I Know This!

Take a look at the symbol at the end of the District Dispatch, an ALA publication.  This is the same Creative Commons license that governs Duke Law School's comic book that was discussed in Barack's article.  I was so excited to see it and actually know what it means!  (See Check This Out! posted on this blog October 10, 2008.)

© District Dispatch

WASHINGTON OFFICE

Did You Know?...

Did you know that the copyright symbol itself is not copyrighted?  It is an internationally known symbol, which cannot be copyrighted any more than a letter of the alphabet could--letters are symbols, too!  My husband, a former Kinko's Copies employee, told me this when I was trying to come up with a clever title for my blog.  

Copyright and the Digital Age

Long's article covered a variety of information, and she explained terms with which I am just becoming familiar.  Copyright basically rewards the creativity of creators' works of literature, music, and more, so that they are compensated for their efforts and can determine how their works are copied and sold.  Currently, the creator or copyright holder has copying and distribution rights for his or her life plus 70 years.  This essentially covers his or her heirs' lifetimes, who could likely be difficult to locate.  The House of Representatives, at the time of this publication, was looking to grant use of these "orphan works," so long as a good faith effort to find the copyright holder was made, even unsuccessfully.  I like the term copyright holder, because I immediately think of the media's coverage of the sales of the Beatles' songs' copyrights.  The amount of money involved incredible.  Now I am beginning to understand how valuable future copyright permission must be for the holder.

Education, research, and public knowledge, however, need to use copyrighted works and they do not always need to have permission to do so.  This is the doctrine of fair use, which Long explains is a way to permit unauthorized, limited use of copyrighted works in certain situations for the public benefit.  Right here is where I thought of librarians and the library, and that was because of the word public.  The ramifications of copyright are serious to librarians--librarians would not be able to loan materials without special provisions in the copyright act.

So now it comes to copyright and the digital age.  As broadcasters prepare for the conversion to digital television in 2009 (that sounds like a television commercial!), the Congress is looking at broadcasters wanting to have encrypted signals so that programs cannot be copied and rebroadcast.  These are the same rights that cable and satellite providers enjoy.  This is known as a "broadcast flag."  For librarians, the effects are immeasurable.  Teachers and students would not be able to use "flagged" content.  Also, library archives, such as Vanderbilt University's, which stores TV news broadcasts for many years for research, would be adversely affected. 

 Do you think that our new digitally broadcast channels should get their "broadcast flag" protection?  I wonder if the major networks and local news channels that they transmit are considered public domain.

Let me know what you think...

Long, S. A. (2006). US copyright law: the challenge of protection in the digital age. New Library World, 107(9/10), 450-42.

Check This Out!

I found a short article written by Lauren Barack that informs readers about a comic book created by Duke University Law School.  Tales from the Public Domain:  Bound by Law? is a 72-page comic book that examines copyright and fair use through the experiences of Akiko, a documentary film maker and the Rights Monster.  Barack provides the web site where one can download the book and read information on it, I checked it out at www.law.duke.edu/cspd/comics.

The site has information on how to download the book, which, by the way, is really neat.  Tons of graphics and easily recognized visual images.  I have not read it all yet, but I will download it and keep it for future use.  Under Comics, go to Buy the Book and find out how to purchase one or more copies at $5.95 each for your library or class (bulk rates offered).  Kids would love this!  Their Resources list legal resources, organization, and publications--useful tools for this blog and with our future library patrons.

The comic book has a copyright date of 2006, but is made available under the terms of a Creative Commons, Attributions, Non-commercial, Share-alike license, giving you the right to copy and distribute the book non-commercially as long as you attribute the work to the authors, do not sell it, and distribute altered or derivative works under an identical license.  The information is on page two.  Pretty interesting.  Take a look.

Aoki, K., Boyle, J., & Jenkins, J. (2006). Tales from the public domain:  Bound by law? Durham, NC: Duke University School of Law.

Barack, L. (2008). Gadzooks! School Library Journal, 54(9), 19.