Before the dawn and rapid explosion of the internet, the Copyright Office has been governed and supervised by the Librarian of Congress.  This important role has several important tasks including daily access to its buildings, setting government budgets, counseling of government laws, and more importantly, overseeing the United States Copyright Office.  With the time changing, the issue lies in the fact that the Copyright Office still adheres and operates in an outdated process that is in need of urgent modernization.  It also is responsible for the management of trillions of dollars that can be sufficiently managed to serve the needs of a society whose content is digitally enhanced.  This article makes an excellent stance for the separation of the Copyright Office from the Library of Congress.  This would be greatly beneficial due to the volume of sensitive and significant information that must be managed, recorded, and approved under copyright approvals, appeals, and record keeping.  TO keep up with the demands of  a rapidly changing digital society, the US Copyright Office should be a separate entity and can be managed by another representative outside of the Librarian of Congress.   

When considering the significance of copyright law and the intellectual property of others, it is also essential to understand terms that arise when working with matters in this realm.  Below you will find definitions along with examples that clarify instances when this matter may come into play. 

Plagiarism is using someone else’s words, thoughts, ideas or information as an expression of your own without attributing or crediting the original creator.   This is relevant especially for students unaware of how to utilize digital information.  It should be explained to students that “copy/paste” cannot be used for every aspect of creation in their project.  If the resource is not created by you, the writer, then it must be attributed properly.  Attribution is simply giving credit for the use of a product or creation such as citing the author’s work correctly at the end of a paper or giving credit to a photographer for using their image in your own work.  Without attribution, the use of an original work is unjustified.  

Copyright infringement occurs when one has distributed, reproduced, displayed or even performed the creator’s property without permission and outside of the copyright terms.  This could be as simple as creating a copy of a worksheet from a book without the permission of the creator who has a copyright.  At times, both plagiarism and copyright infringement may sound extremely similar.  Plagiarism is evident when someone is simply using the source as an extension of your creation.  The creator is not attributed and the work can be seen as stolen from the author due to the possibility that he audience may see the original work as an extension of your creation.  On the other hand, copyright infringement shows no claim to the work, but instead its correct use or display is violated.  

In deciding the validity of using another author’s work, we must also discuss the importance of Fair Use.  Fair Use protects a copyrighted item so that unlicensed users are not violating the terms of the copyright.  There are four factors considered in determining the validity of fair use.  

• Factor 1: The Purpose and Character of the Use.

• Factor 2: The Nature of the Copyrighted Work.

• Factor 3: The Amount or Substantiality of the Portion Used.

• Factor 4: The Effect of the Use on the Potential Market for or Value of the Work.

Factor 1, also known as transformation, proves the use of the work must add new meaning to the work, and/or add value to the original work.  Examples include parodies of movies or songs. Although difficult to grasp at times, the intention of copyright is rooted in protecting authors, and creativity.  As time progresses, the law will need to adjust as access to information, its uses and the intentions of use for original work continue to change.