think that you’re going to get people thrown in jail for posting your email. The courts have much better things to do.”

11. Myth #9 “It doesn’t hurt anybody—in fact, it’s free advertising.” • Only the owner can decide if they want free advertising, and if you don’t know, just ask. • Even if you can’t see how the owner can get hurt, piracy gives sharing technology a bad name.

12. Myth #10 “They emailed me a copy, so I can post it.” • “To have a copy is not to have the copyright.” • All emails that you write are copyrighted, but unless previously agreed, it is not secret. • You probably won’t get anything if you try to sue someone for posting your email, but technically, you should ask first. • This is also just common courtesy.

13. Myth #11 – Conclusion “So I can’t ever reproduce anything?” • In response to the first 10 myths… • This field can still be subject to change. • Only recently, exceptions have been made for recording TV programs for home viewing and moving music from CDs to your own MP3 player.

14. Conclusion • Before you use anything from anyone else’s work, do some research and figure out if what you’re doing is illegal. • If you’re going to violate copyright laws simply because you know you’ll probably get away with it, you should ask yourself why you’re doing it. • Copyrights are meant to protect not only commercial benefit from a work, but also to control how that work is used. • Copyrights also ensure the reward for authors, encouraging them to publish and distribute their works.

15. Questions?

16. References • Brad Templeton, “10 Big Myths about Copyright Explained” October 2004 <http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html> September 2007.