The Copyright Tangle
When I was a grad student, both in Colorado and New York, I remember not so much going to the bookstore to buy books as going to the local Kinko’s to buy class packets—I still have many of them—collections of current or difficult to obtain essays, articles, poems, etc., having to do with whatever the course covered; it was certainly cheaper than buying most text books, and we had in our packets what we would actually read and use in class, unlike most textbooks or anthologies of work where we read a percentage of the work included—sometimes a small percentage.
Then, during my time at NYU, there was a lawsuit settled against Kinko’s, and course packets disappeared almost overnight. Reading Chapter 10 in our textbook, helps put that change into context for me and helps me understand the limitations of Fair Use. Kinko’s was, of course, charging a mark up on our copies and was benefiting financially from the reproduction of materials which is not allowed under fair use, even though, we—the students and instructors who were buying these materials—were not benefitting financially. We were all indignant about the whole thing, because at that time universities did not have extensive copy centers available to faculty (at least not as they are now) and getting permission to use things was like trying to find and pick up the proverbial needle in the haystack. This is something I got first hand experience with when I was finalizing my dissertation which included two comics and several visual images; one of which was a reproduction of a work of art in a catalogue. I had two choices: remove the images or track down and obtain permissions (or make a good faith effort). I felt the images were an integral part of the document, so I began tracking down names and address, began writing letters and waiting.
In the end, I did receive permission for most of the images in my dissertation, but not all. I decided to include those I never heard back from, feeling I had done my part to contact whomever held the copyright or should have known who the copy right holder was. Was this OK on my part? The university seemed to think so, and UMI (University Microfilms) didn’t have a problem with it; and given the unclear state of permissions and lack of clarity about fair use at the time, I suppose it was fine. I think my use of the images would fall within the bounds of fair use as stated in the book: the purpose of the use in my dissertation was not of a commercial nature, nor were my use of them likely to effect their commercial or market value; on the other hand, because they are visual images, they might be viewed as less deserving of a fair use condition under the second qualification, and if you use a visual image or comic, you are using the “whole”—but not more than is necessary to “meet the needs” of what I was trying to accomplish: it is a grey area indeed. If I had submitted my dissertation for commercial publication, however, all this goes out the window: every image would have to have proper documentation and permissions.
Of course, now, getting permissions is almost as easy as pointing and clicking. When I was teaching, I was barraged my emails from publishers who wanted to help me put together my own course anthology, and from what our text book says, it has gotten even easier with organizations like the Copyright Clearance Center and XanEdu—or going to the Creative Commons which I had heard of but didn’t really understand in relationship to copyright issues & laws. What I noticed about the publisher produced anthologies or packets, was that I was limited to what they had permission to use; my guess is some of the other sources offer a broader range of options.
What I didn’t understand before reading all of this, or watching the accompanying videos, was how much these laws effect the online classroom situation if an instructor is going to include video content, and that whatever I put online has the potential to be protected by copyright—including syllabi and blog posts. I suppose it is really difficult to enforce—I took an online poetry course about a year ago with a poet I greatly admire, and through the course of our writing, I mentioned I had seen one of her writing exercises online from another course she had taught online—she was shocked to hear it was still available and open to someone who hadn’t signed up for it—she asked me not to use these for anything other than my own personal use which is fine, but clearly, things on the internet are more accessible than we think. Keeping things secure or password protected is not always easy or final. It will be interesting to see how the copyright laws evolve to deal with the vastly-available-everything on the internet.
As a writer, I want strong protections for my work; as a teacher, I want everything available for my and my students’ use—clearly these are in conflict with each other to a great extent. I suppose as a writer, I want recognition for the work I produce—I am not likely to make much money from poetry or creative non-fiction, but I don’t want my poems and essays lifted and used wholesale or in parts by someone else (which is more common than one would think). As a teacher, I want to be able to give my students access to things they are unlikely to come across on their own—I don’t want them to have to pay an arm & a leg for these things. So, my task for myself, is to investigate the Creative Commons to see what is there and how it works, and to keep the links at the end of the chapter to hand, so if I have questions about fair use, or the finer points of these changeable laws, I will know where to look.
When I was a grad student, both in Colorado and New York, I remember not so much going to the bookstore to buy books as going to the local Kinko’s to buy class packets—I still have many of them—collections of current or difficult to obtain essays, articles, poems, etc., having to do with whatever the course covered; it was certainly cheaper than buying most text books, and we had in our packets what we would actually read and use in class, unlike most textbooks or anthologies of work where we read a percentage of the work included—sometimes a small percentage.
Then, during my time at NYU, there was a lawsuit settled against Kinko’s, and course packets disappeared almost overnight. Reading Chapter 10 in our textbook, helps put that change into context for me and helps me understand the limitations of Fair Use. Kinko’s was, of course, charging a mark up on our copies and was benefiting financially from the reproduction of materials which is not allowed under fair use, even though, we—the students and instructors who were buying these materials—were not benefitting financially. We were all indignant about the whole thing, because at that time universities did not have extensive copy centers available to faculty (at least not as they are now) and getting permission to use things was like trying to find and pick up the proverbial needle in the haystack. This is something I got first hand experience with when I was finalizing my dissertation which included two comics and several visual images; one of which was a reproduction of a work of art in a catalogue. I had two choices: remove the images or track down and obtain permissions (or make a good faith effort). I felt the images were an integral part of the document, so I began tracking down names and address, began writing letters and waiting.
In the end, I did receive permission for most of the images in my dissertation, but not all. I decided to include those I never heard back from, feeling I had done my part to contact whomever held the copyright or should have known who the copy right holder was. Was this OK on my part? The university seemed to think so, and UMI (University Microfilms) didn’t have a problem with it; and given the unclear state of permissions and lack of clarity about fair use at the time, I suppose it was fine. I think my use of the images would fall within the bounds of fair use as stated in the book: the purpose of the use in my dissertation was not of a commercial nature, nor were my use of them likely to effect their commercial or market value; on the other hand, because they are visual images, they might be viewed as less deserving of a fair use condition under the second qualification, and if you use a visual image or comic, you are using the “whole”—but not more than is necessary to “meet the needs” of what I was trying to accomplish: it is a grey area indeed. If I had submitted my dissertation for commercial publication, however, all this goes out the window: every image would have to have proper documentation and permissions.
Of course, now, getting permissions is almost as easy as pointing and clicking. When I was teaching, I was barraged my emails from publishers who wanted to help me put together my own course anthology, and from what our text book says, it has gotten even easier with organizations like the Copyright Clearance Center and XanEdu—or going to the Creative Commons which I had heard of but didn’t really understand in relationship to copyright issues & laws. What I noticed about the publisher produced anthologies or packets, was that I was limited to what they had permission to use; my guess is some of the other sources offer a broader range of options.
What I didn’t understand before reading all of this, or watching the accompanying videos, was how much these laws effect the online classroom situation if an instructor is going to include video content, and that whatever I put online has the potential to be protected by copyright—including syllabi and blog posts. I suppose it is really difficult to enforce—I took an online poetry course about a year ago with a poet I greatly admire, and through the course of our writing, I mentioned I had seen one of her writing exercises online from another course she had taught online—she was shocked to hear it was still available and open to someone who hadn’t signed up for it—she asked me not to use these for anything other than my own personal use which is fine, but clearly, things on the internet are more accessible than we think. Keeping things secure or password protected is not always easy or final. It will be interesting to see how the copyright laws evolve to deal with the vastly-available-everything on the internet.
As a writer, I want strong protections for my work; as a teacher, I want everything available for my and my students’ use—clearly these are in conflict with each other to a great extent. I suppose as a writer, I want recognition for the work I produce—I am not likely to make much money from poetry or creative non-fiction, but I don’t want my poems and essays lifted and used wholesale or in parts by someone else (which is more common than one would think). As a teacher, I want to be able to give my students access to things they are unlikely to come across on their own—I don’t want them to have to pay an arm & a leg for these things. So, my task for myself, is to investigate the Creative Commons to see what is there and how it works, and to keep the links at the end of the chapter to hand, so if I have questions about fair use, or the finer points of these changeable laws, I will know where to look.