Copyright Act of 1976

Under this authority, Congress passed the Copyright Act of 1976, first major overhaul since 1909 but later revised by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. What does the Copyright Act give to owners? ownership = control, bundle of rights:

• distribute
• prepare derivative works -translations, adaptations
• reproduce
• perform and display

Example

If you wrote a fantasy novel, copyright provides you with the rights to:

• Distribute = Sell it to a publisher or print on your own
• Derivatives = create a screen play based on it or translate to another language
• Reproduce = make copies for your local library
• Perform = Give a live reading of the first chapter
• Display = More for paintings and works of art

Copyright provides an incentive to create

• Whole point of the Progress Clause = promote progress
• You can sell the work and keep others from selling it
• You can give someone permission to copy it = License for a price or for free

Infringement

Infringement is doing one of the enumerated things without the permission of the copyright holder

• If the owner succeeds, court awarded penalties include damages such as lost profits from the infringing activity or statutory damages, ven higher damages may be awarded if the court feels that the infringement was committed "willfully."
• In Internet setting, this would come only after the DMCA takedown process has been exhausted.
• If you succeed on an infringement claim, you can even get a court order requiring infringing copies to be destroyed.

What is covered by copyright law?

• "original works of authorship" = pretty much everything…
  • literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works
• Minimal creativity, no quality standard: the most crude stick figure drawing qualifies as much as the most recent issue of Superior Spider-man.
  • "More creative than a phonebook"

• Does it have to be published?
  • No, anything that is fixed in a non-transitory medium (written, typed, drawn, etc.) even includes RAM memory of your computer (when you type it)
    • That means that even your edits on your wikis are copyrighted even before you hit “Publish”
• Not speeches (unless they are written first)
• Does it have to be registered?
  • No, copyright applies as soon as you write it down. BUT, if you are going to sue, you need to register.

Example

Is it your fantasy novel copyrighted? Consider:

• Literary work? Yes, it is copyrightable expression!
• But when is it copyrighted? Once you type it, your novel is protected by copyright!
• What do I have to do to get it copyrighted? Once its typed, you don’t have to fill out anything, the copyright is yours!

What is not covered by copyright law?

• Facts: the combination of words and structure are, but what they describe is not.
• Any idea, procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle, or discovery
• Idea versus expression
• Useful articles
• Titles, names, short phrases, and slogans: more likely to qualify as TMs
• Familiar symbols or designs;
• Mere listings of ingredients or contents
• Things in the public domain

Other important questions

• How long does copyright last? Its complicated but standard rule - if post 1978, life of author + 70 years, when term is over, the work enters the public domain
• Copyright is primarily handled by civil law, but there are criminal penalties
• Works for Hire - ordinarily the copyright for anything you create vests in you, but works prepared by employee within the scope of their employment actually belong to the employer
  • spider-man artist does not own the copyright to spider-man page
  • famously, the creators of superman signed a work for hire agreement for the character and essentially sold the rights for around $130.

The Internet brought lots of changes

The DMCA of 1998

Government trying to keep up but lots of changes, opyright designed to address things like the printing press, not p2p and file lockers Their answer: The Digital Millennium Copyright Act to address some of the issues unique to digital copyright

• Puts responsibility on copyright owner to seek out and find possible infringements

How does it work?

Example if someone copies your fantasy novel

• Wiki contains direct copying of the text from a fantasy novel
• Copyright holders (author, publisher, etc) finds their content on Wikia
• They send us a DMCA notice
• Wikia removes content
• Counter notice can be filed
• Lawsuit may follow

Fair Use

The practical effect is that it is usually possible to quote or copy directly from a copyrighted work in order to criticize or comment upon it, teach students about it, parody it, research it or a few other uses

• It’s fair to say that the internet as we know it could not exist without fair use.
• Two Poles:
  • not an excuse for blanket copying
  • But does exist, and allows a wide variety of uses.

How much is too much?

Generally speaking, the factors boil down to a consideration of how transformative a use is, and whether the use complements or replaces the original work

Wiki dedicated to a fantasy novel it is generally ok to use:

• Quotes or descriptions
• Thumbnail Images
• Screenshots

Copyright on Wikia

Licensing on Wikia

• When you sign up and contribute you agree to our Terms of Use, which include our Licensing agreement
• Licensed to Wikia and the rest of the world, but YOU still OWN the copyright

Creative Commons

Creative Commons - a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing easy ways for people to share and use their knowledge and creativity while reserving some of the standard protections of copyright (Wikia webinar with Creative Commons)

• Licensing = giving your work to the world with special requirements
• Can choose from various forms
• Found on sites like Flickr, Google, etc

CC-BY-SA: You are free to

CC-BY-SA = type of license, gives free permission but adds stipulations What you are able to do?

• Share
• Remix

CC-BY-SA: Under the conditions that

And under what conditions

• BY = attribution
• SA = sharealike

CC-BY-SA: On Wikia

If your content is infringed there are two approaches:

• Soft - If someone outside of Wikia is using your content without attribution, as the copyright holder you should start by leaving them a friendly note explaining the issue and presenting them with options for how to credit you properly. Many times, the lack of attribution is unintentional.
• Send a DMCA

How do you properly add content to your wiki?

Ideal Cases:

• translation (learn more about internationalization)
• Taking wiki pages about the novel and building them into a wiki of the film
• Making discrete connections between similarly situated subjects: adding info from Marvel Wiki to Captain America wiki and vice versa.

How do you properly add content to your wiki?

• Import/Export = best way becauseleaves edit history intact
• Copying from outside sources
  • needs compatible license, to be in public domain, have permission, or be a fair use

What about images?

• Do not necessarily fall under CC-BY-SA
• Recommend using license dropdowns

Local Image Policies

• Wikis have different options
• communities are free to make their own more restrictive local rules
  • Good example on Call of Duty Image Rule Page

Good Example

Example on file page from Runescape

• Makes FAIR USE Claim, if the rights holder disagreed

Best Practices

Where are you getting content?

• Compatible license? Make sure to attribute!
• If not, you need to at least be able to make the argument that it is fair use

How your displaying content?

• Is it the major “heart” of the article, or used to explain or clarify

What are local policies?

• Can be more restrictive, some wikis have a higher risk tolerance than other

Images

• Use licensing dropdowns

Remember Fair use Respect others copyright

• Do not copy material that isn’t freely license, PD, or a fair use

Don’t be scared – can always ask or remove

• Worst case scenario = DMCA, not the end of the world.

Other Webinars

• File:Templates Overview
• File:Wikia Mobile Apps & Skin
• File:Videos on your wiki
• File:Templates 101 Tips for editing & creating templates on Wikia
• File:Social Media & Your Wiki
• File:Best Practices for Structuring your Wiki Categories, Namespaces and Navigation
• File:SEO Tips and Tricks
• File:Wikia Webinars - Introducing the Message Wall & Wiki Navigation
• File:Managing your wiki - review of tools & special pages
• Webinars
• File:Mainpages 101 - How to make a great mainpage for your wiki
• File:Keeping The Peace - Best practices for handling conflict on your wiki
• File:Tips for Designing & Promoting Your Wiki
• File:Intro to CSS & Your Wiki Webinar
• File:What is your copyright - A webinar focused on content licensing with Creative Commons.wmv
• File:Community Guidelines Webinar
• File:Tips & Tools for Community Discussions
• File:Advanced Ways to Customize Your Wiki Webinar
• File:Wikia Webinars - Admin Tools & Tips