1. LBRY 3020
Basic Copyright Law
Kelly Visnak
Scholarly Communication Librarian
University of Wyoming Libraries
University of Wyoming

2. Publication (Registration
Creation and Certification) Dissemination
Manuscript & IP Editor
Academic
Publisher Library
Peer
Reviewers
Reformulation

3. disruption:
Open Movement

4. internet editor
Peer-reviewers
creation
publication
dissemination
reformulation Publishers
Libraries
Disaggregation of traditional system is in process…

5. Fashion World
an open culture of creative innovation = profit
http://www.ted.com/talks/johanna_blakley_lessons_from_fashion_s_fr
ee_culture.html
Johanna blakely on TED.com
www.ReadyToShare.org

6. What is copyright?
Copyright is a bundle of rights:
 The right to reproduce the work
 The right to distribute the work
 The right to prepare derivative works
 The right to perform the work
 The right to display the work
The right to license any of the above to third
parties

7. Who is an author?
 3 scholars who do joint research and each write a
section of an article.
 A book author and her editor.
 A photographer and the person whose picture he
takes.
 A university librarian who writes a report for a
library association and is paid $1500.
 The PI whose name is listed on a published article
but who wrote no part of it.

8. Who is the copyright holder?
 The creator is usually the initial copyright
holder.
 If two or more people jointly create a work,
they are joint copyright holders, with equal
rights.
 With some exceptions, work created as a part
of a person's employment is a "work made for
hire" and the copyright belongs to the
employer.

9. How?
• You used to need a little c in a circle © and to
register your work with the copyright office.
• Not anymore.
• Copyright exists from the moment of creation,
and lasts for the life of the author plus 70 years.
• Copyright just happens.

10. Requirements for protection
 An original work of authorship
 Creativity (just a dash)
 Fixed in a tangible medium of expression

11. What copyright protects
Copyright doesn’t protect…
Copyright protects
 Ideas
 Writing  Jokes
 Choreography  Facts
 Recipes
 Music
 Titles
 Visual art
 Data
 Film  Useful articles (that’s patent)
 Architectural works

12. As run the sands of time,
 The bundle of copyrights lasts a long time:
 Life of the author plus 70 years
 For joint works, 70
years after death of last author
 For works for hire or anonymous works, 95
years from publication or 120 years from
creation, whichever expires first.

13. Quick review…
 Protection is automatic once a work is fixed
 Very little creative originality is necessary
 Registration is not necessary
 Joint authors each have equal, full copyright

14. Fair Use
Fair Use is a statutory exception that allows the use of a copyrighted work
for certain purposes without requiring permission. (See 17 USC § 107 ).
5
• There is no easy formula for determining fair use,
but there are four factors to consider:
1) The nature of the work (factual, creative)
2) The purpose of the use (educational, for-profit)
3) Amount of the work being used
4) The potential impact of the use on the market for the
original.

15. TOOLS
• Know what you can do
http://www.knowyourcopyrights.org/bm~doc/ky
crmatrixcolor.pdf call: 1-650-372-9934
Fair Use Visualizer
http://www.benedict.com/Info/FairUse/Visualizer/Visuali
zer.aspx
Digital Copyright Slide Ruler
http://www.librarycopyright.net/digitalslider/

16. Using Copyrighted Works
It is against the law to reproduce copyrighted materials, in full or in part, without previous permission of the copyright
owner.
If you need to include copyrighted source materials in your document, you must obtain written permission from the
copyright owner prior to its use.
•Note: Copyrighted materials include: tables, charts, graphs, maps, questionnaires, illustrations, photographs, literary
works, etc.
Best Practice:
• Add an appendix to your document
• Showing the written permission you’ve secured from
the author or publisher

17. Author Rights in Publishing

18. Giving away copyright?
No need!
 Licensing allows specific rights to be retained:
• Authors keep copyright and license other rights (e.g., first
publication)
• Publisherstake copyright and license rights back (e.g.,
reproduction, derivatives)
 Copyright can be transferred only in writing
 Addenda can be added to publication agreements to
open the door for negotiating rights retention

19. Bundled vs. Unbundled
 Rights publishers traditionally want:
• Reproduction, distribution, derivatives…ALL!!
 Rights publishers actually need:
• Right of first publication…that’s it, really
 Specific rights can be bundled or unbundled by
licenses (e.g., Creative Commons) or addenda (e.g.,
SPARC) or negotiation
 Open Access publishers usually do not require full
transfer of copyright

20. “If…then” – the secrets of reuse
 By the author
• If
full rights retained, then limitless (within
confines of law, that is)
• Ifsome rights retained, then within limits of negotiated
rights
• If no rights retained, then fair use only
 By others
• If
published open access, then freely accessible – and
possibly more
• If
published under a Creative Commons license, then
within limits defined by the license
• If published traditionally, then fair use only

21. It is your Right to Modify the
Publishing Agreement
• Distribution on campus
• Distribution off campus
• Archiving on website
• Archiving in repository
• Derivative creation
• Performance
• Display
• Save a copy of your agreement.

22. Take home points
 We all own copyright until we sign it away
 Contracts are negotiable, including publishing
contracts
 Think ahead to how you might want to use your
work
 Experimentation via CC licenses, attaching
addenda or negotiating isn’t scary and doesn’t
negate peer-review prestige

23. •
•
This work was created by Kelly Visnak for University of Wyoming Libraries, February
2013 with use of slides and support information created by Lee Van Orsdel, Molly Keener
and Sarah L Shreeves for the ACRL National Conference, Scholarly Communications 101
Workshop and then updated by Molly Kleinman and Kevin Smith in March of 2010.
• This work is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike 3.0 United States
license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/.

24. Questions...
Kelly Visnak
Scholarly Communication Librarian kvisnak@uwyo.edu