sts3700b: Copyright and Fair Use

U n i v e r s i t é Y O R K U n i v e r s i t y
ATKINSON FACULTY OF LIBERAL AND PROFESSIONAL STUDIES
SCHOOL OF ANALYTIC STUDIES & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
S C I E N C E A N D T E C H N O L O G Y S T U D I E S

STS 3700B 6.0 HISTORY OF COMPUTING AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

COPYRIGHT AND FAIR USE

Material on this site has been (a) created by the site author, Luigi M Bianchi, or (b) assembled from a variety of Internet web sites and has been placed here for ease and rapidity of local access, or, (c) for small amounts of text, derived from printed material. As for original material prepared by Luigi M Bianchi, permission is given to use it freely in electronic form and in print for non-commercial, educational and research purposes only, as long as the source and date of last modification, the name of the author and his affiliations, as well as this notice, are explicitly reproduced. All materials on this site that have been written by Luigi M Bianchi are © Copyright 2001, 2002 Luigi M Bianchi. All Rights Reserved. A good faith effort has been made to comply with US and Canadian copyright law. This does not mean that none of the material is copyright, but that the fair use clause, as explicated for example at the Stanford University web site, has been adhered to.

In particular, any copyright material used here is (a) not used for personal commercial gain, and used exclusively for educational purposes; and (b) used in limited amounts in comparison to the published source. If there are any objections that material placed here does not conform to the fair use provisions outlined, contact Luigi M Bianchi, and such material will be removed immediately pending resolution of the issue.

Limitations on Exclusive Rights: Fair Use

The fair use doctrine allows limited reproduction of copyrighted works for educational and research purposes. The relevant portion of the copyright statute provides that the fair use of a copyrighted work, including reproduction for purposes such as criticism, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research is not an infringement of copyright. The law lists the following factors as the ones to be evaluated in determining whether a particular use of a copyrighted work is a permitted fair use, rather than an infringement of the copyright:

The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes
the nature of the copyrighted work
the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole
the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work

See also Copying Right: A guide for Canada's universities to copyright, fair dealing and collective licensing. University professors, staff and students will find this guide useful in understanding the complex rules relating to photocopying in the university setting. This guide covers basic copyright principles set out in the Copyright Act and information on the licence that most universities outside of Quebec have signed with the copyright collective called Access Copyright, the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency. The guide was prepared by the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada and the Canadian Association of Research Libraries. It was released in August 2002

A simple and practical summary of copyright law is Brad Templeton's 10 Big Myths about Copyright Explained: "An attempt to answer common myths about copyright seen on the net and cover issues related to copyright and USENET/Internet publication."