Public Domain Works - What Is It?

By Luis Arroyo
You may have heard of works that are in the public domain being used as new products by entrepreneurs today. This is a great way to start a business, or to improve the overall bottom line of an existing business.

Work that is in the public domain includes any work for which the copyright has expired, and not been renewed, any work that was published prior to 1923, works produced by the United States Government, and other specific Governments, Work that is donated to the public domain, or any other work that has no laws that restrict its use by the public.

The work itself may be in the form of a book, an article, a song, a film, a photograph, a painting, or even an invention. These works that are not covered by copyright laws, or are no longer covered by copyright laws, are free for the public to use as they see fit.

This does not mean that if a work is freely obtained it is in the public domain. In other words, if you saw it on a website, for free, that doesn't mean that it is okay for you to use it. In fact, most things that are written down, in any form, are automatically copyrighted.

Public domain refers to work in which the copyright has run its course. According to the Copyright Office of the United States:

"The term of copyright for a particular work depends on several factors, including whether it has been published, and, if so, the date of first publication.

As a general rule, for works created after January 1, 1978, copyright protection lasts for the life of the author plus an additional 70 years. For an anonymous work, a pseudonymous work, or a work made for hire, the copyright endures for a term of 95 years from the year of its first publication or a term of 120 years from the year of its creation, whichever expires first. For works first published prior to 1978, the term will vary depending on several factors." (Source: http://www.copyright.gov )

Public domain also refers to work that was meant for the public domain, such as work that is donated, as well as work that never had a copyright, which would be work that was created prior to 1923, or work that was not copyrightable material.

These materials are free for the public to use, in any manner that they choose. You can use bits and pieces of a public domain work, or the entire work itself. You can create new work from the bits and pieces, or sell an entire work - as you see fit.

Copyright or Copyleft?

You most likely know what a copyright is, but if you don't, according to the United States Copyright Office, a copyright is a set of rights granted by the Government for a limited time to protect creative or artistic forms or works including literary works, movies, musical works, sound recordings, paintings, photographs, software, and industrial designs.

But what is Copyleft?

While Copyleft is NOT an actual legal term, such as copyright, it is often referred to as a reciprocal license. With a Copyleft, instead of a copyright, restrictions are usually imposed on a work stating that when the work is copied, modified, or used in any subsequent work, the author of that subsequent work must grant the same Copyleft rights to the public for the subsequent work. It's kind of like passing the rights forward.

Copyleft is usually symbolized with a backward C in the copyright symbol. Copyleft is often used for open source computer software, documents, music, and art. Copyleft is essentially the opposite of a copyright.

Where a copyright basically says 'no, you may not use my work,' a Copyleft says 'yes, please use my work, but you must allow others to use the work that you create from my work as well.'

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Copyrights: You Can Preregister Your Work

By Frederic Douglas
People often ask how to "copyright" their work, be it music, a novel, a website, a software application, or many other works. They recognize that they should register a copyright to receive proper compensation, respect, or at least credit for their hard work.

But what if you have not finished your work but someone might still be copying it before you are ready to spring it on the world? For example, you are working on a song and you email the demo track to a producer to try to seek help in working on your song. The producer never returns your messages. The producer did not even acknowledge getting your email with the song attached.

Is the producer too busy to listen to your song? Is the producer thinking that your song totally sucks? Or has the producer stayed up nights and weekends rehearsing the song with a protégé and preparing the payola deals with Top 40 radio? Of course, this never happens in real life. Just a hypothetical.

Perhaps you should consider preregistering your work as a safeguard. Whenever your work is not finished, but you think that someone else could begin to become "inspired" by your unfinished masterpiece, preregistration might help.

Before you go to copyright.gov to preregister your work, understand that preregistration is not useful for most situations. Take my song example above. Besides the preregistration of the song, you could have actually registered the musical composition (you do know how to read musical notation, don't you?) and you could have actually registered the "sound recording."

Still, you might want to preregister your work. Note that preregistration is not a substitute for registration. It is only a safeguard. You still need to actually register the copyright when the work is published. Take another example, this time for a holiday cookbook. You expect to publish the book at the beginning of the holiday season, even though you finished the book six months in advance. Just because the book is not published yet, you can still register the copyright as an unpublished work. You can actually register a completed work that is just not published yet (or ever). Preregistration would not have provided any benefit if your manuscript was already finished.

The U.S. Copyright Office allows you to preregister only if the work is unpublished and you are preparing the work for commercial distribution (you are hoping to make money, aren't you?). You also need to have already started creating your work. Talking about it at the local cantina or therapist's office (redundant?) is not enough. Either way, the Copyright Office will allow preregistration if the work is either a film, musical work, sound recording, computer program, book, or a photograph for advertisement.

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Plagiarism - Different Ways How You Can Avoid Plagiarism

By Suryaratna Chandrashekar
Plagiarism is the process of copying a person's idea or written work and claiming it as their original. This is just one definition for it, but at the core of it is cheating. In most countries, it is considered illegal. It can easily be avoided by citing the sources and writing your own work.

How to Prevent Plagiarism:

1. Be mindful that plagiarism happens.
2. Know the different types of its occurrence.
3. Quote the experts and then provide your own reasoning and point of view.
4. Ask for assistance. For editing or additional knowledge, a teacher, mentor or boss can assist you with the specifics.
5. Avoid the use of "common knowledge" unless the common knowledge can be followed up with facts. For example, Barrack Obama is the 44th President of the United States is a common knowledge; how many soldiers died during the war, is not.

There are a few examples of plagiarism:

a. Copying an article, essay, etc on the internet and posting it on a websites.
b. Removing the name of the author and changing it to your own name.
c. Getting the exact phrases from another person's work.
d. Copying or grabbing another person's photo, ideas, or work without their permission.
e. Presenting research in your own words without giving the reference.
f. Obtaining another person's text and using it as your own.
g. Showing the ideas in the same way as someone else, with the same research source.

Types of plagiarism:

a. The Self Stealer - The writer takes from his earlier work that has originally been used someplace else, like a college student taking an old high school paper and using it in college.
b. The Photocopy - They copied important portions straight from one source.
c. The Potluck Paper - The writer attempts to cover up plagiarism through copying from more than a few resources and rephrasing it.
d. The Poor Disguise - Important matter of the content has been retained but the writer altered it through changing key words and phrases
e. The Labor of Laziness - Paraphrasing many sources and joining them together to place it in a single work.

Ways to avoid plagiarism

1. Paraphrase - Be sure not to use someone else's words, alternate ways to say the same thing or just rewording the sentence is not going to work, it is still considered plagiarism. Write your thoughts in your own words based on your own comprehension. It is advisable to go through the needed reading material, study it then put your own spin on it to make it totally yours.
2. Quotation Marks - When you need to use someone else's writing as a basis for your article, it is advisable to put them in quotation marks.
3. Cite Sources - It is safe to put "According to doctor or professor", and a link to provide the website can.
4. Manage your time - If a deadline was given to you, it's best to work earlier so that there is an ample time to investigate or evaluate your research and write again if necessary.

No matter how you might think about it, plagiarism is stealing. You are using someone else's hard work and calling it your own. Take the time needed for what you are trying to do, and make the work your own. Then you do not have to worry later on that someone will find out that you did not do the work and cause you a lot of grief, possibly losing your job, college degree, reputation or a good friend.

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Copyright Law: An Overview

By J M Dawson
Copyright law is a property protection law that protects any type of literary property, such as literary work, music, films, sound recordings, artistic work, and dramatic work of the original writer or creator. The law comes into action the moment the work is created. This law helps in protecting the rights of the writers and creators.

Works Protected By Copyright Law

Literary works includes poems, shorts stories, business letters, books, novels, and any other type of original writing. Dramatic work includes dance, sound, and mimes. Musical works includes the rhymes, the musical notes, and the materials that affect the human ear, like harmonies or orchestras. Artistic works include photographs, sculptures, architecture, and graphics. Film and sound recording or broadcasts include sound tracks and the dramatic work that goes into making films.

Infringement Of Copyright Law

Any kind of recreation of these works is considered copyright infringement, and copyright law kicks in. The copyright law does not protect ideas or patents. Patents are protected by patent law.

Copyright law comes into effect as soon as a literary work is created. However, it is a good idea to protect the copyright of the material by indicating the copyrights after the work is completed, so any accidental reuse can be avoided. Further, one can register the work at a copyright office for safety purposes. This is especially applicable to some huge literary works, or innovative work, or any other high-value work, such as novels, new research, a good story, and many more. If a work is registered at the copyright office, any claim of ownership or any claim against misuse of copyrighted material can be dealt with successfully.

There are several copyright registration options available, online registration and in paper registration to name a few, and these cost less than $100 in registration fees.

Legal Recourse

If one finds that a particular work has been stolen and reproduced elsewhere, one can file a copyright infringement claim. However, the onus is on the claimant to prove that the material was originally created by him or her and prove that it had copyrights before the other party reproduced the work. If the material is registered at the copyrights office, it is easier to win the claim; however, if it is not registered, one would need an expert attorney to represent one's case.

If one is beginning any important literary or artistic work, which is high value, and if one believes that losing the work can cost a lot financially, one can hire a copyright attorney, who will ensure that the material is protected from the beginning and adequate safeguard measures are taken to prevent any accidental or intentional infringement.

Any printed material immediately comes under the purview of copyright law. However, the value of the printed matter differs from something nominal to high value. Thus, the impact of copyright infringement also varies based on the value and type of material. It is always a good practice to immediately register any printed material with a copyright office to avoid legal hassles and financial loss that may occur in the future.

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When Is Music Sharing Illegal?

By James Witherspoon
Sharing music through the Internet has become enormously popular around the world, especially on college campuses. Online piracy of music is defined as uploading a copyrighted sound recording to the Internet for others to download or downloading the uploaded music from a website or file-sharing network. These actions are considered to be illegal even if the downloader or uploader doesn't resell the music file. Another form of music sharing on a website, streaming, is also considered to be illegal.

The laws traditionally associated with movie copyrights also apply to music. When music is illegally shared, distributed, reproduced, or rented, it falls under the jurisdiction of the FBI who can then investigate and prosecute those who break copyright laws. If you are found guilty of breaking copyright laws, you may be fined $250,000 or given 5 years of jail time for damages to the music industry.

There are other forms of material that fall under the copyright distribution laws. These include:

Software Written materials , Pictures , Sound recordings ,

The Recording Industry Association of America gives examples of different situations that are deemed illegal file sharing activities. These are:

* Someone sends you copyrighted music via email and you forward it on to your friends.
* You buy a CD, make MP3s out of the songs, and upload them available on a peer-to-peer network for others to download.
* You don't provide music on a file-sharing network but you download music from it.
* You pay to download or upload music on a peer-to-peer network, but the network is not an authorized distributor of music.

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Some Business Owners Are Unaware That If They Play Music in Their Business They Need a Licence

By Stewart Spencer
If a business includes music in its products or in their telephone on-hold system they need clearance from the owners of the music. They should be aware that penalties exist for non-compliance. This also applies to Wedding Videos, School concerts and events that play music, even as background mood music.

PRS (Performing Right Society) for Music created in Jan 2009 with MCPS (Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society) are the non-profit organization set up to ensure composers, publishers and songwriters are paid the royalties due to them whenever their music is played. This applies to live performances, TV and Radio, CD & DVD Duplication, CD & DVD Replication, in other words, all Duplicators and Replicators require a copy of the licence agreement prior to proceeding with the 'copying'. It also applies to downloads and streams and everything in between.

The cost of the music licence will depend on a number of different factors; they include the type of premises, the size of premises and the nature and extent to which the music is used. Apparently around 350,000 businesses in the UK have paid for a licence. There are some exceptions when a licence is not needed like; treatment areas in hospitals, medical day centres, divine worship, civil and partnership ceremonies and lone and home workers.

It is the responsibility of writers of unpublished music or music published by non members of PRS to register the music and make any amendments, as well as publishers with already published music to do so on behalf of their writers. Any music that is co-written and co-published is the responsibility of all parties.

There are over forty different tariffs, which covers everything from music in shops to music on-hold telephone systems. This way there is a fairer charging system according to use. The tariffs paid will also depend on size and type of organization and premises, these will include private business, and government organizations, educational establishments etc.

finally it will also include the extent to which the music is used. Royalties are divided between the writers and publishers depending on the publishing agreement.

For the songwriter, composer or publisher, when a piece of music is registered, it will allow them to start earning money whenever it is used. This can be when it is played on the radio, TV programme or advertisement, festivals, gigs or indeed when any business uses their music in a way described earlier.

Therefore, budding songwriters and publishers on the one hand and businesses etc on the other would be advised to contact PRS for Music directly or visit their website for more information. Or you can call Dischromatics on 01495 243222.

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Is a Jailbroken iPhone Exempt From Prohibition Against Technology Circumvention of DRM?

By Rick Michaud
Apple was recently at the center of a controversy with the DMCA. They asserted the "jailbreaking" of their iPods and iPhones in order to allow users to access applications not available through and approved by Apple to be a violation of the DMCA.

Section 1201 of the copyright law (17 U.S.C. §1201(a)(1)) requires every three years that the Librarian of Congress determine whether there are any classes of works that will be subject to exemptions from prohibition against the circumvention of Digital Rights Management (DRM), which is a form of technology that controls access to a copyrighted work.

Based on a rulemaking proceeding conducted by the Register of Copyrights and her resulting recommendation, the Librarian then determines whether the prohibition on circumvention of technological measures that control access to copyrighted works is causing or is likely to cause adverse effects on the ability of users of any particular classes of copyrighted works to make non-infringing uses of those works.

In response to the Register's most recent rulemaking proceeding and recommendation, the Librarian of Congress has determined that there are 6 classes of works, and that persons who circumvent access controls in order to engage in non-infringing uses of works in these six classes will not be subject to the statutory prohibition against circumvention.

These Six Classes of Works Pertain:

1. To the use of motion pictures on DVDs.
2. Computer programs that that enable wireless telephone handsets to execute software applications.
3. Computer programs that enable used wireless telephone handsets to connect to a wireless telecommunications network.
4. Video games accessible on personal computers.
5. Computer programs protected by dongles.
6. Literary works that are distributed in e-book format.

In response to the requests made by at least one consumer advocate group, the Librarian's determination explicitly recognized an exemption to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to permit the circumvention of such access controls for phones (known as "jailbreaking") to allow owners to use their phones with applications that are not available from the manufacturer and to "unlock" their phones for use with service providers that are not approved by the manufacturer.

However, it was argued in response that the locks put on phones (by Apple, for example) were used to limit the ability of phone service subscribers to switch service providers, a limit that was simply a business decision that had no bearing on the interests normally protected by copyright and, therefore, the DMCA was not implicated.

At least one argument against Apple's assertion was that prohibiting the jailbreaking of iPhones was akin to a toaster manufacturer being able to dictate what brands of bread can be used to make toast in its product.

Of course, while a user is now free to use any applications he or she desires on their phone, actually jailbreaking an iPhone may have negative consequences, such as voiding the manufacturer's warranty or not being able to make a jailbroken iPhone work with a non-approved phone service.

Of particular note in this case is the circumvention of access controls as they relate to computer programs that enable wireless telephone handsets to connect to wireless telecommunications networks.

As noted in the copyright law, the results of a rulemaking proceeding are applicable for a three-year period, and the exemptions determined by the Librarian must be re-argued. Thus, in a year or two, the Register of Copyrights will open up a comment forum and begin accepting submissions in preparation for the next rulemaking. Apple (and any other phone manufacturer or any owner of copyrightable subject matter) will then be free to argue for the expiration of the exemptions set forth by the most recent determination.

Richard Michaud is a founding member and managing partner of the Michaud-Kinney Group, an international intellectual property law firm headquartered in Connecticut. His firm has extensive experience in all aspects of intellectual property law including foreign and domestic patent preparation, prosecution and litigation. He is also experienced at trademark and copyright preparation, prosecution and litigation as well as in

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