Lesson 9
Lauren Collister
Synopsis
Copyright is a fundamental part of scholarly work that is primarily associated with research publications such as journal articles and books; however, copyright intersects with data gathering, preservation, and access. Attention to the intellectual property surrounding data is essential for data management and sharing, and can prevent unforeseen consequences for the reuse and access of data for future projects. This chapter provides an overview of copyright and intellectual property principles that apply to linguistic data in the gathering and use phases of a research project, as well as guidance on how copyright impacts sharing and access of research data.
Core concepts & keywords
Copyright: Legal rights for authors over their original and creative works, including the rights to reproduce, distribute, publicly display or perform, and make adaptations.
Open License: A tool for authors to retain copyright but allow others to use their material with certain conditions, such as attribution.
Fair Use: An exception in copyright law that allows reuse of copyrighted material for purposes including commentary, criticism, scholarship, or news reporting.
Open Data: Shared data with no barriers to access or reuse.
Public Domain: Work that is not covered by copyright or other intellectual property laws, and which can be used by anyone without obtaining permission, but cannot be owned by anyone.
Activities
Exercises - Practice what you've learned
This chapter focuses on copyright law in the United States. Choose another country of interest to you and explore copyright and data sharing may differ as compared to the United States. Consider, for example: What does copyright law cover in that country? Are databases created in that country protected by sui generis rights? For how many years does copyright hold? How are Fair Use/Fair Dealing legally defined in that country?
Implement these practices in your career
Who owns your data? Consider a dataset you’ve recently worked with or created. Does copyright apply to these data? Where did the data come from? Did you have to sign a contract to get access to the data?
Have you applied or are you planning to apply for research grants? What are the funders' policies on data sharing? What about ownership of data? Think about implications of those policies for your research project.
In past or current research projects, did your consent process include an explanation of your plan for data sharing and reuse? If you have worked with student assistants, did you write out a contract explaining who owns the work produced in the project? If not, consider how you can incorporate such contracts into your research projects going forward.
Quiz - Test yourself!
Relevant data management use cases
Managing sign language acquisition video data: A personal journey in the organization and representation of signed data by Julie A. Hochgesang
Managing sign language video data collected from the internet by Lynn Hou, Ryan Epic and Erin Wilkinson
Managing treebank data with the Infrastructure for the Exploration of Syntax and Semantics (INESS) by Victoria Rosén and Koenraad De Smedt
Managing data from social media: The Indigenous Tweets Project by Kevin P. Scannell
Related readings
Tang, Xiaofeng. Using, Sharing, and Preserving Data. In The Ethics of Data Management. Penn State. Accessed October 18, 2021. https://sites.psu.edu/ethicsofdatamanagement/unit-4-using-sharing-and-preserving-data/
Share your thoughts on this article or topic
Use #LingData #Copyright #OpenAccess on your favorite social media platform!
About the author:
Lauren B. Collister is the Director of the Office of Scholarly Communication and Publishing at the University Library System, University of Pittsburgh. She holds a Ph.D. in Sociolinguistics from her time researching language change in online discourse. Her current work covers publishing, copyright, author rights, and advocacy for open research.
Citations
Cite this chapter:
Collister, Lauren B. 2022. Copyright and sharing linguistic data. In The Open Handbook of Linguistic Data Management, edited by Andrea L. Berez-Kroeker, Bradley McDonnell, Eve Koller, and Lauren B. Collister, 117-128. doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/12200.003.0013. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press Open.
Cite this online lesson:
Gabber, Shirley, Danielle Yarbrough, Andrea L. Berez-Kroeker, Bradley McDonnell, Eve Koller, and Lauren B. Collister. 2022. "Lesson 9." Linguistic Data Management: Online companion course to The Open Handbook of Linguistic Data Management. Website: https://sites.google.com/hawaii.edu/linguisticdatamanagement/course-lessons/09-copyright-and-sharing-linguistic-data [Date accessed].