User:Mdupont/WhatEveryoneShouldKnowAboutCopyright

This is the wikipage for my conference talk.

What everyone should know about copyright and copyleft.

copyright 2009 James Michael DuPont

h4ck3rm1k3@flossk.org

History of copying

Why is it so cheap to copy? Because we have cheap computers, ram, disk and internet connections.

The Communication has improved over time.

• With the invention of Music we can express feelings to each other.

The cost of copying was to be there, and to be able to mimic the sounds of the other. This can take a very long time.

• With Invention of Language we could talk to each other and not just mimic each other.

The language reduced the symbols in size and standardized them.

• With the invention of Oral_history we have a collective memory.

• With Invention of Writing we can write down our ideas and transfer them across time and space.

• With the invention of Printing we have cheaper ways to copy information.

• The usage of computers for communication. Timeline_of_computing_2400_BC–1949

• The cost of Computers has gone down enormously.
• The cost of Random_access_memory has gone down enormously.
• The cost of Internet access has gone down enormously.

see also the History_of_computing_hardware

cost of Storage

Vacuum tube computers List_of_vacuum_tube_computers were very expensive.

The cost of random access memory has been steadly decreasing.

in 1957.00 one transistor flipflop cost 392.00$

cost of disk

Cost of disk memory is dropping fast.

In 1956 IBM sold 5 megabytes for U$10,000 per megabyte. in 2004 the Western Digital Caviar SE with 250 gigabytes was 8.70 megabytes for 1 dollar.

public domain

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain

government content is publc domain

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_status_of_work_by_the_U.S._government

even in kosovo

 The material on the Prime Minister of Kosovo’s website 

is in the public domain and may be reproduced and distributed without prior permission. Hypertext links to this site may also be made without any prior permission. Citation of the material received and/or used from this website is welcome. Any material on this site which is subject to the copyright of a third party requires that any reproduction of this material receive the permission of the appropriate copyright holder.

speed of change of technology

The investment in the technology to produce copies is being rapidly outdated. Printing presses, Vinyl LP Presses, Video Cassette recorders.

software licenses

According to the Copyright Office, the first deposit of a computer program for registration was on November 30, 1961

  A software license (or software licence in commonwealth usage) is a legal instrument governing the usage or 
  redistribution of copyright protected software. All software not in the Public domain is copyright protected. 
  A typical software license grants an end-user permission to use one or more copies of software in ways where 
  such a use would otherwise constitute infringement of the software publisher's exclusive rights under
  copyright law. 

  Proprietary software is any computer software with restrictions on use or private modification, or with
  restrictions judged to be excessive on copying or publishing of modified or unmodified versions.
  The term proprietary software is thus the opposite of free software, generally speaking.
  These restrictions are placed on it by one of its proprietors.
  Similar terms include "closed-source software" and "non-free software". 

  Free software or software libre is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, 
  and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or 
  with minimal restrictions only to ensure that further recipients can also do these things and that 
  manufacturers of consumer-facing hardware allow user modifications to their hardware. 
  Free software is available gratis (free of charge) in most cases.

  Free and open source software, also F/OSS, FOSS, or FLOSS (free/libre/open source software) is 
  software which is liberally licensed to grant the right of users to study, change, and improve its 
  design through the availability of its source code. This approach has gained both momentum and acceptance 
  as the potential benefits have been increasingly recognized by both individuals and corporate players

 Software copyright, the relatively recent extension of copyright law to machine-readable software. 
 It is used by proprietary software companies to prevent the unauthorized copying of their software. 
 It is also used by proponents of open source software to encourage the disclosure of improvements to source
 code.

 Copyleft is a play on the word copyright to describe the practice of using copyright law to 
 remove restrictions on distributing copies and modified versions of a work for others and 
 requiring that the same freedoms be preserved in modified versions.

enforcement of copyright

United_States_civil_copyright_enforcement_procedure

       * Send a cease-and-desist letter. 

The copyright owner is responsible for notifying the infringer about the problem and asking them to stop.

       **  Optionally seek a temporary restraining order.

The court might ask the infringer to stop immediately.

       * File lawsuit

The copyright owner files a lawsuit in court.

       * Seek a preliminary injunction

Again, the court might ask the infringer to stop immediately, for the period of the trial.

       * Proceed through trial to arrive at a final decree on permanent injunction and damages

And then the court might order for the equipment used for this infringement to be confiscated, copies to be destroyed.

copyright law history

  Before the advent of digital computers controlled by computer programs, there was another device whose
  particular function was controlled by an encoded sequence of instructions – the player piano. 
  In 1908, the Supreme Court looked at the copyrightability of piano rolls in the case of 
  White-Smith Music v. Apollo. {FN1: 209 U.S. 1 (1908)} 

  When IBM unbundled software from computer hardware in 1969, it became common practice for software vendors to explicitly price software licenses.

copyright law faq

Copyright is valid as soon as work is fixed into form

As soon as you publish you work on a webpage, or even put it in a file, it is copyrighted.

Registration is not required

You do not need to register your work with the copyright office for it to be copyrighted.

Copyright Header is not required

If you do not declare the copyright in the file, it is still protected. If a file is lacking a header, it means that you need to seek permission to use it.

wipo

WIPO_Copyright_Treaty World Intellectual Property Organization Copyright Treaty

In the treaty, software is protected, as well as databases. It also prevents the removal of the copy protection software.

DMCA

The DMCA is the US implementation of WIPO.

"The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a United States copyright law that implements two 1996 treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)." - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Millennium_Copyright_Act

Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act

Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act This protects ISPs from being responsible for their clients.

Wipo in Serbia

There seem to be no WIPO implementation in Kosovo. But serbia has in 2006 after kosovo was under UNMIK administration.

creating software

fair use

The Stanford Copyright & Fair Use website is a great source of information about fair use.

  "When in doubt as to the right to use or acknowledge a source, the most prudent course may be to seek permission of the copyright owner."

The fair usage article is great and should be read in total. Fair_use

Wikipedia has a page on what images are considered fair use.

Many images are included on the Wikipedia that are not free.

The has been discussions on if the headline of a story can be protected.

The copyright office states on fair use : """The distinction between fair use and infringement may be unclear and not easily defined. There is no specific number of words, lines, or notes that may safely be taken without permission. """

The valid usage of a copyrighted material are :

• criticism - Parody and making fun of the original.
• comment - commenting with your own words.
• news reporting - reporting what happens.
• teaching/documentaries - teaching in school. Non profit.

Even the usage of a John Lennon snippet in a documentary is valid.

• scholarship/research - original works that studies other things.

1. the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
2. the nature of the copyrighted work;
3. amount and substantially 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.

Code Snippets and Fair Use

Small snippets of code that can be easily re-written can be used from other programs.

 Do I have “fair use” rights in using the source code of a GPL-covered program? Yes, you do. “Fair use” is use that is allowed without any special permission. Since you don't need the Developers' permission

Educational Purpose

"""Snippets of movies can be shown in the classrooms of public schools and non-profit educational institutions without a license pursuant to Section 110(1) of Title 17"""

Default Ownership of copyright

In the united states, the developer is the default owner of contract work.

In Kosovo, the company that payed for the work owns the rights.

Peer to Peer networks and infringment

If you are downloading from a P2P network, you can be considered a "direct infringer" and are infringing on the copyright holder's rights.

but the usage of such a copy as a lesser crime. the problem is that when you use a torrent, you are offering the content as well. this puts you into the criminal side.

During the early 2000s, the fight against copyright infringement expanded into lawsuits against individual users of file sharing software. File_sharing_and_the_law

A significant number of people share files in a way that infringes on the rights of copyright holders. Copyright holders have challenged the legality of file sharing networks. This has led to litigation by industry bodies against certain private individual file sharers.

See also

using header files, fair use

A header file commonly contains forward declarations of classes, subroutines, variables, and other identifiers."

 the *only* way to use a header file is to include it in a source file, and compile and copy the resultant output.
 Note that you cannot run a program without copying it. It's physically impossible. 

  System header files declare the interfaces to parts of the
    operating system.  You include them in your program to supply the
    definitions and declarations you need to invoke system calls and
    libraries.

 It seems that most of the people on this list have forgotten their compiler design course. If the kernel file only
 contains things like variable declarations and function prototypes then it will NOT end up in the object code
 after compilation. It will be used to inform the compiler of things like how much memory to set aside for a
 particulair variable or to make sure that the correct number of arguments are passed to a function in the correct 
 order. None of that type of "code" from a ".h" file ends up in the executable (unless debugging code is left in -
 but that's a little bit of a different story). 

 Header files that define APIs but
 don't directly produce binary output code by themselves are a gray area; it's
 sloppy of us to have those as GPL instead of LGPL anyway, but compiling
 against header files probably falls under fair use since the programmer did
 make a distinction between .h and .c files, and being included in other
 programs to allow interoperability with this bit of code is what .h files are
 FOR 

The LesserGPL allows you to use the structure and layout information of the code from the header files without infringement.

 Object Code Incorporating Material from Library Header Files.
 The object code form of an Application may incorporate material from a header file that is part of the Library. You may convey such object code under terms of your choice, provided that, if the incorporated material is not limited to numerical parameters, data structure layouts and accessors, or small macros, inline functions and templates (ten or fewer lines in length), you do both of the following:
   * a) Give prominent notice with each copy of the object code that the Library is used in it and that the Library and its use are covered by this License.
   * b) Accompany the object code with a copy of the GNU GPL and this license document.

 Copyright law does not protect idea, just the expression of them.  Several court
 decisions have been rendered which suggest that the 'purely functional' elements
 of a computer program are not copyrightable.  There are several cases that 
 explicitly deal with the issue of copyright and header files.  The most relevant
 one for Wine development is probably the 1992 decision in Sega v. Accolade, where
 Accolade reverse engineered the headers for Sega's ROM libraries in order to 
 develop games compatible with Sega's hardware without paying Sega's royalties.

avoiding patents

For software freedom to be maintained, it must also resist the siren call of patented software. It is important to avoid using any patented software so that you can maintain your freedom in the future.

Large corporations have failed to cripple linuxs development with patents starting back in 2003.

SCO claimed "the majority owner of Unix intellectual property" and "has full rights to license this technology, and enforce the associated patents and copyrights."

Currently Microsofts patents are sneaking their way into the Linux distributions

Linux Defenders

 “Defensive Publications” that codify ‘known’ inventions that have not previously been patented so that 
they can be brought to the attention of the patent office to ensure that later developed patent 
applications claiming such inventions do not issue. In general, defensive publications are a 
vehicle which allows the Linux and broader open source community to create valuable prior art 
that enables Linux and freedom of action/freedom to operate for those active in utilizing Linux 
to drive innovation in products, services, and applications 

  Prior art for a patent (application) means anything published before the filing date
 of the patent which describes the same or a similar invention. 

  Without software patents, Europe could save costs, foster innovation, enhance security, and create jobs.
 Thanks to Linux and other open-source software, Europe has the chance to gain independence from 
Microsoft and other large American companies. However, if the EU allows software patents, 
then that's the beginning of the end for Linux. Not only for Linux. 
It's just a prominent example. 

  What is Open Invention Network ? Open Invention Network’s mission is to further software innovation 
by acquiring patents to be used for cross-licensing purposes to defend the Linux System - 
making them available on a royalty-free basis. 

http://www.open-mag.com/02873583279.shtml

Creating Prior Art

The one way to fight patents is first also to create new ideas and publish them first. Open source implementations of ideas can be produced faster and cheaper and released faster then proprietary ones. The software, when published will keep those ideas from being patented.

  Prior art in most systems of patent law, constitutes all information that has been made available to the public in any form before a given date that might be relevant to a patent's claims of originality. If an invention has been described in prior art, a patent on that invention is not valid. 

copyright law in USA

  Copyright protects the particular way an author has expressed himself. It does not extend to any ideas, systems, or factual information conveyed in the work.
  The safest course is always to get permission from the copyright owner before using copyrighted material. The Copyright Office cannot give this permission.
  When it is impracticable to obtain permission, use of copyrighted material should be avoided unless the doctrine of fair use would clearly apply to the situation. The Copyright Office can neither determine if a certain use may be considered fair nor advise on possible copyright violations. If there is any doubt, it is advisable to consult an attorney. 

Copyright_law

copyright law in kosovo

6. Special measures of protection Article 126. As infringements of Copyright in a computer program shall be deemed also: a). any distribution, including the offering for use, of one or several copies of a computer program, knowing or having reason to believe, that it is an infringing copy; or b). the possession, for commercial purposes, of a copy of a computer program, knowing or having reason to believe, that it is an infringing copy.

copyleft

"Copyleft is a play on the word copyright to describe the practice of using copyright law to remove restrictions on distributing copies and modified versions of a work for others and requiring that the same freedoms be preserved in modified versions."

copyleft — noun: 1. A copyleft license, 2. The act of licensing under a copyleft license — verb: 1. To license under a copyleft license — adjective: 1. (Of a license allowing use of a copyrighted work) Allowing use, distribution, and modification on the condition that any redistributions

Copyright infringement

"Copyright infringement (or copyright violation) is the unauthorized use of material that is covered by copyright law, in a manner that violates one of the copyright owner's exclusive rights, such as the right to reproduce or perform the copyrighted work, or to make [...]" - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_infringement

Creative_commons

"Creative Commons (CC) is a non-profit organization devoted to expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share."

 Creative Commons has been described as being at the forefront of the copyleft movement, which seeks to support the
 building of a richer public domain by providing an alternative to the automatic "all rights reserved" copyright, 
 dubbed "some rights reserved." David Berry and Giles Moss have credited Creative Commons with generating interest
 in the issue of intellectual property and contributing to the re-thinking of the role of the "commons" in the 
 "information age". Beyond that, Creative Commons has provided "institutional, practical and legal support for  
 individuals and groups wishing to experiment and communicate with culture more freely."

 Creative Commons works to counter what the organization considers to be a dominant and increasingly restrictive  
 permission culture. According to Lawrence Lessig, founder of Creative Commons, it is "a culture in which creators 
 get to create only with the permission of the powerful, or of creators from the past". Lessig maintains that
 modern culture is dominated by traditional content distributors in order to maintain and strengthen their monopolies
 on cultural products such as popular music and popular cinema, and that Creative Commons can provide alternatives to
these restrictions. 

free software licenses

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software_licence

GPL

http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0-standalone.html

GPL How to

http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-howto.html

OSI

  The Open Source Initiative (OSI) is a non-profit corporation formed to educate about and advocate for the benefits of open source and to build bridges among different constituencies in the open-source community.

  OSI was founded inFebruary 1998, by Bruce Perens and Eric S. Raymond, prompted by Netscape Communications Corporation publishing the source code for its flagship Netscape Communicator product. Later, in August 1998 the organization added a board of directors.

De_minimis

If the copyright infringement was too small, then the courts will not be interested.

 De minimis is a Latin expression meaning about minimal things, normally in the phrases 
  de minimis non curat praetor 
 or 
  de minimis non curat lex
 meaning that the law is not interested in trivial matters.

creative commons

"Creative Commons (CC) is a non-profit organization devoted to expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share."

All rights dispersed

http://subsol.c3.hu/subsol_2/contributors0/nimustext.html

Wikipedia

1. problems with wikipedia in kosovo.

software license

"A software license (or software licence in commonwealth usage) is a legal instrument governing the usage or redistribution of copyright protected software."

Trademark infringement

"Trademark infringement is a violation of the exclusive rights attaching to a trademark without the authorization of the trademark owner or any licensees (provided that such authorization was within the scope of the license)." -

Copyright_infringement_of_software

"The copyright infringement of software (often referred to as software piracy) refers to several practices which involve the unauthorized copying of computer software." -

Enforcement

 Infringment (piracy)  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_infringement_of_software

http://www.fastiis.org/our_services/education/TheLaw/" About The Federation against Software Theft & Investors in Software

Do's and Dont's

The dos and donts of copyright :

do not call someone elses work your own. do cite and refer to others people work giveing them credit.

do not copy and distribute other peoples work without permission. do link to that work and show people where they can get it. do prefer to use public domain, creative commons and GPL sources that allow you to copy them.

do not use software that you have no rights to. do use public domain, open source, creative commons and GPL sources that allow you to use them without restriction. do be careful of software that you do not have source to, it could contain virus and bugs that you cannot fix. do be careful of yearly payments for new versions.

do not own copies of music that you did not buy. do own copies of public domain and creative commons. do have private copies of internet radio shows, but dont redistribute them.

do not offer copies of other peoples work to anyone without permission. do distribute copyleft materials. do publish your own creative work under copyleft.

do not expect new or different versions software to work as before. do test software in a test environment before using it widely.

Java is called, write once test everywhere. there is no such thing as portable software, only ported software.

The raising of the energy level of information, can be called negative entropy or intelligence.

the creative process of software development.

The analysis of data, collection of input. understanding of information merging in together. creative reproduction versus copying.

Facts are not copyrightable. Names are not copyrightable, but can be trademarked/service marked.

Comparison of works. Screen scraping of webpages, collecting of inputs and outputs. creation of test cases for comparing software. Running of software and extracting data. Benchmarking of software performance. Measuring of key performance indicators. Overlays of two maps.

Usage of copyrighted works as reference. Citation and not copying of copyrighted material. Fair usage of quotations and samples. EULA and other additional contracts.