©

Stephanie Holtery
Crew 9
Teach
 History of Copyright Laws
Copyright Laws date back to 555 AD
Saint Columba hand-copied a manuscript
she borrowed from the monk Finnen.
Finnen claimed ownership of the copy and
took the matter before the judge, the judge
ruled in favor of Finnen stating, “Le cach
boin a bonin, le cach lebar a lebran,” or,
“With every cow goes it’s calf, with every
book goes the young of the book.”
The Purpose of Copyright Laws

Printed matter is the result of

someone’s labor and therefore their
intellectual property. Copyright Laws
protect these individuals’ property from
theft.
 Copyright Length

• Work copyrighted by a company is

protected for 95 years after publication.
• Work copyrighted by an individual is
copyrighted for the author’s life plus 70
years.
 Copyright Law is Fundamental to
the American Legal System
• Copyright laws were originally enacted in
1909, and were revised in 1976.
• The constitution provides for copyright.
“To promote the progress of science… by
securing for limited times to authors… The
exclusive right to their respective writings.
• A main goal of copyright is to stimulate
artistic creativity for the general public
good.
 Copyright Infringers
• Claim not to be doing anything wrong but admit
to modifying behavior to avoid consequences.
• Believe pirating is a form of civil disobedience
against the music/film industries.
• Believe the copyright law is unjust.
• Willing to break the law and hope that the law
will change as a result of a massive infringement
• Just want the goods for free.
Serious Consequences for Pirating
Example: in April 2003 alone:
• $98 billion lawsuit filed against 4 college
students by the RIAA.
• Felony charges against a man for
copyright infringement for making a digital
copy of The Hulk available online before
the public premiere.
 Copyright Battles

People who are battling against

copyright laws in this digital age believe
that copyright protections go too far, the
time a work is copyrighted is too long, and
the royalties that must be paid to the
intellectual property owners are too high.
 Fair Use Guidelines
• Fair Use Guidelines help specify what
printed materials a teacher may photocopy

• General Principle behind fair use

guidelines: “not to impair the value of the
owner’s copyright by diminishing the
demand for that work.”
 The Teacher and the Law
Teachers May:
• Make a single copy for class preparation
of a copyrighted work.
• Make a copy for each of their students if it
is a poem shorter than 250 words and
printed on 2 pages or less, or an article or
short story shorter than 2,500 words.
 The Teacher and the Law
• Teachers may not:
• Make copies of a work for their classes if
another teacher in their building already has.
• Make copies of the same author’s work more
than once a semester.
• Create a copied class anthology (a favorite of
teachers)
• Make multiple copies of weekly newspapers,
games, exercises, or worksheets from
workbooks.
• Charge more for legally permissible copies than
it cost to copy them.
 The Teacher and the Law
Videotapes
• Recorded television programs can only be
kept for 45 days after taping.
• The tape may be shown only twice in the
first 10 days after taping. Once for student
viewing, and once for review if necessary.
 The Teacher and the Law
Software and the Internet
• Most web pages are protected by
copyright law.
• Since the world wide web is global, works
available on it are protected by the Berne
Convention for the Protection of Literary
and Artistic Works – an international
treaty.
• Software should not be shared or copied.
 What is the Role of Higher
Education in the Current Copyright
Debate?
• Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)
• This act extended the copyright law to address issues
raised by digital technology.
• Title II
• Provides service providers (which include colleges and
universities) with a mechanism to limit their liability for
copyright infringement.
• Does not require providers to monitor their networks for
copyright infringement. However, its does require actions
to be taken against known offenders.
• Focuses on the most egregious offenders.
• There are no repeat infringers in the DMCA college
system.
 FERPA
• The RIAA and other intellectual property owners
can subpoena your information if they have
reasonable evidence that you are an infringer.
• FERPA is often cited on campuses as the
reason for not providing student information to
the public.
• Students don’t take into account the directory
information available to the public.
• Currently under FERPA there is not requirement
to notify a student of the release of their
directory information.
 Where does this leave us?
• Copyright infringers are also voters – a
voting block that is in the millions.
• Peer-to-peer users organizing in full force
could cause change.
• We need to focus on affecting particulars
such as cost of royalties and length of
copyright protection rather than the entire
issue of copyright.