Posted by: RuthDukelow
August 14, 2008 @ 2:58pm
The first question is - is this toy still protected under copyright and/or trademark? I'm guessing that - since you said it has been around since the 60's - that it is probably protected by copyright and perhaps even trademark, since it sounds like it is... Read more...
Replies: 1Posted by: williamsonl
August 14, 2008 @ 1:43pm
We have come across something odd in our collection and I would like to hear various cases for/against. We have a set of 2 videos produced in the 1970's of a professor at Dartmouth that cover lessons for teaching Shakespeare. These are tapes of the... Read more...
Replies: 1Posted by: ksmith
August 12, 2008 @ 11:31am
Works created by an independent contractor are only "work made for hire" that is owned by the employer if there is an explicit agreement to that effect and the work falls into one of nine broad categories that are spelled out in the Copyright Act (see 17... Read more...
Replies: 1Posted by: ksmith
August 11, 2008 @ 5:58pm
Only if the microfilming company or the institution contributed original expression. Simply filming a public domain text does not create any copyrights for either entity. One cannot "earn" a copyright in the US merely through "sweat of the brow."
Replies: 3Posted by: ksmith
July 29, 2008 @ 2:36pm
Georgia Harper's "Crash Course in Copyright" is an excellent resource that is directed toward faculty. It is online and available without charge at http://copyright.lib.utexas.edu/.
Replies: 2Posted by: JanetCroft
July 24, 2008 @ 12:51pm
Many of the "product descriptions" on Amazon are taken from the publishers' websites of catalogs, but not necessarity all. I think you'd be safest going to the publisher's own description of the item on their own website. Using the customer reviews... Read more...
Replies: 1Posted by: shadowpuppeteer
July 22, 2008 @ 9:01am
My question is in regards to me creating a shadow puppet show / story performance of Eric Carle’s, “Slowly, Slowly, Slowly, Said the Sloth”. I intend to perform the shadow puppet show only at the library, which is free admission, of course. I would... Read more...
Replies: 2Posted by: ksmith
July 22, 2008 @ 8:06am
A fax transmission is not a digital copy, so a printed copy sent by fax is subject to the "analog" rules. I generally think, in terms of ILL, that faxing a copy is fine but that the sending library should not retain the original print in order to avoid... Read more...
Replies: 1Posted by: williamsonl
July 17, 2008 @ 1:39pm
I think you would only run into a problem if the library (or a researcher, I guess) wanted to publish the papers. We have many items like this in our collection and they are used frequently by researchers. We also now try to have a written agreement... Read more...
Replies: 5Posted by: ksmith
July 17, 2008 @ 6:37am
Unfortunately, whenever we have to determine whether works are still in protection, the discussion is messy and ill-suited to this forum. Basically there are two broad questions here: Does the commercial sale of the postcards qualify as publication and,... Read more...
Replies: 2Posted by: RuthDukelow
July 15, 2008 @ 8:07am
Abstracts are considered to be original material protected by copyright. I believe that you would need to obtain permission before using someone else's abstract in your database. Or - you could write your own original abstracts for your database....
Replies: 1Posted by: ksmith
July 14, 2008 @ 1:52pm
Unfortunately, there is no numerical rule or percentage guide about how much one must change a copyrighted work in order to avoid copyright infringement. As you note, such a rule would be impossible to measure, and courts do not try.
[|n|n|]... Read more...
Replies: 4Posted by: ksmith
July 7, 2008 @ 1:07pm
Orphan works are, by definition, not in the public domain. And in the absence of any legislatively adopted solution (there has been none), using an orphan work subjects one to the risk of the full set of copyright remedies if a rights holder subsequently... Read more...
Replies: 5Posted by: ksmith
July 5, 2008 @ 4:29pm
Based on your original question, it sounds like the basic issue is whether your permission from your old mentor to use the young adult adaptations covers the making of a derivative work. To be able to publish and freely use the translation, you either... Read more...
Replies: 6Posted by: ksmith
June 22, 2008 @ 5:33am
I will leave it to others to comment on the details of your practices, although I will say what you describe seems well outside of accepted practice for interlibrary loan and fair use. It is unusual, I think, for a library to built a collection of... Read more...
Replies: 5Posted by: ksmith
June 16, 2008 @ 5:18am
This is not a copyright question at all, since no person can claim any copyright in the facts (or myths) about his or her own life.
In fact, what you want to do is done all the time by novelists. To take a recent example, "The Dante Club"... Read more...
Replies: 3Posted by: jdeb
June 2, 2008 @ 7:38am
Late last year, the University of Wisconsin, Madison filed suit against Washburn on trademark infringement, even though Washburn had taken deliberate steps to alter their logo, minimizing any similarities:
[|n|n|]... Read more...
Replies: 4Posted by: ksmith
May 27, 2008 @ 10:22am
Freya asks an important question; access is half of the usual test for infringement. The other half of the test is "substantial similarity." This two-pronged test is used whenever direct copying cannot be proved.
Since you have seen the... Read more...
Replies: 3Posted by: Freya Anderson
May 27, 2008 @ 10:16am
To determine the answer to your question, I think more information is needed. Questions that come to mind for me include: What kind of "information" would be saved? Is it more factual or more creative? Is it available for purchase? How much of the... Read more...
Replies: 3Posted by: ksmith
May 22, 2008 @ 11:35am
The widespread, but not universal, practice of treating some electronic reserves as fair use in the first semester of use but requiring permission for subsequent uses derives from the "classroom copying" guidelines which were part of the House report on... Read more...
Replies: 5Posted by: MKardick
May 20, 2008 @ 8:32am
My short answer but not to be considered legal advice is this. If you are being asked to post the thesis on a limited access website (class members, university staff or some other limited group) for the purpose of education then I believe that is fair... Read more...
Replies: 1Posted by: MKardick
May 13, 2008 @ 6:22am
With more and more things being done electronically, I am not surprised that there is not a physical license. I often e-mail asking for permission to include images in our school yearbook and only get an elecronic response. Assuming the entity you... Read more...
Replies: 2Posted by: AFry
May 6, 2008 @ 7:26pm
I was hoping that someone else would be the first to answer because I do not believe that my view represents the consensus.
I feel safe in many situations that most people consider unsafe. Most people would say that I am more tolerant of... Read more...
Replies: 2Posted by: AFry
April 29, 2008 @ 1:42pm
If so, is it illegal to read a story to your class as a reward or just for entertainment? When I look at 110(1), I don't see anything that differentiates a video from a book.
110 is an exemption. It tells you what you can do (what is legal) not... Read more...
Replies: 5Posted by: AFry
April 21, 2008 @ 7:27am
I'm not sure that I understand your situation. I think you are saying that the supplier may not be paying the copyright fee, and I think you are asking if you have any responsibility for the supplier's behavior. If I've got that wrong, please let me... Read more...
Replies: 2