Vedanti's CSCI 1300 Blog: Copyright and Creative Commons

Mr. Jason Hardin, Manager of Access Services, came to talk to our EIT class about important issues regarding copyright, including what copyright actually is, when an action is considered copyright infringement, and what we as students can do to avoid breaking any copyright regulations. Something Mr. Hardin mentioned that really sparked my attention was the legal standard for copyright. He discussed how a person’s work must be in a “fixed tangible medium” for it to be considered as copyrighted. I never realized that clicking save on my computer essentially copyrighted my work. Before Mr. Hardin mentioned this point, I always assumed that even if I did not save my work and someone else were to copy it, I could sill argue that my work was copyrighted solely based on my personal statement. However, now I understand that if I do not save my work, it is open for anyone to copy and claim as their own. I guess now I have another strong reason to save and save often.

Another point I learned from Mr. Hardin’s presentation was that college students can actually receive take down notices from major music, movie, and entertainment industries. Take down notices are basically letters by rights holders to let colleges know that file sharing is taking place. I think it is amazing how these industries have professional hackers just to watch out for any file sharing that is taking place. Mr. Hardin further expressed that these industries can recognize a person by his/her IP address and ultimately, the college can figure out that person’s identity by the IP address. As a result, he explained how Trinity could easily track a student committing the file sharing because the industry includes the IP address in the take down notice.

One copyright issue I find quite intriguing is the one about Fair Use. What actually makes a usage of something fair? Title 17 of the U.S. Code includes this policy, stating four factors that should be considered when determining whether fair use is justified. The four factors are the following: 1.) Purpose of the reproduction 2.) Nature of the reproduced work 3.)Amount of the reproduction 4.) Effect of the market from the work. Specifically, Mr. Hardin communicated that under these guidelines, a professor is allowed to make several copies of a work and distribute that work to the class for educational purposes. The professor could claim “Spontaneity of Usage”, conveying that the timing of his particular teaching schedule restricted him from asking permission for usage. Some would not consider this as a good enough reason for claiming fair use, arguing that limited time should not be used as an excuse for fair usage. Conversely, others might think it is a perfectly good reason because the professor is making the copies for an educational purpose. Personally, I totally agree that the “Spontaneity of Usage” reasoning is legitimate and should be considered as fair use because the professor actually does not have the time to seek permission of the rights holders and also, the act of making and distributing copies of the work is for the purpose of education. Moreover, the amount of reproduction is not too great and the effect of the market from the work is very minimal. Thus, all four factors of fair use are considered and satisfied.