Copyright is not the only law you have to be aware of when considering whether or not to use a work. Patents, trademarks, trade secrets, contracts, and other issues may provide an additional “layer of protection” beyond just copyright.
Fair Use is not the only limitation or exception to the exclusive rights of copyright. In this episode, Prof. Crews walks through several other limitations and exceptions.
In this final episode on Fair Use, Prof. Crews reviews and wraps up Fair Use. Additionally, Prof. Crews discusses hard and fast “guidelines” that are often promulgated in the fields of education and libraries.
Fair Use provides guidelines, but very few hard and fast rules. As an example, sometimes using large amounts of a copyrighted work (perhaps even all of the copyrighted work) will qualify as a Fair Use, while sometimes using only a small amount of a copyrighted work will not qualify as Fair Use. As several cases show, the key is that all four of the factors must be considered.
In this second episode of Fair Use, Prof. Crews examines two actual court cases applying Fair Use. The first case concerns photocopying by Kinko’s, and the second case concerns 2 Live Crew’s parody of the song “Pretty Woman.”
The “exclusive rights” of copyright aren’t exactly exclusive. There are numerous exceptions and limitations to these rights, with Fair Use being the most important of these. In this first episode on Fair Use, Prof. Crews examines the four statutory factors of Fair Use.
The core of copyright revolves around the five exclusive rights. These rights include the right of reproduction, distribution, public display, public performance, and the creation of derivative works. The concept of “moral rights” are also discussed.
The duration of a copyright is treated slightly differently if the work is a “work made for hire.” In this episode, Prof. Crews defines “work made for hire,” and looks at the specific issues regarding these works.
Copyright lasts for a very long time. For works created after 1977, the term of copyright is life of the author plus seventy years. However, previous copyright acts had different rules, and those rules will affect the duration of pre-1978 works. Prof. Crews also mentions joint authorship.
In this episode, Prof. Crews looks at the basic mantra of copyright: copyright applies instantly and automatically to original works of authorship that are fixed in a tangible medium of expression. Some of the exceptions to copyright are examined, such as facts, ideas, and works of the federal government being outside of copyright.