Copyright Basics & Creative Commons for Authors
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Laura Wilt, MLS & Maggie Sacco, MLS
Librarian, Oregon DOT - Transportation Library Connectivity & Development, TPF-5(237)
The Basics
Copyright
Creative Commons
Copyright: A form of protection provided by the laws of the
United States for "original works of authorship", including
literary, dramatic, musical, architectural, cartographic,
choreographic, pantomimic, pictorial, graphic, sculptural, and
audiovisual creations. Copyright law takes its authority from
Article 1, Sec 8, cl. 8 United States Constitution and 17
USC.1
"Copyright" literally means the right to copy but has come to
mean that body of exclusive rights granted by law to
copyright owners for protection of their work. Copyright
protection does not extend to ideas, procedure, process,
system, title, principle, or discovery. Similarly, names, titles,
short phrases, slogans, familiar symbols, mere variations of
typographic ornamentation, lettering, coloring, and listings of
contents or ingredients are not subject to copyright.
Creative Commons is a global nonprofit organization
dedicated to supporting an open and accessible internet that
is enriched with free knowledge and creative resources for
people around the world to use, share, and cultivate.
Public Domain: Refers to intellectual property which have no
patent or copyright intellectual property protection. Thus,
public domain materials are not protected by intellectual
property law.2
Open Access: Free, immediate, availability on the public
Internet of works which scholars give to the world without
expectation of payment – permitting any user to read,
download, copy, distribute, print, search or link to the full text
of these articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data
to software or use them for any other lawful purpose.3
Creative Commons License: Allows the author to stipulate
how his/her copyright terms can be used, with different levels
of licensing. Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization
that allows for the sharing of creative works through free
legal tools.4
Examples: Oregon DOT uses an Attribution license (CC
BY) for the photos posted to their FlickR account. This
allows the photos to be shared and used without restrictions,
as long as the agency is credited.
Oregon DOT uses an Attribution-NoDerivs license (CC BYND) for publications. They can be shared freely, but content
cannot be altered.
2015 Transportation Library Connectivity & Development Pool Fund Study, TPF-5(237)
Work created by employees of the federal government is in
the public domain, i.e. not protected by copyright. Individual
states have their own copyright practices.
Copyright protection exists automatically from the moment of
creation in a tangible fixed form. A notice is not required to
protect copyright.
Creative Commons licenses provide a simple, standardized
way to give the public permission to share and use your
creative work — on conditions of your choice. CC licenses let
you change your copyright terms from the default of “all rights
reserved” to “some rights reserved.”
Fact: As of 2014, there were 882 million Creative
Commons licenses in use.5
Ask The Librarian!
?
Yes!! You are responsible for following applicable
copyright laws . According to the Copyright Clearance
Center, 42% of business professionals use online
resources like videos without thinking to request rights,
and 67% don’t know where to get the rights to use outside
content. Be aware of your responsibilities, both as a
creator and an user.
But – you don’t need to stress about copyright. If you
have questions, contact your local transportation librarian
for information.
?
.
The absence of a copyright
notice does not mean that there
is no copyright.
I just want to publish my research.
Do I really need to pay attention to all
of this?
I’m about to sign a contract with a
publisher. Can I post the article to my
organization’s website?
Maybe. Maybe not. That depends on your contract.
Open Source journals provide unrestricted access to their
articles, it’s likely you may post to other sites. Many
publishers require the copyright to be signed over to them
prior to publication, which takes away the author’s right to
re-post and distribute – and also takes away the author’s
right to say how the article will be used in the future. You
may feel this is a fair trade, for visibility and credibility
needed to further your research.
So - Make sure you understand the terms of your contract
and the restrictions it places on you as the author.
Bibliography
1. http://www.loc.gov/teachers/usingprimarysources/copyright.html
2. Ibid.
3. SPARC®, the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition
4. http://creativecommons.org/about
5. https://stateof.creativecommons.org/
www.postersession.com