Intellectual Property and Copyright

We've all heard of copyright, trademarks, patents, industrial design rights, and trade secrets. These are some of the most important components of intellectual property. Let's address this important issue by answering some questions.

What does copyright do?

• It gives certain rights, for a limited time, to the creator of an original work.
• It applies to expressions of ideas in a fixed form (does not apply to facts, ideas, or methods).
• It differs from patents, which give rights to inventions.
• It seeks to provide a balance between the rights of the creator to her or his expression and the rights of other to use that creation.
• It, in terms of property rights, may be (and often is) not owned by the creator of the work.

Why does copyright matter?

• It guides and sets limits on what modes we preserve information resources - and provide lon term access.
• It circumscribes in what modes we can disseminate it.
• It controls the rights we have to acquire different kinds of information.
• It dictates the terms by which we use information owned by others.
• It dictates the claims we can exert on our own creations.
• It applies to cultural property in various ways and to archives as well as print, audio, video, digital, and other instantiated creative works. 

How does copyright effect Library and Information professionals?

• Creates limitations/concerns about creating content from collections (what content should be excluded?)
• Creates limitations/concerns about dissemination (fear of being an inducer to infringement)
• Problems with accessibility for blind/physically handicapped (e.g. text to speech app vs. audio book)

How do we combat issues arising due to copyright?

• Public Commons/Doman
• Enables follow-on innovation
• Promotes spread of information
• Enables low cost access to information
• Promotes democratic process and values

Overall, moving information from the public domain into private ownership only helps the owner. Making money off of innovation stunts the growth of information and advancement. As a librarian, copyright will always be a factor, but that does not mean we can allow the patron's right to information access to be revoked by private owners. 

Relevant readings:

• Boyle, J. (2003). The second enclosure movement and the construction of the public domain. Law and contemporary problems, 66(1/2), 33–74.
• Howard, Jennifer. "Long-Awaited Ruling in Copyright Case Mostly Favors Georgia State U" Chronicle of Higher Education, May 13, 2012.
• McDermott, A. J. (2012). Copyright: regulation out of line with our digital reality? Information Technology and Libraries, 31(1), 7–20.
• Stanford Copyright and Fair Use, mainly 
• Chapter 0 "Copyright FAQs"
•  Chapter 9 "Fair Use"