Music is Highly Creative

Is there anyone who questions whether a piece of music is a creative work? I have yet to meet one, YET in matters of fair use, most people and sources of information on the subject call music a non-dramatic entity - in other words: it favors fair use for factor 2.

The meaning of "dramatic" from non-dramatic, fiction from non-fiction is part of the problem. The word dramatic for many people infers theatrical, but this is not the intent in the law.
This quote from NOLO's website points to the meaning more clearly: "To preserve the free flow of information, authors have more leeway in using material from factual works (scholarly, technical, and scientific works) than to works of fancy such as novels, poems, and plays."

Independent uploaders

If faculty are allowed (and encouraged) to load media such as video clips online themselves, what is the gatekeeping mechanism. Does a human gatekeeper need to watch the door?

Copyright issue of the Day 005

If I create a 3-4 minute video of photos taken by me of my students on the job sites, but I use a commercial song, am I violating copyright laws? My intention is to use the movie at marketing days to prospective students. It would not be publicly placed on our web page.

Notes from Webinar w/ Peggy Hoon 11/2/2011

NOTES from CIP Webinar with Peggy Hoon:
Copyright and Online Course Content

If you don't collect the work of others in your course, you may not be providing all the materials you should.

Attribution does not obviate copyright issues; later notes that proper attribution is IRRELEVANT in determining copyright infringement

Technology develops quickly, law develops slowly

K.I.M.: without copyright, the material may never have been available in the first place

Students hold the copyright to their works

Is any government work in public domain (state, city, etc.)?

DOCUMENT EVERYTHING

The phrase "distance education" is not helpful when discussing copyright (and appears nowhere in law); "transmission" is the word to use.

"Display" applies to A/V works, not text.

Pat_DeSalvo says, "Question regarding movies: Companies such as SWANK motion pictures provide the clearance to use full films in the classroom as well as streamed from their server into the college LMS. Do you find this acceptable?"
Claudia_Holland says, "However, why should a university pay for streaming rights when payment has already been made for PPR for individual films?"

Linking seems like a safe technique, but do you think it will continue to be?

cip1 says, "can a faculty member stream netflix or a NOVA program in the classroom if they've paid for it "

"Doesn't the DCMA stipulate that if (any) media is available in the digital/streaming format you would like, you MUST purchase that?"

Jan says, "So you're saying the UCLA license of PPR broke it out arbitrarily, but streaming was still a PPR. So if you have a license with PPR that doesn't break it out, you should be able to stream?" - AGAIN, is streaming public performance and/or a transmission?

If the filmmaker's intent is the same as a teacher's intent, then the teacher's intent (to transform) is irrelevant?

Copyright (actually, Trademark) issue of the day 989

Faculty member wants to use the catchy name "Telling Ain't Training" from the book of the same name, for her own training at the YC Winter Institute in December. The content of the training is her own, and she does not own and has not read the book.

The book is by Harold D. Stolovitch, who has a company that provides training:

Further, faculty member intends to record the training and make it available college employees on the internet.

RESPONSE:

I recommended contacting the author for permission, though I believe that he would deny it because the training's content was not even from the book, and would seem like a misrepresentation. It may also confuse those interested in attending who may believe there is a direct connection.

I would also not recommend putting the recording online with that title. 

DECISION

The name will be changed to "Training Ain't Just Telling".

Thanks to Mbyrnes' comment 

Woody's Share Statement

In his recordings in the early 1940s Woody Guthrie included the following “Copyright Warning”:

“This song is Copyrighted in U.S., under Seal of Copyright # 154085, for a period of 28 years, and anybody caught singin it without our permission, will be mighty good friends of ours, cause we don’t give a dern. Publish it. Write it. Sing it. Swing to it. Yodel it. We wrote it, that’s all we wanted to do.”

Thanks to Meg for this

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Copyright issue of the Day 669

I am teaching Student Success Skills.  In the past I have shown the FISH! Philosophy video in this class, but it does not seem there is a way to show a video in class.  Is it possible to put the video on a DVD or can it be loaded to my course through Blackboard?  The video is on reserve in the library.

FIRST REPLY
The FISH! Materials may be a hard sell since to stream the video legally we would likely invoke the TEACH Act distance education excemptions, one of which specifies materials marketed for education as non-excempt. In other words, if they make it for education, you should buy it - if you can. It also depends on a fair price to license the work– a judgement call I would love your perspective on. Can you check the FISH website and determine what it might cost? Fun stuff. I am available to talk more about this anytime.  

Students of Convenience

The is a 'post in progress' to keep track of this topic. 

 I am not sure where "students' convenience" factor enters the copyright arena, but I know it's in the building.


This is from a Chronicle article about the UCLA streaming case:

Robin L. Garrell, a UCLA chemistry professor and chair of the Academic Senate....said the ability to use streaming videos has been beneficial for students, who might have trouble reaching the university’s media lab at a specific time set to view materials.
“As you can imagine, in Los Angeles, a five-mile commute might be a one-hour commute. So this is really important for our students, so they can manage their time,” Ms. Garrell said.

I was thinking it was a stretch to make "student convenience" an arguement for fair use, but
the RDR Books and Perfect 10 cases were victories for the indexing and organizing of information as a valid tranformative use of copyrighted works. A professor might be said to be doing the same thing by organizing their materials on to a CD. Transforming also bearing on convenince: now students don't have to go to the library, they can take everything home or get it online.

Notes from Office Hours 10-25-2011

110(2) clunky

what about a film study class?

how do we avoid the role of copyright cops? Should faculty be allowed to make their own call

Bonner: Regulatory codes and complexity is increasing, especially in 110(2), compared to 110(1), w/o studying the need or market; creates a system that's ripe for legal malfunction; if the language wasn't so specific we would have a clearer course of action.

Is UCLA still streaming TODAY?

Is the section of the DCMA requiring users to purchase digital versions "when available" part of what you're referring to when you say that 110(2) was created before considering the markets for such work? Looking for such digital works can be onerous.

Where is the DCMA? - bono act

Are the costs

She referenced Chinua Achebe! I say "Things fall Apart" all the time.

get in the habit of talking about the categories of works we are referring to.

Look at checklists!

re: dr. no = How do the Librarian of Congress' periodic reviews (such as Statement of the Librarian of Congress on the Anticircumvention Rulemaking) affect the law?

Is a statement somewhere on our college website the we "comply with TEACH Act" con formal adoption, or does it have to be stated in policy?

emphasizing "before the comma" is maximizing allowance, after the comma emphasizes regulation, control and market interests.

Bonner: 108 and 110 are safe harbors, and if we have to consider fair use then something is broken -(!?) what about Jaszi and Aufenhaurs' book "Reclaiming Fair Use?"

Copyright issue of the Day 103

Faculty:
We found a shareware site that has all sorts of ESL skill books on it; we want to know if we can download them to disk and print worksheets.  We tried to read the Acceptable Use clause, and couldn’t understand it.

I wonder what’s the difference between printing off 25 copies of a book, and printing 25 pages from a book?

www.4shared.com <http://www.4shared.com>

Could you take a look?

The language takes some getting used to

I just read 110(2) correctly for the first time. I don't feel too bad, as legalise truly is another language, a dialect of english, latin, and hodgepodge is-and-isn't isms.

I figured out (please be merciful) that the section's action started two-thirds of the way through the paragraph at the words "the performance", just as 110(1) does, only with the lengthy preamble of " except.... digital...unlawfully made....".  which led to confusion of whether I was reading it in the positive or negative. It takes a mindshift to navigate the competing arguments in the density of it all.

I feel like a kid again.

The Commonly Arbitrary

from today's digest:
EU Greens /EFA Position Paper on "Creation and Copyright."
By Mike Palmedo, Infojustice, October 9, 2011.
http://infojustice.org/archives/5753

"A new EU Greens/ European Free Alliance position paper starts from the premise that copyright should guard against unauthorized commercial use, but individuals should be able to copy and share works as long as the author is cited."


If only it was as simple as that. This sounds like another vain hope for "bright lines" ( a favorite term I define as happy thought with sinister undertones ) that will be arbitrated into a pulp over time. 
No, pessimist, it's going to solidify the pillars of fair use and give new weight to good faith behavior.


How much do international law decisions affect the US in any case? We haven't even joined the international court, have we.

Case 113: Hollywood Movie Fundraiser

An instructor wants raise funds for the College Honors Club. She has the idea to have a family event on campus at the beginning of the Holiday Season. At the event she wants to show a full-length Hollywood Movie, along with face-painting and a raffle. They'll either have a ~$5 door per family or ask for donations only to gather the funds.
This is a case of public performance, but is there an exception or a fair use argument that would allow the movie to be shown without a license fee?

I don't think fair use will cover it.
Factor one: though the purpose is to support education, it is not educational, nor is it transforming the work, it is simply displaying it.
Factor two: The nature of the work is highly creative.
Factor three: the entire film will be displayed.
Factor four: it may have a tiny impact on the local rental market for this particular film, that it would be shown to raise money also factors against fair use.

Though it doesn't apply here, this exception [ 17. sec. 110(4b) ] has relevance to fundraising:

performance of a nondramatic literary or musical work otherwise than in a transmission to the public, without any purpose of direct or indirect commercial advantage and without payment of any fee or other compensation for the performance to any of its performers, promoters, or organizers, if— 

(B) the proceeds, after deducting the reasonable costs of producing the performance, are used exclusively for educational, religious, or charitable purposes and not for private financial gain, except where the copyright owner has served notice of objection to the performance under the following conditions:

(i) the notice shall be in writing and signed by the copyright owner or such owner’s duly authorized agent; and

(ii) the notice shall be served on the person responsible for the performance at least seven days before the date of the performance, and shall state the reasons for the objection; and

(iii) the notice shall comply, in form, content, and manner of service, with requirements that the Register of Copyrights shall prescribe by regulation; 

The movie is in a class of works outside this exception. Hollywood movies and other dramatic media is going to be tough to sell. There also exist licensing mechanisms from multiple companies that will provide movies for a price.

RESOLUTION: They went ahead and licensed the movie. $370 OR half of the proceeds, whichever is less.

IMHO, There are three uses in education that might favor this kind of use:

1. for media studies courses, 
2. where the movie's content is a literal translation of literature that is part of the curriculum, 
3. and when the media is to be subject of an interpretive assessment instrument
   
   
   But I could be wrong. Still studying!

Ask but don't tell

This is a fuzzy point for me: if you ask permission and are denied, can you still use the work under fair use? If you do ask and are denied, does that interaction constitute a verbal contract that prevents fair use? This confusion is why people don't bother asking, creating the 'don't ask don't tell' mentality.

Links from Webinar w/ Peggy Hoon 9/29/2011

Some but not all:
http://copyright.uncc.edu/
http://www.knowyourcopyrights.org/
http://library.camden.rutgers.edu/EducationalModule/Plagiarism/
http://www.yc.edu/v4content/library/tutorials/diagnosis-plagiarism.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wj_2uwIbRQg&feature=mh_lolz&list=FLr3iRLnR0xKKFgfVmPLdldg

Short thought about Fb in Edu

I can be as overwhelmed by technology as anyone else (I did some Tech Fatigue workshops for a few years to look at the issue), though I have had a very positive experience using Fb and Twitter for personal and professional communication. What I tell people about using Fb in education is, it can't really be a requirement of students, but an enhancement and another place to have a different kind of conversation. 

started the course

Nearly everyone else in the course is a librarian. Good thing I love librarians!