DOCSLIB.ORG

Submission. a Consultation on How to Implement an Extended General Term of Copyright Protection in Canada

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Submission. a Consultation on How to Implement an Extended General Term of Copyright Protection in Canada SUBMISSION. A CONSULTATION ON HOW TO IMPLEMENT AN EXTENDED GENERAL TERM OF COPYRIGHT PROTECTION IN CANADA. Peter D James. Librarian emeritus. University of British Columbia. Introduction: This submission to A consultation on how to implement an extended general term of copyright protection in Canada, concentrates on the use of orphan works by non-commercial public bodies. Following discussion on the introduction of formalities and the public domain, it addresses orphan works regimes in other countries, the centrality of diligent search, the operation of the Unlocatable Copyright Owners regime in Canada and suggests some proposals that are offered in the hope of increasing use of the scheme by public bodies. Term Extension: Canada’s adoption of the extended term serves to adhere to the terms of the CUSMA/USMCA treaty, brings Canada into line with current international thinking on the appropriate term of protection, and benefits creators of works. By adopting the well-recognised term of life plus 70 years, Canada joins a progressive community of nations in protecting the works of creators. Registration for last 20 years of Term Extension: The re-introduction of formalities in Canadian copyright is an unnecessary step. Canadians can read, cite, or re-create works through the exceptions to infringement (fair dealing, re-production for private purposes, non-commercial user-generated content, education, library and archives exceptions etc) set out in Part III of the Copyright Act.1 Should Canadians seek to re-issue copyrighted works, they can negotiate a reproduction agreement with the copyright owner or utilise various licensing schemes with collective societies. Finally, Canada has a regime, Unlocatable Copyright Owners (UCO), for making works available to the general public where a copyright holder cannot be identified or located. A copyright registration requirement is termed a ‘formality’ and introducing one for the enhanced twenty-year period of protection, effectively nullifies the term extension. 2 Article 5(2) of the Berne convention states the enjoyment of copyright shall not be subject to any formality and early revisions of the Berne Convention successively did away with such formalities.3 As Sara Bannerman notes, the removal of formalities was the “most significant change from a Canadian perspective”, including the end of “registration of a work in a central registrar.” 4 Canada’s re-adoption of registration will undermine its commitment to Berne and to the protection of creators’ rights. Adoption will penalise small copyright owners and inheritors of ownership, who may lack knowledge of the requirement or the procedure for seeking to assert their rights, and so see them 1 Copyright Act. RSC 1985 c. 42. https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/c-42/page-8.html#docCont 2 Michael Geist. “Making the best of a bad provision: why Canada should work towards a copyright term extension copyright requirement.” https://www.michaelgeist.ca/2019/12/making-the-best-of-a-bad-provision-why-canada- should-work-toward-a-copyright-term-extension-registration-requirement/. 3 “The no-formalities rule thus fundamentally undergirds the Berne Convention system of universal international authors’ rights”. Jane C Ginsburg, “Berne-forbidden Formalities and Mass Digitization,” Boston University Law Review 96 (2016): 750. Ginsburg notes that countries are free to apply such a formality to national authors, but may not be able to do so with foreign authors. See discussion on pages 770-772. 4 Sara Bannerman. The struggle for Canadian Copyright: Imperialism to internationalism, 1842-1971. (UBC Press, 2013): 65. vanish. In short, promotion of registration should be seen for what it is: an attempt to prematurely strip away copyright protection, undermine the spirit of USMCA compliance, and thereby seek to exploit the ‘released’ works. 5 The Public Domain: Some6 advocating the introduction of registration for the final twenty years of protection, cite remarks by the former US Register of Copyrights, Maria Pallante, suggesting s similar requirement for the US Act.7 Her thoughts were in part based on a US Copyright Office study of copyright renewals (1961) that stated only 7% of books copyrighted in the period 1932-1961 had their copyright renewed after the initial 28-year term, thereby throwing 93% of the books into the public domain. A CRMS group at University of Michigan recently raised doubts about this conclusion, and identify the number of PD works for the period as closer to 50%. It noted that much of the content collected by research libraries included works published outside the US and not registered in a timely manner: the works were subsequently returned to protection under US legislation, further confusing the true volume of PD works.8 Assumptions about the size of the public domain are not confined to a Library of Congress report or even to the United States. A Europeana study on copyright declarations for works housed in member institutions found a great discrepancy between the copyright status of the works and the copyright declarations. The review identified accurate rights statements only 62% of the time. 9 The assignment of copyright status by member institutions was problematic: the application of a Public Domain status 5 See Howard Knopf’s evidence presented to the INDU review of the Copyright Act: It's going to enter the dreaded category of what we call “orphan works” where somebody owns a copyright but nobody knows who or where to find them. We need to get into the public domain as soon as possible. That's why I'm suggesting the imposition of formalities for that final term of 20 years. Canada. Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology INDU ● Meeting Number 140 ● 1st Session ● 42nd Parliament Evidence. November 28, 2018 6 Howard Knopf, ‘Let’s Listen to the Former American Register of Copyrights about How to Deal with the Last 20 Years of the Extended Life + 70 Copyright Term.’ Excess Copyright, March 02, 2021. http://excesscopyright.blogspot.com/2021/03/lets-listen-to-former-american-register.html 7 Maria Pallante, ‘The curious case copyright formalities,’ Berkeley Technology Law Journal 28 (2013) at 1419: ”… we wonder whether Congress could shift the burden of the last twenty years of protection (the Berne-plus years) from the user to the copyright owner, so that at least near the end of the term, the copyright owner would have to file with the Copyright Office as a condition of continued protection. Otherwise, the work would enter the public domain”. It should be noted that this proposal was never acted upon By Pallante or the government. 8 John P Wilkin. “How large is the Public Domain: A comparative analysis of Ringer’s 1961 Copyright Renewal Study and HathiTrust CRMS Data. College & Research Libraries 78. 2. (February 2017): 201-218. https://crl.acrl.org/index.php/crl/article/view/16582. From the abstract: … demonstrates fundamental misunderstandings and misrepresentations of the Ringer data, as well as possible methodological issues. Estimates of the size of the corpus of public domain books published in the United States from 1923 through 1963 have been inflated by problematic assumptions… 9 Judith Blijden. The accuracy of rights statements on europeana.eu. (Amsterdam: Kennisland 2018): 15. Commenting on the remaining assignments, the study found 9% were clearly inaccurate, the remaining 29% were either too poorly constructed, or of questionable accuracy to arrive at a determination. The report also notes that institutions in some European jurisdictions assign a licence to digitised PD works as a neighbouring right. See Margoni. Digitising the Public Domain: Non-Original Photographs in Comparative EU Copyright Law. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3108760 . was correct in only 50% of the cases.10 When looking at a rights statement with a PDM statement, users are as likely to encounter an accurate rights statement as they are to encounter a possibly inaccurate rights statement. Because of Europeana’s policy of promoting the possibility to reuse these results are especially alarming.” 11 The authors identified a lack of training, misunderstanding of copyright and a need for periodic reviews of assigned statements to ensure compliance with copyright revisions key to resolving the problem. Orphan Works: Some of the identified problems with Public Domain declarations could arise in a rush to identify and re- issue supposed ‘orphan works’. At the centre of all orphan works regimes is a respect for the rights of copyright holders. All require a search for a copyright owner and upon discovery, a requirement to seek a use licence. The European Orphan Works Directive (EU OWD) is clear on this point: Article 5 of the Directive, ‘End of Orphan status’ states: Member States shall ensure that a rightsholder in a work or phonogram considered to be an orphan work has, at any time, the possibility of putting an end to the orphan work status in so far as his rights are concerned. 12 A common element of the orphan works legislation is an exemption from copyright’s remedies for public bodies in compliance with regulatory requirements. The various schemes’ exceptions operate in different ways. The Canadian and UK13 schemes provide a non-exclusive licence issued by a government agency upon approval of a vetted application from the user. The EU OWD scheme permits use upon completion of an uncontested diligent search and submission of documentation to the OW Database. 14 Proposed Australian15 and US16 schemes also permit use without need of a licence, but they require the public body engage a returned owner in licence negotiations or remove the content from the website. 10 Blijden. 17 11 Ibid. 18 12 Directive 2012/28/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2012 on certain permitted uses of orphan works https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32012L0028.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Reform(Aliz)Ing Copyright
    SPRIGMAN FINAL 12/17/2004 3:36 PM REFORM(ALIZ)ING COPYRIGHT Christopher Sprigman* INTRODUCTION...................................................................................................... 486 I. THE TRADITIONAL CONTOURS OF “CONDITIONAL” COPYRIGHT ....................... 491 A. Formalities in the Early Copyright Statutes ................................................ 491 B. From Conditional to Unconditional Copyright ........................................... 494 1. Voluntary registration and notice............................................................. 494 2. Renewal .................................................................................................... 498 II. FORMALITIES AND THE “TRADITIONAL CONTOURS” OF CONDITIONAL COPYRIGHT .............................................................................................................................. 500 A. Recording Ownership.................................................................................. 500 1. “Signaling” .............................................................................................. 501 2. Maximizing private incentives .................................................................. 501 B. Formalities as a Copyright “Filter”............................................................ 502 1. Registration and notice............................................................................. 502 2. Renewal .................................................................................................... 519 3. Effect
    [Show full text]
  • The Next Great Copyright Act
    THE NEXT GREAT COPYRIGHT ACT Twenty-Sixth Horace S. Manges Lecture by Maria A. Pallante1 I. INTRODUCTION Tonight my topic is the next great copyright act, but before I speak about the future, I would like to talk a little about the past, including the role of the Copyright Office in past revision activities. In my remarks, I will address the need for comprehensive review and revision of U.S. copyright law, identify the most significant issues, and suggest a framework by which Congress should weigh the public interest, which includes the interests of authors. I also will address the necessary evolution of the Copyright Office itself. Those of you who have been to our offices in Washington know that we have a conference room featuring portraits of the former Registers of Copyright dating back to 1897.2 When guests are seated at our table, the former Registers preside on high, wearing a variety of expressions and overseeing complex conversations about copyright law in the digital age. Sometimes I think they would be startled by the discussions we have, but then again it might all sound familiar. Solberg (1887-1933) Thorvald Solberg was the first and longest-serving Register of Copyrights. He seems inspired in his portrait, and for good reason. Solberg was a visionary leader, a champion of authors’ rights, and an early advocate for the United States’ adherence to the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (“Berne Convention”).3 Under his care, the Copyright Office grew from a handful of employees to more than a hundred professional staff, and took on the many assorted roles that are still critical to the mission of the Office today.
    [Show full text]
  • COPYRIGHT FORMALITIES in the INTERNET AGE: FILTERS of PROTECTION OR FACILITATORS of LICENSING Stef Van Gompel †
    COPYRIGHT FORMALITIES IN THE INTERNET AGE: FILTERS OF PROTECTION OR FACILITATORS OF LICENSING Stef van Gompel † I. INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................... 1426 II. MAPPING THE OBJECTIVES ................................................................. 1430 A. HIERARCHY OF OBJECTIVES................................................................. 1430 B. LEGAL CERTAINTY THROUGH FACILITATION OF RIGHTS CLEARANCE AND ENLARGEMENT OF THE PUBLIC DOMAIN ........ 1431 III. THE DIFFERENT FLAVORS OF COPYRIGHT FORMALITIES ................................................................................................ 1435 A. TYPES OF FORMALITIES ......................................................................... 1435 B. VOLUNTARY VERSUS MANDATORY FORMALITIES .......................... 1437 C. LEGAL EFFECTS OF FORMALITIES ...................................................... 1438 IV. ENLARGING THE PUBLIC DOMAIN ................................................ 1440 A. MAKING COPYRIGHT CONDITIONAL ON MANDATORY FORMALITIES ........................................................................................... 1441 B. MANDATORY REGISTRATION AFTER LIFE-PLUS-FIFTY YEARS ........................................................................................................ 1444 C. ENCOURAGING THE VOLUNTARY ABANDONMENT OF COPYRIGHT .............................................................................................. 1445 V. FACILITATING THE CLEARANCE OF RIGHTS .........................
    [Show full text]
  • Resurrecting Copyright Formalities: No ‘Deadly’ Human Rights Implications
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by ResearchArchive at Victoria University of Wellington BHUMIKA KHATRI RESURRECTING COPYRIGHT FORMALITIES: NO ‘DEADLY’ HUMAN RIGHTS IMPLICATIONS LLM RESEARCH PAPER LAWS 532: HUMAN RIGHTS AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY FACULTY OF LAW 2016 Resurrecting Copyright Formalities – No ‘Deadly’ Human Rights Implications II Table of Contents Abstract..............................................................................................................................III I Introduction..............................................................................................................1 II A Closer Look at Copyright Formalities...................................................................3 A Types of Formalities.....................................................................................3 B Functions of Copyright Formalities..............................................................5 III International Law on Copyright Formalities.............................................................7 A Berne Convention.........................................................................................7 B Other International Treaties..........................................................................8 IV Reintroducing Mandatory Copyright Formalities: An Analysis...............................8 A Legal Certainty.............................................................................................9 B Facilitation of Rights Clearance...................................................................9
    [Show full text]
  • Gelfand Round 4
    Harvard Journal of Law & Technology Volume 25, Number 2 Spring 2012 A PERFECT (COPYRIGHT) UNION: UNITING REGISTRATION AND LICENSE DESIGNATION Matthew P. Gelfand* TABLE OF CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION .............................................................................. 697 II. HETEROGENEITY .......................................................................... 699 A. Systemic Heterogeneity ............................................................ 702 B. License-Based Approach .......................................................... 703 1. Some-Rights-Reserved Licensing ......................................... 703 2. The Creative Commons License Scheme .............................. 704 3. An Incomplete Solution ......................................................... 707 III. FORMALITIES .............................................................................. 709 A. The Elimination of Formalities ................................................ 710 B. Reintroducing Formalities: A Solution? .................................. 711 IV. COMBINING FREE LICENSING WITH COPYRIGHT REGISTRATION .............................................................................. 712 A. A Modest Implementation ......................................................... 712 B. Sweetening the Deal: A Public-Private Copyright Registration System ................................................................ 714 C. Critique .................................................................................... 716 V. CONCLUSION ...............................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Copyright Formalities: a Return to Registration? Dev S Gangjee1
    7 Copyright formalities: A return to registration? Dev S Gangjee1 Introduction Among the regimes constituting the field of intellectual property (IP) law, copyright stands apart. Unlike patent, trademark or (with some qualifications) design protection,2 the recognition and enforcement of proprietary interests is automatic, arising upon creation. It is not conditioned upon the fulfilment of formalities.3 This relative informality of copyright is celebrated as a virtue, as well as a necessary by-product of underlying normative commitments. However the ease with which proprietary rights are generated, their profusion and the ensuing difficulty of keeping track of them have led to calls for the (re)introduction of formalities, to bring some much-needed clarity to copyright entitlements.4 1 Faculty of Law, University of Oxford. I am profoundly grateful to the editors and my fellow contributors for comments during the workshop in Strasbourg (2014), which initiated this project, as well as to Jane Ginsburg for insightful suggestions and gentle rebuke. 2 While designs are protected via various registration-based regimes, they are also accommodated under copyright, unfair competition and unregistered designs systems. For a comprehensive review of national laws, see WIPO Secretariat, Summary of Replies to the Questionnaires (Parts I and II) on Industrial Design Law and Practice (SCT/18/7 and SCT/18/8 Rev.), WIPO/Strad/INF/2 Rev.2 (19 June 2009). 3 S Dusollier, Scoping Study on Copyright and Related Rights and the Public Domain, WIPO Committee on Development and Intellectual Property, CDIP/7/INF/2 (4 Mar 2011), Annex 32. 4 The arguments of proponents and opponents are considered in Section 3 below.
    [Show full text]
  • A Unified Theory of Copyright†
    (1) PATTERSON 6/2/2009 6:20 PM BOOK A UNIFIED THEORY OF COPYRIGHT† L. Ray Patterson and Stanley F. Birch, Jr.* Edited by Craig Joyce** TABLE OF CONTENTS EDITOR’S NOTE ............................................................................ 221 PREFACE ...................................................................................... 223 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW ............................... 227 CHAPTER 2. THE COPYRIGHT CLAUSE AND COPYRIGHT HISTORY ............................................... 241 2.1 Introduction ............................................................ 241 2.2 The Source of the Copyright Clause ........................ 243 2.3 The Stationers’ Copyright ....................................... 244 2.4 The Printing Patent ................................................ 246 2.5 Copyright and Censorship ...................................... 248 2.6 The Stationers’ Copyright and the Public Domain Problem .................................... 249 2.7 The Statutory Copyright ......................................... 250 2.8 The Battle of the Booksellers: Natural Law v. Positive Law .................................. 253 A. The Millar Case .............................................. 254 †The preferred citation for this book is: L. RAY PATTERSON & STANLEY F. BIRCH, JR., A UNIFIED THEORY OF COPYRIGHT (Craig Joyce ed., 2009), printed in 46 HOUS. L. REV. 215 (2009). * L. Ray Patterson, Late Pope Brock Professor, University of Georgia School of Law; Stanley F. Birch, Jr., Judge of the Eleventh Circuit,
    [Show full text]
  • Abandoning Copyright
    Case Western Reserve University School of Law Scholarly Commons Faculty Publications 2020 Abandoning Copyright Dave Fagundes Aaron K. Perzanowski Case Western University School of Law, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/faculty_publications Part of the Intellectual Property Law Commons Repository Citation Fagundes, Dave and Perzanowski, Aaron K., "Abandoning Copyright" (2020). Faculty Publications. 2060. https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/faculty_publications/2060 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Case Western Reserve University School of Law Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of Case Western Reserve University School of Law Scholarly Commons. ABANDONING COPYRIGHT Dave Fagundes* & Aaron Perzanowski** For nearly two hundred years, U.S. copyright law has assumed that owners may voluntarily abandon their rights in a work. But scholars have largely ignored copyright abandonment, and the case law is fragmented and inconsistent. As a result, abandonment remains poorly theorized, owners can avail themselves of no reliable mechanism to abandon their works, and the practice remains rare. This Article seeks to bring copyright abandonment out of the shadows, showing that it is a doctrine rich in conceptual, normative, and practical significance. Unlike abandonment of real and chattel property, which imposes significant public costs in exchange for discrete private benefits, copyright abandonment is potentially costly for rights holders but broadly beneficial for society. Nonetheless, rights holders—ranging from lauded filmmakers and photographers to leading museums and everyday creators—make the counterintuitive choice to abandon valuable works. This Article analyzes two previously untapped resources to better understand copyright abandonment.
    [Show full text]
  • Privilege and Property: Essays on the History of Copyright
    Privilege and Property Essays on the History of Copyright Edited by Ronan Deazley, Martin Kretschmer and Lionel Bently To access digital resources including: blog posts videos online appendices and to purchase copies of this book in: hardback paperback ebook editions Go to: https://www.openbookpublishers.com/product/26 Open Book Publishers is a non-profit independent initiative. We rely on sales and donations to continue publishing high-quality academic works. Daniel Chodowiecki’s allegorical copper plate of 1781 shows unauthorised reprinters and original publishers, respectively as highwaymen and their victims while the Goddess of Justice is asleep. The full title reads: ‘Works of Darkness. A Contribution to the History of the Book Trade in Germany. Presented Allegorically for the Benefit of and as a Warning to All Honest Booksellers.’ The identities of most of the characters have been identified: the bandit chief is the Austrian publisher Johann Thomas von Trattner (1717-1798) who made a fortune by reprinting books from other German- speaking territories. His victims are the publishers Friedrich Nicolai (in the centre), and Philipp Erasmus Reich (fleeing into the background). The small bat-like monster hovering overhead (a position normally reserved for angels in religious paintings!) is modelled on Gerhard van Swieten (1700-1772), an influential adviser and doctor of Maria Theresa of Austria who eased censorship regulations but encouraged the reprinting of foreign books in Austria. Nicolai’s right arm extends the bat monster’s line of gaze and points to the head of the Goddess Justitia, sleeping as if drugged by the poppy blossoms above her head.
    [Show full text]
  • Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for Digitization
    Copyright and Cultural Institutions Copyright and Cultural Institutions Guidelines for Digitization for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums Peter B. Hirtle, emily Hudson, & Andrew t. Kenyon Cornell university liBrAry ithaca, new yorK © 2009 Peter B. Hirtle, Emily Hudson, and Andrew T. Kenyon Published by Cornell University Library Ithaca, New York 14853 ISBn-13: 978-0-935995-10-7 Design and composition by India Amos Attribution-Noncommercial- No Derivative Works 3.0 United States Contents Preface • ix 1 Introduction • 1 1.1 What is copyright? • 2 1.2 The framework of copyright law • 6 1.3 Principles of copyright law • 9 1.4 Common law copyright • 11 1.5 Copyright timeline • 11 2 Copyright Fundamentals • 15 2.1 Introduction • 15 2.2 Types of work protected by copyright • 15 2.3 What are the prerequisites for an item to be protected by copyright? • 29 2.4 Works made prior to 1978 • 36 3 Duration and Ownership of Copyright • 39 3.1 Introduction • 39 3.2 What is the duration of copyright? • 40 3.2.1 unPuBlisHed worKs • 41 3.2.2 worKs first PuBlisHed in tHe united stAtes • 45 3.2.3 PuBlisHed foreign worKs • 49 3.2.4 sound reCordings • 53 3.2.5 ArchiteCturAl worKs • 54 3.3 Who is the owner of copyright? • 55 3.4 How is copyright transferred to others? • 63 3.5 Conclusion • 65 4 Exclusive Rights and Infringement • 67 4.1 Introduction • 67 4.2 Exclusive rights • 68 4.3 Moral rights • 74 4.4 The right to control access to digital works • 76 v Contents 4.5 Infringement • 78 4.6 Remedies for Infringement • 83 4.7 Conclusion • 86 5 Fair Use and
    [Show full text]
  • Recent Changes in the Duration of Copyright in the United States and European Union: Procedure and Policy
    Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal Volume 6 Volume VI Number 2 Volume VI Book 2 Article 4 1996 Recent Changes in the Duration of Copyright in the United States and European Union: Procedure and Policy Lisa M. Brownlee Attorney-at-law, Trenité Van Doorne, Amsterdam Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/iplj Part of the Entertainment, Arts, and Sports Law Commons, and the Intellectual Property Law Commons Recommended Citation Lisa M. Brownlee, Recent Changes in the Duration of Copyright in the United States and European Union: Procedure and Policy, 6 Fordham Intell. Prop. Media & Ent. L.J. 579 (1996). Available at: https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/iplj/vol6/iss2/4 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by FLASH: The Fordham Law Archive of Scholarship and History. It has been accepted for inclusion in Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal by an authorized editor of FLASH: The Fordham Law Archive of Scholarship and History. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Recent Changes in the Duration of Copyright in the United States and European Union: Procedure and Policy Cover Page Footnote The author gratefully acknowledges the comments of David Nimmer, Irell & Manella; Professor J.H. Spoor, Vrije Universiteit; and Professor H. Cohen Jehoram, University of Amsterdam. This article is available in Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal: https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/iplj/vol6/iss2/4 ARTICLES Recent Changes in the Duration of Copyright in the United States and European Union: Procedure and Policy Lisa M.
    [Show full text]
  • Maine Community College System General
    MAINE COMMUNITY COLLEGE SYSTEM GENERAL ADMINISTRATION Section 207.1 SUBJECT: COPYRIGHT LAW COMPLIANCE PURPOSE: To provide guidelines for complying with copyright law To guide the colleges and System Office in complying with copyright law, the MCCS adopts the attached guidance. ________________________________________________________________________ REFERENCES: MCCS Policy 207 DATE ADOPTED: February 23, 2010 DATE(S) AMENDED: COLLEGE GUIDELINES FOR COMPLYING WITH COPYRIGHT LAW I. INTRODUCTION AND DISCUSSION A. SOURCE OF GUIDELINES ______________________ Community College has adopted these Guidelines pursuant to Maine Community College System Policy 207(B). There, the Maine Community College System Board of Trustees declared that the policy of the System is to adhere to applicable provisions of copyright law. Although there is uncertainty in both the interpretation of existing law and the application of developing technology, the Board’s policy represents the System’s effort to promote legal compliance. In many cases, copying facilitates the System’s mission to develop and transmit information. Copying of copyrighted materials, however, is a right granted under the copyright law doctrine of “fair use” which cannot be abused. The Board has encouraged employees, faculty, staff and students to exercise good judgment in conscientiously attempting to comply with copyright law, and does not condone policies or practices that constitute an infringement of copyright law. The Board has directed that the Colleges provide their faculty, staff and students with guidelines that clearly discourage violation of copyright law. It is the policy of the System that faculty, staff and students exercise sound judgment in determining what constitutes permissible copying under the law; secure applicable permission whenever it is legally necessary; and that each person be individually responsible for these determinations.
    [Show full text]