In the U.S. and in many other countries, copyright laws are meant to protect your work. If you spent months writing a book, would you want to see major portions of your book posted on the Internet under someone else's byline? Would you want someone else to be paid for your work? Not likely! Nor do others want this to happen to their work. It doesn't matter if the work belongs to a megamillion dollar corporation or to your neighbor. The work belongs to the other person. If you use someone else's work without the other's permission, you are stealing. That's the bottomline. However, the law does permit usage of others' materials as long as you follow general fair usage guidelines. (Teachers have a bit more leeway than other folks do, but even so, they are restricted to fair usage policies.) Roughly, fair usage means that the use of copyrighted material should be limited to the lesser amount for each of the following: 10% or 1,000 words of text 10% or 2,500 cells of a database 10% or 30 seconds of music or lyrics 5 illustrations or photos by an artist or photographer 10% or 3 minutes of a video or other motion footage 10% of text or 15 images from a collective work. A word of caution, though! The amount of material that can be used must be in proportion to the size of your own work. If you have written a 12-page term paper and you have used 1,000 words from other sources, you are stepping outside the fair usage boundaries. If you have been on the Internet for any length of time, you have most likely received chain letter e-mails with jokes, stories, cartoons, etc., from well-meaning friends. You might politely let your friend know about copyright laws. Just because material is posted on someone's website, it does not mean that the work can be downloaded or transmitted for use by others without the copyright owner's permission. If you are interested in reading the actual text of U.S. copyright law, Cornell University has the entire version posted in hypertext on its website. The U.S. Copyright Office also has its own website. The best thing to remember is that if you are not certain, get permission before you use the material.

© 1999 Anne Wallingford

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Friday, August 10, 2007