II. Copyright Law
A. Legal Issues
Intellectual Property-
Copyright laws are based on the value that people should have the right to compensation for their creative works because compensation encourages more creative works. A creative work is automatically protected by copyright from the moment of creation. No copyright notice or registration is required. "Public domain" is the status of a work that is not protected by copyright because the creator has clearly given up all copyright rights or the copyright has expired. Since a notice is not required, publishing a work without a notice is not a relinquishment of copyright rights.
The owner of a copyright has the right to copy, modify, distribute, display and perform the work. The owner can grant other people permission, called a license, to use any of these rights. Permission to copy and distribute does not mean permission to modify or sell. Transferring a work in the form of digital data from one computer system to another is copying and distributing that work.
The "fair use doctrine" allows a limited way in which people can use a copyrighted work without getting permission from the creator. The basis of the fair use doctrine is that a person is not using the work in such a manner that is diverting income from the creator. One of the rationales for the fair use doctrine is the immediacy of the need for the use of the material and the difficulty in contacting the owner of the copyright for permission. The ease with which one can communicate directly with the owner of a work on the Internet may begin to restrict the use of the fair use doctrine.
Most of the material on the Internet is protected by copyright. Most people do not grant permission to copy or distribute their material. Technically, to even retrieve a document through the Internet requires copying and distributing. Most copyright owners are silent as to their intentions with their works.
It took ten years to rewrite the current copyright law enacted in 1976. That law is now being revisited. Copyright laws are also an international concern.
B. Ethical Issues
Intellectual Property-
Plagiarism is considered inappropriate, but the Internet makes it very easy to cut and paste ideas and writings of other people into documents. As every student and teacher knows, researching information and incorporating the ideas and writings of others into their work is a highly appropriate activity. This is how society has built its base of knowledge. It is important for students to learn to give credit where credit is due and not try to pass off anyone else's work as their own. When students use the works of others, it is also important that they use the guidelines of the "fair use doctrine" of copyright law.
When people are searching the Internet for information it is often easy to focus in on the ideas and not cite the sources of the ideas. Backtracking to find the source can be difficult. It is important that teachers help students to understand this difficulty and help them in using a system to keep track and cite their sources. There is a feeling among many that anything on the Internet is free.
Boston University has filed a federal lawsuit against eight Internet term-paper mills in seven states. The lawsuit states that the mills "devalue the university's degree programs." (http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/1997/10/27/feat/learning.1.html)
We have existing copyright laws which are still in effect. Teachers and students should assume that a work is protected by copyright. When in doubt is it best to ask permission from the creator.