Copyright Basics
Copyright Basics
The issues of copyright and intellectual property are complicated legal matters that span the globe, but in order to be responsible online, it's important that you have a basic understanding of how these issues can impact your use of what you find online. It should also give you things to consider about how you would like (or not like) others to use any works that you create and put online.
For the last unit, you learned about the difference between how the European Union and the United States addressed the issue of the right to be forgotten. For the purposes of this unit, we'll just be concentrating on the U.S.
READ
Let's start by finding out about the basics of copyright by reading this overview written by the Copyright Society of the USA.
READ THIS PAGE: http://www.csusa.org/?page=Basics
READ THIS DEFINITION OF FAIR USE: http://www.csusa.org/?page=Definitions#fairuse
READ THIS DEFINITION OF PUBLIC DOMAIN: http://www.csusa.org/?page=Definitions#publicdomain
WATCH
Have you ever watched a Crash Course YouTube video before? If you haven't, you'll get to now. The Crash Course video series, created by John Greene and his brother Hank, span a wide variety of topics, including, Copyright and Intellectual Property. While neither John nor Hank is the host for the videos we'll watch this week, I hope you'll find these an accessible introduction to what can be a relatively complex and confusing topic area.
For this module, please watch each of the following videos:
Crash Course Intellectual Property Part 2
Crash Course Intellectual Property Part 3
Now, take the Copyright Basics Quiz. You can only take the quiz one time this time, so think it through before you submit your answers.
Copyright Reflective Essay Assignment
The Case of the "Monkey Selfie"
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This reflective essay is going to be a bit shorter this week because it requires some investigation about a specific set of circumstances about how the picture above was created and the court case that followed when this "monkey selfie" was posted online. You only need to write 2-3 paragraphs or record 1-2 minutes of a video responding to the prompts below. (Be sure to read and watch everything on the Copyright Basics page before attempting this assignment.)
Our story begins like this. A monkey took a picture of himself. The man who owned the camera, who also happens to be a nature photographer by trade, posted a digital copy of that "monkey selfie" online. Then, that picture ended up being put on the Wikimedia Commons website (by someone other than the monkey). The man who owned the camera asked Wikimedia to take the picture down based on his claim of owning the copyright. Wikimedia refused.
Read this to see why Wikimedia refused to take the picture down: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/08/24/wikipedia_monkey_selfie_backfire/
According to this 2015 Washington Post article, who owned the copyright of the picture seen above? Describe the positions of:
- Photographer, David Slater
- PETA
- Wikimedia
According to this 2017 NPR story, how did the court case turn out? Describe how the fight over copyright impacted:
- Photographer, David Slater
- PETA
- Wikimedia
What was "in it" for each of these people/groups to fight for the copyright of this picture?
Related question - am I allowed to post this picture for this assignment? Why or why not?
For the curious...
More information about this case is available, complete with photos, here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey_selfie_copyright_dispute
If you are curious about the particulars of this case, your library (yes, your library at the University of Iowa) has access to the legal proceedings via this link. You will need to log in with your HawkID and password to access this link from off-campus: https://advance-lexis-com.proxy.lib.uiowa.edu/api/permalink/b1d637a6-9ab7-47e5-b683-bf2952e7c870/?context=1516831
Links in this assignment: