Copyright

Copyright law is complex and subject to varying interpretations.

The very nature of Copyright law often presents more questions than answers. There is an ever growing list of regularly changing media copyright information that can be tough to navigate. We hope we can provide at least some of the answers, or point you toward those who can. Most importantly, understand it is your responsibility to know your rights under Copyright law.

Westminster College Copyright Handbook:

(Currently under construction - check back here for updates.)

Westminster College Audio Visual Services Policy on Copyright:

Westminster College fully respects all rights that exist in any material protected by the copyright laws of the United States while also encouraging usage of the material that furthers the educational mission. We believe that a balance must exist between the rights of the producers and distributors of works and the privileges of users who benefit from their use. To accomplish this, Audio Visual Services expects compliance with copyright laws from all members of the Westminster community while concurrently intending that faculty, staff, administration, and students take full advantage of all relevant licenses, exemptions, and exclusions that are provided for under copyright law. If there is no applicable license, exemption, or exclusion to permit use of the material, faculty, staff, administration, and students must obtain permission for the anticipated use from the copyright holder. No copies of any type will be made by Westminster College Audio Visual Services that are prohibited by the copyright law, fair-use guidelines, Licensing Agreements, or proprietor’s permission. As a member of the Consortium of College and University Media Centers, we uphold the membership's copyright code of conduct.

 

Westminster Copyright Forms :

 

• Fair Use Checklist
• Media Title Research form
• Request for Media Transfer/Duplication

• Special Event Recording Guest Release Form

 

Resources for Copyright Education:

 

Video Resources:

• A Fair(y) Use Tale
• Copyright Basics
• Copyright on Campus
• Copyright. What's Copyright?
• Copyright & Creative Commons Explained
• Fair Use & Copyrights
• How YouTube Thinks About Copyright
• Larry Lessig on Laws that Choke Creativity
• Remix Culture: Fair Use is Your Friend
• YouTube Copyright School
• Copyright Explained Musically

Interactive Tools: Fair Use Evaluator Digital Copyright Slider Creative Commons License Chooser Exceptions for Instructors in Copyright Law Section 108 Spinner Taking the Mystery Out of Copyrights University of Minnesota's Decision Chart University of Minnesota's Thinking Through Fair Use Tool   Comics: Jolly Roger: A History of Copyright in Cyberspace Tale from the Public Domain: Bound by Law?

Podcasts:

• Copyright 2.0 Show
• Fundamentals of Copyright

 

Tutorials and Online Courses:

• Teaching Copyright Curriculum
• Brigham-Young University Tutorial
• Certification in Copyright Management and Leadership
• Copyright Crash Course Online Tutorial
• Harvard's Copyright Law for Librarians
• Introduction to Copyright Law

 

Twitter Feeds and Blogs:

• ARL Public Policy
• Copyright Law
• Copyright Librarian
• Copyright Office
• Creative Commons
• IPWatch
• IP Law Alerts
• Kenneth Crews
• Stanford Fairly Used
• Techdirt
• WIPO News

 

Other useful sites:

• What is Intellectual Property?
  
  
• US Copyright Office
  The law and related laws contained in Title 17 of the US Code, search copyright records, learn how to register a work, current fees, publications, forms, licensing and news.
  
  
• Center for Social Media Fair Use Codes & Best Practices
  Links to "best practice" documents for the following topics:
  • Academic & Research Libraries
  • Documentary Film Makers
  • Online Video
  • Poetry
  • Open Courseware
  • Media Literacy Education
  • Scholarly Research in Communication
  • Dance Related Materials
  • Media Studies Publishing
  • Film and Media Educators
    
    
• Copyright Guidelines for Off-Air Recording (James Madison University)
Reprinted from Library of Congress Copyright Office's Circular 21 "Reproduction of Copyrighted Works by Educators and Librarians", Sec. F, p.22.
 
• Copyright (Title17, U.S. Code)
  The complete law, with full-text search capability.
    
• Copyright & Fair Use
  A comprehensive, full-text, searchable website offering copyright law overview and primary materials, current legislation, cases and issues, and other Internet resources.
   
• Copyright Clearance Center OnLine
  A nonprofit organization providing copyright licensing services to academic and other organizations as well as individual users.
    
• Copyright Website
  "...endeavors to provide real world, practical and relevant copyright information of interest to infonauts, net surfers, web spinners, content providers, musicians, appropriationists, activists, infringers, outlaws, and law abiding citizens."
    
• WWW Multimedia Law
  Offers current developments, cases, statistics, service organizations, etc. related to multimedia law.
  
  
• MPAA Summary of how to legally obtain audio-visual content
  Maintained by the Motion Picture Association of America, Inc. (MPAA), which represents the six major US film and television-producing studios, that summarizes the Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) and offers a directory of ways to get audio-visual content legally.
  
  
• What Colleges Should Know About Public Performance of Movies
  SWANK, a major non-theatrical movie distributor, online CE/CME education distributor and public performance licensing agent for venues where feature movies are shown publicly offers this statement on using feature films in public settings.
  
  
• Streaming of Films for Educational Purposes
  Discusses the permissibility of the streaming of an entire film to a remote non-classroom location.
  
  
• Library Copyright Alliance
  Content and resources found on this site reflect the voice of LCA and its members on copyright and related intellectual property laws and treaties, nationally and internationally. Members include the American Library Association, the Association of Research Libraries, and the Association of College and Research Libraries.
  
  
• Bitlaw: a resource on technology law
  The most current searchable revision of copyright law (Title 17, U.S. Code).