Writing a Paper for Me

The point of documentation, whether you use in text citation or foot- endnotes, is to direct the reader to the material with the least possible fuss or potential for confusion. It is not just that you wish to avoid plagiarism charges or litigation (though of course you do). At least as importantly, however, you are providing a service for your reader, making it possible to evaluate the quality and logic of your thinking and also to pursue further research. The trouble is, of course, that it's getting trickier all the time to figure out how technology and the law fit together. The other problem is that it's so easy, and we may confuse retrieval and drafting useful data within our papers with taking notes and paraphrasing. It's particularly hard when cell phones with photo capacity are so ubiquitous.

What about student work. Let's look at a couple of instances of the law as it applies to students' mulitmedia (digital, mostly) work:

2. PREPARATION OF EDUCATIONAL MULTIMEDIA PROJECTS USING PORTIONS OF COPYRIGHTED WORKS
These uses are subject to the Portion Limitations listed in Section 4.They should include proper attribution and citation as defined in Sections6.2.

2.1 By Students:
Students may incorporate portions of lawfully acquired copyrighted works when producing their own educational multimedia projects for a specific course.

3. PERMITTED USES OF EDUCATIONAL MULTIMEDIA PROJECTS CREATED UNDER THESE GUIDELINES
Uses of educational multimedia projects created under these guidelinesare subject to the Time, Portion, Copying and Distribution Limitations listed in Section 4.

3.1 Student Use:
Students may perform and display their own educational multimedia projects created under Section 2 of these guidelines for educational uses in the course for which they were created and may use them in their own portfolios as examples of their academic work for later personal uses such as job and graduate school interviews. ¹

As you can see, students are fairly well protected...right up until they mount their materials out on their own blogs and other websites for the whole world to see. Then, they cease to function in their personas as students and become members of the general public as open to litigation as anyone else.

What about owning your own work? You do, whether you actually apply for formal copyright or not. The only difference between holding formal copyright or not from your perspective is that if you feel you have been wronged, an attorney would be more likely to take your case ifyou hold copyright because the injuring party has to pay your court costs (your attorney's fees and the court's cost to hear the case).

Are you planning to teach?

You really need to know about Copyright Law and . Hang in there, this gets kind of long, Cathy Newsome wrote "A Teacher's Guide to Fair Use and Copyright" back in 1997. It's still useful, and I feel I need to make portions of it available to you:

A copyright is a property right attached to an original work of art or literature. It grants the author or creator exclusive rights to reproduce, distribute, adapt, perform, or display the protected work. Other than someone to whom the author/creator has extended all or part of these rights, no one else may use, copy, or alter the work. Wrongful use of the material gives the copyright owner the right to seek and recover compensation in a court of law. A copyright gives the author or owner the right of control over all forms of reproduction, including photocopies, slides, recordings on cassettes and videotapes, compact disks, and other digital formats.

Individuals once had to apply for copyright protection. However, works created since 1978 assume protection from the moment the work takes tangible form--whether or not a copyright notice is attached and whether or not the individual has filed an application with the U.S. Copyright Office. For works created and published before 1978, copyright lasts 75 years from the time of publication or copyright renewal.

Copyright laws do not extend to facts and ideas. While the protection does cover the particular, distinctive words a writer uses to present ideas or facts, control over the underlying concepts or truths cannot be owned. Thus, a biography about a U.S. President qualifies for copyright, but the events and facts of his life do not.

To qualify for copyright protection, the work must be (a) original, (b) creative to a minimal degree, and (c) in a fixed or tangible form of expression.

Copyright law covers seven broad categories:

literary works - both fiction and nonfiction, including books, periodicals, manuscripts, computer programs, manuals, phonorecords, film, audiotapes, and computer disks

musical works -- and accompanying words -- songs, operas, and musical plays

dramatic works -- including music - plays and dramatic readings

pantomimed and choreographed works [Yup, even pantomime, even ants on little roller skates; these guys are serious about this stuff!]

pictorial, graphics, and sculptural works -- final and applied arts, photographs, prints and art reproductions, maps, globes, charts, technical drawings, diagrams, and models

motion pictures and audiovisual works - slide/tape, multimedia presentations, filmstrips, films, and videos

sound recordings and records - tapes, cassettes, and computer disks (Talab, 1986, p. 6).

A copyrighted work may be used or copied under certain conditions:

public domain -- work belonging to the public as a whole--government documents and works, works with an expired copyright or no existing protection, and works published over 75 years ago;
permission -- prior approval for the proposed use by the copyright owner;
legal exception -- use constitutes an exemption to copyright protection--parody, for example; or
fair use -- use for educational purposes according to certain restrictions.

Through the fair use provision, teachers have access to works far beyond classrooms or textbooks and thereby may expand and enrich learning opportunities for student learning.

Now let's look again at Fair Use, this time as it applies to teachers:

The law recognizes that education is rarely a money making endeavor, and that the need to educate the next generation trumps the need of those who own work to earn every last possible penny from it (though I'm sure you'll agree that your textbooks cost a pretty penny). Therefore, fair use very specifically allows use of copyrighted materials for educational purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.

Rather than listing exact limits of fair use in every possible case, copyright law provides four standards for determination of the fair use exemption:

Purpose of use: Copying and using selected parts of copyrighted works for specific educational purposes qualifies as fair use, especially if the copies are made spontaneously, are used temporarily, and are not part of an anthology.
Nature of the work: For copying paragraphs from a copyrighted source, fair use easily applies. For copying a chapter, fair use may be questionable.
Proportion/extent of the material used: Duplicating excerpts that are short in relation to the entire copyrighted work or segments that do not reflect the "essence" of the work is usually considered fair use.
The effect on marketability: If there will be no reduction in sales because of copying or distribution, the fair use exemption is likely to apply. This is the most important of the four tests for fair use (Princeton University).

However, none of these factors alone constitutes fair use. Even though materials may be copied for educational purposes, the other standards must be met. Unfortunately, these are not exactly crisp and clear guidelines. Nevertheless, ignorance of the law is no excuse. Teachers should consider the following:

In one case, a teacher was held liable for copying 11 out of 24 pages in an instructional book when it was used in subsequent semesters without permission from the copyright holder (Washington State University, 1997).
Penalties for copyright violation or infringement are harsh. Judgments can run up to $100,000 for each act of deliberate or willful infringement (University of Texas).
Many school districts and institutions have policies relating to reproduction of copyright materials. Disregard for established policies that reflect copyright law could mean that a teacher charged with copyright violation would receive no legal support from the employer-district.

Citing non-print resources:

There's a lot more to it than that, but if you're interested, go to her resource. Now, let's consider how to deal with the problem of non-print texts. Because web sites change quite often, when we cite sources, we provide information not only about when the piece was written or mounted, but also about when you found it and took information from it. Often, websites do not have a publication or mounting date, in which case you put n.d. for no date.

In-text Citation:

Use the author's name and, since there are not page numbers, do not insert them.

If there is no author, use the owner of the website (G.E., for instance).

If you have several items by the same author, use a short version of the title parenthetically.

Remember that end punctuation ALWAYS goes outside the parenthetical citation. Some students get confused because the citation may cover materials beyond the sentence itself. The rule of thumb is that the citation covers all material covered since the previous citation. However, be very careful not to run citations beyond a single paragraph. Your audience cannot be expected to follow your logic easily.

Examples:

Each citation system has very clear rules for citing web materials (Duncan).
This is fine, if there's only one resource by Duncan in your Work Cited section.

Each citation system has very clear rules for citing web materials (Duncan "Writing Papers").
If there are more than one possible resource by Duncan, then either give the name of the text or the year of publication.

Not: Each citation system has very clear rules for citing web materials. (Duncan "Writing Papers") The citation only goes outside the final puctuation if the parenthetical information covers more than one sentence in the preceding text.

The Lyndon Baines Johnson Library promises to make most information available to researchers within 72 hours.
Here, you need no parenthetical citation, as the reader can easily find the material involved from the information here, which points to the Work Cited section, which clearly points to the resource.

Note that this information points directly to the following citation:

Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum. 2002. "Release of President Johnson's Telephone Conversations." Accessed: June 26, 2002. URL: http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/johnson/archives.hom/
Dictabelt.hom/650912release.shtm

For web pages or works that have no obvious author, simply write a shortened version of the original in parenthesis and the title in quotations or italics, as appropriate. Where the source title is very long, an abbreviated version is appropriate within the text. The purpose, after all, is to permit the reader to find the material in the Works Cited and/or Bibliography pages. No parenthetical notation is necessary if the source is obvious within the body of the sentence.

Example: In fresco painting, "the pigments are completely fused with a damp plaster ground to become an integral part of the wall" ("Italian Frescos").

This points directly to the following citation: (Sorry, I'm making this one up, so there is no real site to cite.)

"Italian Frescoes and Pigment Development in 13th Century Art." n.d. Found 7 January 2006. http://www.noteaccess.com/material/Pigments.htm.

Note: MLA parenthetical in-text citations directly correspond to the alphabetized Works Cited page(s) so that readers can use this alphabetical list to locate the original source.

Works Cited and/or Bibliography Logic:

Organization Or Group That Published The Website/Page.

Year The Website/Page Was Published.

"Title Of The Webpage Or Document."

Date You Accessed The Website/Page.

The Complete URL For The Website/Page.

Example:

Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum. 2002. "Release of President Johnson's Telephone Conversations." Accessed: June 26, 2002. URL: http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/johnson/archives.hom/
Dictabelt.hom/650912release.shtm

(NOTE: Often it is difficult to identify the author of a website or webpage. If you cannot identify the author you must identify the organization or group that published the website or webpage. Put the author's name where you would otherwise put the organization or group that published the website/page if you can identify the author)

Notes

1. ADEC "Fair Use Guidelines..." [back]

Work Cited

The American Distance Education Consortium. "Fair Use Guidelines for Educational Multimedia." June 20, 2003. Date found: July 16, 2008 at http://www.adec.edu/admin/papers/fair10-17.html

Indiana University. "Copyright and Distance Education." Copyright Mangement Center. (2006) Date found: July 16, 2008 at http://www.copyright.iupui.edu/dist_learning.htm

Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum. 2002. "Release of President
Johnson's Telephone Conversations." Accessed: June 26, 2002. URL: http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/johnson/archives.hom/Dictabelt.hom/
650912release.shtm

Newsome, Cathy. " A Teacher's Guide to Fair Use and Copyright: Modeling Honesty and Resourcefulness" November 17, 1997. Date found: July 16, 2008 at http://home.earthlink.net/~cnew/research.htm

North Carolina State University. "The TEACH Act Toolkit." (n.d.) Date found: July 16, 2008 at http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/scc/legislative/teachkit/
(See also Teach Act PowerPoint )

Pyatt, Elizabeth."Basic Copyright Instinct." TLT Blog. November 27, 2007 Date found: July 16, 2008 at http://www.personal.psu.edu/ejp10/blogs/tlt/2007/11/copyright_article_andy_warhol.html

Rich, Lloyd L. "Fair Use: Interpretations and Guidelines - The Fair Use Doctrine Part II" continuation of "How Much of Someone Else's Work May I Use Without Asking Permission" (1996) Date found: July 16, 2008 at http://www.publaw.com/fairuse.html.

Sandoval, Greg. "Prince: The artist who formerly liked the internet. CNET News, November 13, 2007. Date found: July 16, 2008 at http://news.cnet.com/Prince-The-artist-who-formerly-liked-the-Internet/2100-1030_3-6218288.html?tag=nefd.lede

For further reseach on Copyright rules

BASIC COPYRIGHT INFORMATION

U.S. Copyright Office
U.S. government site providing information on U.S. copyright law,
copyright registration, searching records, law and policy, FAQ, and
links to other sites. http://www.copyright.gov

Public Domain Chart
Essential tool for calculating when U.S. works pass into the public domain.
http://www.unc.edu/~unclng/public-d.htm

Copyright Renewal Databases
"It was published after 1923... but I don't know if copyright was renewed.
Is it public domain??" Now you can easily search copyright renewal records
for Class A (Text) works published between 1923 and 1963 at a new database
unveiled by Stanford University.
http://collections.stanford.edu/copyrightrenewals/bin/page?forward=home

Another copyright renewal search tool is available through the Rutgers
University School of Communication, Information, and Library Studies.
http://www.scils.rutgers.edu/~lesk/copyrenew.html

The UPenn libraries offer information about, and scanned pages from selected
periods, the Catalog of Copyright Entries. http://digital.library.upenn.edu/books/cce/

ON-LINE COPYRIGHT TUTORIALS

University of Texas
Basic tutorial with sections on ownership, fair use, permission, and a twelve-
question test at the end.
http://www.lib.utsystem.edu/copyright/

Association of American Publishers (AAP)
A more advanced, in-depth presentation, including definitions, concepts,
and recent developments such as TEACH Act and DMCA. This is a Powerpoint
companion to The New and Updated Copyright Primer published in book form
by AAP (2003).
http://www.publishers.org/press/pdf/RPAC%20powerpoints%201.pdf

LOCATING AUTHORS AND/OR THEIR ESTATES

WATCH File (Writers, Artists, and Their Copyright Holders)
Database of copyright holders whose archives are located in libraries and archives
in North America and the United Kingdom. http://tyler.hrc.utexas.edu/

Author's Registry
Resource for locating hard-to-find authors for permissions requests.
Searchable by email inquiry. http://www.authorsregistry.org

VISUAL MATERIAL

Bridgeman v. Corel
Are photographs of public domain materials copyrightable? Bridgeman
v. Corel is a landmark case establishing only thin copyright in slavish
reproductions. (n.d.) Date found: July 16, 2008 at
http://www.law.cornell.edu/copyright/cases/36_FSupp2d_191.htm

2002; Last revised July 14, 2008
Dr. Bonnie Duncan
bduncan@millersville.edu
1-717-871-2080
English Department
Millersville University
Millersville, PA 17551

Other Contacts:
Millersville Information Technology Help Desk:
1-717-871-2371, 1-800-509-9605

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Help Desk # for B' board
1-866-334-9174