The internet is a very collaborative place, with ubiquitous sharing and curation. This is, for learning purposes, a terrific thing. But digital rights for content creators is also important. How do those two conflicting interests “get along” online? What is ok? What isn’t? Those who hope to enable learning online want to know. Copyright holders do too.
Because there are so many different possible scenarios under which sharing and curation and inclusion in content can occur, there’s an equally various number of perspectives and viewpoints as to how this should be conducted online and/or regulated.
Since at some of the most fundamental levels these issues have yet to be finally determined, and since technology is changing faster than the law or institutions can keep up, we are simply in an era where often no one really knows. Even the FCC can talk about “Net Neutrality” without consensus on what they are referring to, let alone what the law(s) and regulations should be.
In the meantime, few are going to sit on the sidelines waiting years for guidance. Instead, people are going to either ask permission or ask forgiveness and sometimes both. This chaos goes by the phrase “grey area”.
Most jurisdictions recognize copyright limitations, allowing “fair” exceptions to the creator’s exclusivity of copyright and giving users certain rights. The development of digital media and computer network technologies have prompted reinterpretation of these exceptions, introduced new difficulties in enforcing copyright, and inspired additional challenges to copyright law’s philosophic basis. Simultaneously, businesses with great economic dependence upon copyright, such as those in the music business, have advocated the extension and expansion of their intellectual property rights and sought additional legal and technological enforcement.
One of the more interesting developments is something called Creative Commons. It’s not the only attempt to develop alternatives to the old methods that don’t work so well today, and we will likely see more innovation and change before things “settle out”. If they ever do.
Here’s one take on the concept of “Fair Use” which allows use of copyright materials in certain situations.
What is “Fair Use?” and How Can I Benefit From It?
First of all what is “fair use”? Basically fair use is a set of exceptions that limit the power behind copyrights when the usage of a piece of work is considered “fair”. A lot of the guidelines surrounding fair use are governed by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
Fair use is really the ultimate grey area when it comes to copyright violations, but a few guidelines from section 107 of the DMCA can help you determine if what you are doing is fair use:
(1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
(2) the nature of the copyrighted work;
(3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
(4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.
The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors.