E-Learning Concepts and Techniques Chapter 6 - Information Ownership Information ownership is about copyright. Copyright Act was designed to protect the interests of authors of original works of literature, maps and charts against unauthorized copying and against the selling of unauthorized copies. Since then the U. Copyright Act has undergone some significant changes.
Copyright on the global level is continuing to evolve and change as well. Many of those changes are the result of technological advances in the distribution and digital format(s) of copyrighted materials and the ensuing technological advances in copying that copyrighted material.1 Nicole Forst, Michael Bond and John Zelenak explain the original copyright law from its humble beginnings in England to the beginnings and revisions of the U. Copyright Act and finally to the worldwide copyright organization called The Berne Convention.2 Melanie Hurta relates the different types of Creative Commons copyright for online materials.3 Ken Dunlap and John Zelenak present their opinions of the future of e- Copyright and information ownership.4 Nicole Forst provides an overview of e-Copyright issues.1 The Origin and History of Copyright Nicole Forst, Michael Bond and John Zelenak Hot Buttons in Copyright History Modern copyright laws have had to be expanded to include such areas as digital art, computer software, and other digital works. The first major revision of copyright laws to encompass these areas was in 1990 when congress amended the law to include the unlawful distribution of computer software.
The first major case to involve this form of copyright infringement of digital materials was Playboy Enterprises Inc. and Frena, an online electronic bulletin board operator when a member of the bulletin board posted a digitized photograph from Playboy Magazine on the board and another member downloaded it. The courts found “it does not matter that Defendant Frena may have been unaware of the copyright infringement. Intent to infringe is not needed to find copyright infringement.
Intent or knowledge is not an element of infringement and thus even an innocent infringer is liable for infringement; rather innocence is significant to a trial court when it fixes statutory damages, which is a remedy equitable in nature.” (“TIMELINE: A history of copyright in the United States”, 2002) Chapter 6 - Information Ownership 75 E-Learning Concepts and Techniques Some of the other major issues that have surfaced throughout the modern, digital age of copyright protection include: • Conference on Fair Use (CONFU) established in 1994 • Database Investment and Intellectual Property Antipiracy Act of 1994 • Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998 • Digital Millennium Act of 1998 • National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL) passes the Uniform Computer Information Transaction Act (UCITA) • Digital Theft Deterrence's and Copyright Damages Improvement Act • Congressional ruling on the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) • 2002 Congress approves the TEACH (Technology Education and Copyright Harmonization) Act The modern revisions to copyright law, nationally and internationally, prompted by the digital age in which we live are probably the ones we can remember most easily. Here is an account of some of the details in the origin and history of copyright law that led to those landmark changes. The Origin of Copyright The U. Copyright Act of 1790 was only the beginning of copyright law in the United States of America and was built upon the nearly 130 years of copyright law(s) in use in England.
The Licensing Act of 1662 in England was instituted in response to the invention and growing proliferation of the printing press. The Licensing Act of 1662 was established to grant printing and publishing rights of licensed books to certain printers and was administered by the Stationers' Company, who had been given censorship authority. By 1695, the Licensing Act of 1662 had not been renewed or updated and government censorship fell into a state of disrepair. While the Licensing Act of 1662 was less about the ownership of printed works than about governmental control of the content of printed works, the Parliamentary approved Statue of Anne in 1710 addressed the author's copyright of printed works to be a period of fourteen years and could be renewed for a second period of fourteen years provided the author was still alive.
The Beginning of Copyright Law in the U. In 1787, as part of the U. Constitution, Article 1, Section 8, Clause 8, “The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;. To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries;” (“TIMELINE: A history of copyright in the United States”, 2002) Chapter 6 - Information Ownership 76 E-Learning Concepts and Techniques In three short years, the First Congress enacted the U.
Copyright Act of 1790, an Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by Securing the Copies of Maps, Charts, and Books to the Authors and Proprietors of Such Copies. This act granted American authors and inventors copyright for a period of fourteen years and the option to renew the copyright for an additional fourteen years. The goal of the act was to encourage authors and inventors to create original works to the benefit of the author or inventor and to the benefit of the general population and to the United States of America. By providing the author or inventor with a limited monopoly over the control of their works, the U.
government hoped to stimulate works of significant use and scientific merit. Revisions to the Original U. Copyright Act The major revisions were enacted in 1831, 1870, 1909 and 1976. Each revision was implemented to extend greater control of the copy written work to the author while protecting the public from undue monopoly of the copyrighted works.
The early revision dealt primarily with the length of time of the copyright. The 1976 revision also addressed forms of copying to include newer copying technologies. The 1831 Revision Previously, copyright protection afforded the author the right to restrict copying of the work for a period of fourteen years, with a renewal of the original copyright for an additional fourteen years. In 1831, the original copyright was extended to a period of twenty-eight years with the option of an additional fourteen-year extension.
This revision was claimed by Congress to be enacted to give the same protection enjoyed by British authors to American authors. The new twenty-eight year term applied to current works to which the copyright had not expired as well as to future works. The 1870 Revision This was a change in the administration of copyright registration from individual district courts to a centralized registration agency within the Library of Congress Copyright Office. No other changes were made at this time.
The 1909 Revision This revision included two significant changes. It extended copyright protection to all works of authorship, and extended the length of protection to twenty-eight years with an optional renewal of twenty-eight years. The object in the latter change was to find a balance between protecting the author's profitability and the limiting the public's exposure to undue monopoly of copyrighted material. “The main object to be desired in expanding copyright protection accorded to music has been to give the composer an adequate return for the value of his composition, and it has Chapter 6 - Information Ownership 77 E-Learning Concepts and Techniques been a serious and difficult task to combine the protection of the composer with the protection of the public, and to so frame an act that it would accomplish the double purpose of securing to the composer an adequate return for all use made of his composition and at the same time prevent the formation of oppressive monopolies, which might be founded upon the very rights granted to the composer for the purpose of protecting his interests (H.” (“TIMELINE: A history of copyright in the United States”, 2002) The 1976 Revision This revision was the first to begin to address new electronic copying technology as it became more available to the public and to begin to bring the U.
Copyright Act into alignment with international copyright law. In this revision, copyright protection was adjusted to the life of the author plus 50 years. This protection preempted the original copyright act and all previous revisions. Copyright protection was extended to unpublished works.
This revision also fully addressed and detailed fair use. Section 108 which allowed photocopying without permission by libraries for the purpose of scholarship, preservation, or interlibrary loan was added. The section stated, “the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright.” (“TIMELINE: A history of copyright in the United States”, 2002) These four factors determined fair use; nature of the copyrighted work, purpose and character of the use, the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the whole, and the effect of the use on the potential market. Classroom guidelines were included in a House Report accompanying the 1976 revision.
Further, Congress appointed The National Commission on New Technological Uses of Copyrighted Works (CONTU) to develop guidelines for the “minimum standards of educational fair use.” According to the appointment, “The CONTU guidelines were developed to assist librarians and copyright proprietors in understanding the amount of photocopying for use in interlibrary loan arrangements permitted under the copyright law.” (“TIMELINE: A history of copyright in the United States”, 2002) Further Revisions were made, many as a result of changes in technology. The Berne Convention The Berne Convention is an international agreement about copyright, which was first adopted in Berne, Switzerland in 1886. In 1988, the United States became a Berne Signatory, which means that it adheres to this International Copyright Law. This also opened up the opportunity to share works and copyrights with 24 other countries.
Finally Chapter 6 - Information Ownership 78 E-Learning Concepts and Techniques the US becoming a Berne Signatory eliminated the requirement of copyright notice for copyright protection. 1990 Circulation of Computer Software The Copyright Act was amended in 1990 to include computer software. It was stated that it is prohibited to lend computer software commercially. Libraries are allowed to lend out software but the software must contain a copyright warning on it.
Early 1990's During 1992 Congress made an Amendment to Section 304 of Title 17. This allowed for the automatic renewal of copyrights. This was later overwritten by the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act. In 1993 a group called The Working Group on Intellectual Property was created to see if Copyright Law and the National Information Infrastructure (NII) were effective.
The following year (1994) The Working Group on Intellectual Property held hearings and other activities to see the effectiveness of Copyright and thus a report was created called the Green Paper. After it was released more hearings were held to see the reactions to the report. Also in 1994 Conference on Fair Use (CONFU) was held. This conference was set to discuss the Fair Use Agreement in an electronic medium.
Guidelines were created for educational multimedia uses, and proposed guidelines were created in a number of other areas. 1995 Release of the White Paper In 1995 The Working Group on Intellectual Property released the White Paper, “Intellectual Property and the National Information Infrastructure”, which had a list of recommended ways to amend the Copyright Act of 1976, and had a legal analysis of the Copyright Law in its current state (1995).