Copyright can be tricky to navigate. The fair use exception can be particularly misleading because we often assume it's synonymous with "in the clear." Basically, fair use allows for the unlicensed use of copyrighted works in some circumstances. The fair use doctrine is a legal framework (like the ones here or here) used by the courts to evaluate whether some unlicensed use of copyrighted material should be permitted or not.
But it's crucial to recognize that fair use isn't clear cut rules. It's a complex set of case laws that are used to decide where and when the courts ruled cases as copyright infringement or not. These determinations are then used to put together guidelines like the one at Stanford, so students and teachers can refer to them and decide if something is fair use. Following the guidelines doesn't necessarily guarantee you are in the safe zone, though. Going to court and winning is the only way to prove that.
These topics bring up some really important issues that we should be seriously considering. We all use the internet, many of us daily, but most of us don't realize how copyright and regulatory laws can impact our internet freedom. Net neutrality aside, acts and agreements are created or altered quietly and constantly. For example, the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) was created in 1998 to update copyright laws in an attempt to regulate the sudden onslaught of digital material. And while some laws are able to withstand the test of time, DMCA reached its shelf life soon after being introduced. Provisions such as the notice and takedown procedure in the DMCA once made sense but now require massive websites like Google to field millions of copyright infringement notifications a day.
Because the DMCA notice and takedown process requires websites to respond expeditiously, even when inundated with notices, the website operators are left to choose between automatically taking down content claimed to be infringing, or potentially breaking the law. This imposes a guilty until proven innocent model when defending your content from the DMCA takedowns. The EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) provides some great information about the ramifications of DMCA takedown which you should definitely check out here, here, and here.
And as fate would have it, this week just so happens to be Copyright Week at the EFF!
But it's crucial to recognize that fair use isn't clear cut rules. It's a complex set of case laws that are used to decide where and when the courts ruled cases as copyright infringement or not. These determinations are then used to put together guidelines like the one at Stanford, so students and teachers can refer to them and decide if something is fair use. Following the guidelines doesn't necessarily guarantee you are in the safe zone, though. Going to court and winning is the only way to prove that.
These topics bring up some really important issues that we should be seriously considering. We all use the internet, many of us daily, but most of us don't realize how copyright and regulatory laws can impact our internet freedom. Net neutrality aside, acts and agreements are created or altered quietly and constantly. For example, the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) was created in 1998 to update copyright laws in an attempt to regulate the sudden onslaught of digital material. And while some laws are able to withstand the test of time, DMCA reached its shelf life soon after being introduced. Provisions such as the notice and takedown procedure in the DMCA once made sense but now require massive websites like Google to field millions of copyright infringement notifications a day.
Because the DMCA notice and takedown process requires websites to respond expeditiously, even when inundated with notices, the website operators are left to choose between automatically taking down content claimed to be infringing, or potentially breaking the law. This imposes a guilty until proven innocent model when defending your content from the DMCA takedowns. The EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) provides some great information about the ramifications of DMCA takedown which you should definitely check out here, here, and here.
And as fate would have it, this week just so happens to be Copyright Week at the EFF!
Before reading your post and also learning about copyright in class, I had little understanding to copyright and just what exactly it was. Now, taking a look into it, it can be a bit confusing as to how it works in particular because of all the various types of copyright there is out there. I did however take a look into her links and was able to get a better understanding as to what tells the various types apart(aside from their symbols).
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your post this week. I often wonder where the proper balance lies between censorship and creative work protection. I think that the laws we have now are not yet up to par with the level of technology that exists today. I can only hope that technology and our laws advance to a place where we can protect intellectual property but also allow for the creativity and freedom of others.
ReplyDeleteHey JD - I feel the same. The internet has grown so rapidly that copyright law simply has not kept up. Protecting creators' work is of the utmost importance, but at what cost? Now size, wealth, and mass production have a monopoly on the issue and massive takedowns happen every minute of the day. You have to wonder how much original content will never reach viewers because of this guilty until proven innocent approach to copyright enforcement.
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