University of Central Florida STARS Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2004-2019 2014 On Copyright Law: What Technical Communicators Need to Know Mariana Chao University of Central Florida Part of the Technical and Professional Writing Commons Find similar works at: https://stars.library.ucf.edu/etd University of Central Florida Libraries http://library.ucf.edu This Masters Thesis (Open Access) is brought to you for free and open access by STARS. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2004-2019 by an authorized administrator of STARS. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. STARS Citation Chao, Mariana, "On Copyright Law: What Technical Communicators Need to Know" (2014). Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2004-2019. 4690. https://stars.library.ucf.edu/etd/4690 ON COPYRIGHT LAW: WHAT TECHNICAL COMMUNICATORS NEED TO KNOW by MARIANA CHAO B.A. University of Central Florida, 2007 A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Department of English in the College of Arts and Humanities at the University of Central Florida Orlando, Florida Spring Term 2014 ABSTRACT Copyright law, in general, is a multi-faceted and sometimes difficult to understand process. Although it is law, it is often not straight-forward and cannot be applied universally. While the concepts of copyright infringement and plagiarism may sometimes overlap, many confuse one for the other or think they are the same offense. This thesis is intended to serve as a primer to some basic aspects of copyright law for technical communicators, including issues surrounding public domain works, the fair use doctrine, the copyright clearance process, as well as why we should be concerned about our current copyright laws.