Copyleft and Copyright:�Should Scholarship Have a Price Tag?
Gerol Petruzella
MCLA Brown Bag Lecture Series
September 2013
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Overview
“Copyright is a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States
(title 17, U.S.Code) to the authors of ‘original works of authorship,’ including
literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works”
“… a distinction that the law no longer takes care to draw – the distinction between republishing someone’s work on the one hand and building upon or transforming that work on the other. Copyright law at its birth had only publishing as its concern; copyright law today regulates both.”
(Lawrence Lessig, Free Culture 33)
What are the “rights” of copyright?
Copyright as Social Incentivizing:
Promoting creation by giving authors
control (and profit)
2. A History of Copyright. Its legal origins, and key statutes.
Britain
Statute of Anne (1710) – articulates authors’ rights:
An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by Vesting
the Copies of Printed Books in the Authors or�Purchasers of such Copies, during the Times therein�mentioned.
Whereas Printers, Booksellers, and other Persons, have of late frequently taken�the Liberty of Printing, Reprinting, and Publishing, or causing to be Printed, Reprinted, and Published Books, and other Writings, without the Consent of the Authors or Proprietors of such Books and Writings, to their very great Detriment, and too often to the Ruin of them and their Families: For Preventing therefore such Practices for the future, and for the Encouragement of Learned Men to Compose and Write useful Books; …
2. A History of Copyright. Its legal origins, and key statutes.
United States
Copyright Clause (1787) – articulates the purpose of copyright:
The Congress shall have Power ... To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.
United States Constitution, Article I, Section 8
FUN FACTS!
More recently…
Digital Millennium Copyright Act (1998) – introduces DRM tech
Copyright Term Extension Act (1998) – Mickey Mouse, Sonny Bono
2. A History of Copyright. Its legal origins, and key statutes.
International
Berne Convention (1886) – foundation of 1995 WTO agreement
Buenos Aires Convention (1910) – “notice” required
Universal Copyright Convention (1952) – less-stringent alternative
to Berne
TRIPS (1995) – essentially globalized the scope of Berne
WIPO Copyright Treaty (2002) – restricts use of tech to copy
3. Limitations and Exceptions to Copyright. Fair Use, and the shifting duration of copyright.
Copyright Act of 1976, 17 U.S.C. Section 107
…the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means...for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include —
(1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
(2) the nature of the copyrighted work;
(3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
(4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.
3. Limitations and Exceptions to Copyright. Fair Use, and the shifting duration of copyright.
How Long Does Copyright Last?
Originally: 14 years, renewable once; total = 28 years
Now…
Tom Bell 2008
Copyright Term Extension Act (1998)
4. Alternatives to Copyright. Traditional alternatives, their origins and limitations.
Public Domain: when intellectual property rights are expired, inapplicable, or forfeited
Huang, H. (2009). "On public domain in copyright law".
Frontiers of Law in China 4 (2): 178–195.
Disadvantages: slow, complex, legalistic, costly, difficult or impossible to achieve certainty
Eight "values" that can arise from information and works in the public domain:
Guibault, Lucy & Bernt Hugenholtz (2006). The future of the public domain: identifying the commons in information law. Kluwer Law International.
5. Copyleft. Its origins, principles, relation to copyright, applications. Definitions of “free”.
1983: Richard Stallman, GNU Manifesto
“GNU is not in the public domain. Everyone will be permitted to modify and redistribute GNU, but no distributor will be allowed to restrict its further redistribution. That is to say, proprietary modifications will not be allowed. I want to make sure that all versions of GNU remain free.”
Definition: …the practice of using copyright law to offer the right to distribute copies and modified versions of a work and requiring that the same rights be preserved in modified versions of the work.
Reciprocal or “Viral” licensing: terms stipulate that works derived from a copyleft work must themselves be copyleft when distributed.
Freedom 0 – the freedom to use the work,
Freedom 1 – the freedom to study the work,
Freedom 2 – the freedom to copy and share the work with others,
Freedom 3 – the freedom to modify the work, and the freedom to
distribute modified and therefore derivative works.
5. Copyleft. Its origins, principles, relation to copyright, applications. Definitions of “free”.
Non-profit founded in 2001 by Prof. Lawrence Lessig (Harvard Law, Safra Center for Ethics)
“Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that enables the sharing and use of creativity and knowledge through free legal tools.
Our free, easy-to-use copyright licenses provide a simple, standardized way to give the public permission to share and use your creative work — on conditions of your choice. CC licenses let you easily change your copyright terms from the default of ‘all rights reserved’ to ‘some rights reserved.’ Creative Commons licenses are not an alternative to copyright. They work alongside copyright…”
OF NOTE: Aaron Swartz helped build the project infrastructure.
6. Scholarly Applications of Copyleft. Research, pedagogy, scholarly community, praxis.
January 2013
September 2013
6. Scholarly Applications of Copyleft. Research, pedagogy, scholarly community, praxis.
Chronicle of Higher Education
6. Scholarly Applications of Copyleft. Research, pedagogy, scholarly community, praxis.
6. Scholarly Applications of Copyleft. Research, pedagogy, scholarly community, praxis.
#AHAgate
7. Further Information.
NITLE (National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education). nitle.org
Creative Commons. creativecommons.org
Lessig, Lawrence. 2004. Free Culture. free-culture.cc
HASTAC (Humanities, Arts, Science, & Technology Alliance and Collaboratory. hastac.org
The Fair Use Exception
Interactive Guide to Using Copyrighted Media in Your Courses: http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/tutorials/copyright/
Using Creative Commons Licenses
History of Copyleft
Stallman, Richard. 2002. Free Software, Free Society. gnu.org/philosophy/fsfs/rms-essays.pdf
Scholarly Organizations and Other Resources
Doctorow, Cory. 2008. Content. craphound.com/content
Open Review: A Study of Contexts and Practices mediacommons.futureofthebook.org/mcpress/open-review/
Instructure Canvas: one LMS’s open-source strategy. voice.instructure.com/blog/bid/148942/Our-Open-Source-Strategy
Open Access Explained! [video] by Nick Shockey and Jonathan Eisen of PHD Comics http://youtu.be/L5rVH1KGBCY