Always a bit murky, the legalities of copyright, trademarks, and intellectual property are made ever more complex by the share, copy, paste, amend, and trade spirit of the Internet. In other words, just because it is easy to reuse content from the Internet does not mean it is legal to do so. While the Internet itself is generally “open,” taking intellectual property from this space and reusing it without (or sometimes even with) attribution is analogous to passing someone else’s work off as your own. This makes understanding copyright especially important both to protect those who create and publish, as well as those who seek intellectual property in the form of information, images, music and video.

Copyright Basics

U.S. Copyright law protects the owners of creative works - including literary, musical, artistic and intellectual works - by giving them exclusive rights to reproduce and distribute their creations. Known as a person's intellectual property, the following works of authorship are covered under copyright law:

• literary (books, poems, essays, computer programs)

• musical (lyrics, melodies, composition)

• dramatic (plays, musicals, spoken word performances)

• choreographic (dance productions, pantomimes)

• pictorial, graphic (paintings, sculptures, maps)

• audiovisual (motion pictures, podcasts, speeches)

• architectural (plans, blueprints)

Copyright gives the creator of of an original work the exclusive right to:

• reproduce,

• distribute,

• perform, and

• publicly display the work, and to

• create derivative works based on the original

This means that if anyone else wants to copy, modify, distribute, or display the work they must first have the permission of the original creator of the work. Take a moment to read this guide created by patent attorney Daniel A. Tysver which explains the rights granted under copyright law.

You have most likely seen the copyright symbol on the title page of published books.

An absent copyright symbol. however, does not mean that the work is not protected. Intellectual property does not have to be published in order to be protected by copyright, and the creator of the work does not have to apply or register in order to receive copyright protection. The work simply has to be expressed in some sort of tangible form, such as a written document or recording. The creator of an original work automatically owns the copyright to that work, and it does not expire until 70 years after the creator's death. For a more detailed explanation of copyright law, read pages 1 – 6 of the United States Federal government document on copyright basics.

Copyright in the Digital Age

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (DMCA), which was met with some opposition, sought to concisely detail the impact of the digital age on the more conventional, pre-Internet understanding of copyright. At the turn of the millennium, file-sharing enterprise Napster set a precedent for the issues that arise with the dissemination of digital content. This groundbreaking service allowed users to share and download each other’s music files -- long before the emergence of on-demand listening services like Spotify -- and first introduced us to the power of wide-scale replication using the speed and depth of the Internet. In effect, Napster forced global confrontation of the many complex implications of the rise of the Digital Age. Within the space of four years the company effectively peaked and faded into extinction under the weight of court challenges and an emerging sense of the legal boundaries of copyright and intellectual property on the relative Wild West of the Internet. If you are interested in delving deeper into Napster’s enduring impression on our sense of what we can and cannot widely replicate and share from the Internet, you may want to read this article from The Economist on the rise and fall of Napster.

Creative Commons

Creative Commons is an important, albeit relatively new, part of the overall copyright conversation. Creative Commons (or CC) is a mechanism by which copyright holders can give advanced fairly explicit permission(s) as to how their work may be used through various licenses. Watch the following video to learn more.

Another option available to copyright holders is to place their work in the public domain, making the work "copyright free." Works automatically enter into the public domain once the copyright has expired, but Creative Commons CC0 makes it possible to immediately release material for public use.

REFERENCES:

U.S. Copyright Office. "Copyright Basics." Copyright.gov. U.S. Copyright Office, May 2012. Web. https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ01.pdf Tysver, Daniel A. "Rights Granted Under Copyright Law." Bitlaw. N.p. 1996-2015. Web. http://www.bitlaw.com/copyright/scope.html

The original US Copyright Act of 1790 protected creations (the expression of an idea, rather than the idea itself) for 14 years, with an option to renew the copyright for an additional 14 years. The current US copyright law protects an individual’s creations for 70 years following his or her death. After that period the created work enters the Public Domain. This is a dramatic change in the length of copyright protection in the US. Copyright allows creators to profit from their creations. However, might such an extended limit deter the creativity of others? In the introduction to Intellectual Property challenge, Johanna Blakely challenges the common adage that "Without ownership, there is no incentive to innovate." She argues rather that the fashion industry's "culture of copying" allows for "the broadest palette imaginable" and propels greater creativity. Consider the following story:

Spider Robinson's Hugo award winning short story Melancholy Elephants follows a character named Dorothy Martin who goes to a powerful Senator in an attempt to kill a copyright bill that will make copyright terms last forever. Dorothy argues to the Senator that there are a finite number of musical notes and therefore a finite number of appreciably different melodies, and that an ever longer copyright will mean no one will be able to recreate those same melodies into new songs. (http://wiki.lessig.org/Against_perpetual_copyright)

Given the “finite notes” conundrum and the open nature of the Internet which encourages ubiquitous sharing, is copyright law entirely out of touch with modern context? Or is it more necessary than ever to protect the copyright holder in a mindless copy and paste world? Please speak to both sides of this issue, and then argue for the one with which you most agree.