Copyright is based on the U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 8: "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." The United States Copyright Act of 1976 protects these rights:
Copyright owners have the exclusive right to reproduce, prepare derivative works, distribute, perform, display, transfer ownership, rent or lend their creations.
Copyright thus provides the author of a creative work with the exclusive legal right to control the copying of that work.
Most major nations further observe the Berne copyright convention; in the USA, "almost everything created privately and originally after April 1, 1989, is copyrighted and protected whether it has a notice or not" (Templeton, 10 Big Myths About Copyright). Or, as Dr. Frederic Erbisch, Director of the Office of Intellectual Property at Michigan State University, put it, "everything copyrightable is copyrighted." This includes text, pictures, graphs, music, video, software, e-mail, etc. In other words, virtually all work by an author/creator is copyrighted the moment it is written or created. This includes student work.
The Copyright Term Extension Act and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 have extended the length of copyright protection and set limits for claims of copyright infringement for online service providers and educational institutions.
There is much discussion today about whether the concept of intellectual property is obsolete in the electronic age. However, several test cases have affirmed that copyright laws will be applied and enforced even as technology continues to change. The Saginaw Valley State University Internet and Electronic Communications Acceptable Use Policy governs current university use of Internet and electronic communications: "Users shall respect the legal protection provided by copyrights and licenses to programs, data and images."
The Bill of Rights and Responsibilities for Electronic Learners developed by the American Association for Higher Education (AAHE) likewise affirms that "All citizens of the electronic community of learners have ownership rights over their own intellectual works" (Article I, Section 5), and "It shall be each citizen's personal responsibility to recognize (attribute) and honor the intellectual property of others" (Article II, Section 2).
Under the Copyright Act of 1976 cited above, educators enjoy special privileges:
Educators may use portions of copyrighted material if the purpose and character of the work is educational in nature, previously published, not a substantial part of the entire work and if the marketability of the work is not impaired by the use.
Thus, educators may use copyrighted materials as long as they meet Fair Use restrictions.
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