Copyright -- who owns what you write?

There's a lot of reading in this workshop. Copyright isn't an easy concept to get one's mind around. Whole careers are built around understanding copyright law, so don't feel bad if you get only the basics at first. I've provided a lot of links here so you can come back and learn more as you need it.

Definitions

intellectual property -- there are three types:

• Trademarks (names/logos used in trade. Xerox and Kleenex are examples (and using them as nouns or verbs in a story is a violation of copyright!)
• Patents (inventions and technology; often owned by the corporation, not the individual)
• Copyright (any work created by a human. The elephant who creates art cannot get copyright protection) 

copyright -- legal protection of an author's work, including both published and unpublished works. For details, go here.

fair use -- the conditions under which you can use copyrighted material for other purposes. For details, go here.

public domain -- all works no longer protected by copyright. Free to use, no permissions needed. For details go here.

plagarism -- either unintentional or deliberate copying of someone else's work without attributing the author. This is illegal!

Copyright Rules in brief 

From PassiveGuy blog:

"Here’s a simplified overview:

The Copyright Act of 1976 set the duration of copyright as the life of the author plus 50 years. In 1998, a retroactive amendment increased the term of a copyright to the life of the author plus 70 years and applies to works created after the enactment of the 1976 Act.

Prior to 1976, the principal source of US copyright law was the Copyright Act of 1909. (Although Congress tweaks copyright law more frequently, major overhauls are rare. Before 1909, copyright law was governed by the original Copyright Act passed in 1790.)

Under the Copyright Act of 1909, the duration of copyright protection was 28 years. That duration could be extended for an additional 28 years if an appropriate filing was made with the US Copyright Office. With the extension, the maximum duration for a copyright was 56 years.

The rules for when copyright protection began were also changed by the 1976 Act. Under the 1909 Act, copyright protection began (and the 28-year clock began to run) when a work was published with a notice of copyright. If a work was published without copyright notice included, it was automatically in the public domain. Prior to 1976, only state copyright laws governed unpublished works.

The 1976 Act provided copyright protection from the time the work was created, without regard to publication date. Notice of copyright is no longer required for copyright protection (but may be important in proving willful copyright infringement which carries significantly increased penalties for infringement).

To put all these dates together, generally speaking, in the United States, all books and other works published before 1923 have expired copyrights and are in the public domain. In addition, generally speaking, works published before 1964 that did not have their copyrights renewed 28 years after their first publication year also are in the public domain.

If you really want to get into the details of copyright expiration, the Cornell Law School has compiled a detailed listing of the dates upon which US copyright protection expires for all sorts of different people in different places."

Activities:

1. Read through the articles Mrs. Duprey gives you regarding the history of copyright and some of the current situtations

2. Check out the links above and read through the pages for all three.

Writing Journal/Assignment:

What the heck does all this mean? Synthesize the information you've been reading and write a one-page (typed, double-spaced) response. Consider: how does all this affect you as a writer? Is any of this important to you?

Resources:

Official US Copyright office

A site with a decided slant towards authors.

Catcher in the Rye 60 Years later controversy

Discussion questions regarding copyright.doc