Copyright
Overview
All original material is copyrighted if it was created after April 1, 1989. It doesn’t matter if it is specified as copyrighted or not. If it was created before that time, you will need to check into it and find out more information about that particular material. This is known as the Berne Copyright Convention. So, to put it plainly, as soon as any original idea becomes tangible it is copyrighted, and becomes intellectual property. The specifically stated categories are:
- Literary works
- musical works, including any accompanying words
- dramatic works, including any accompanying music
- pantomimes and choreographic works
- pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works
- motion pictures and other audiovisual works
- sound recordings
- architectural works
We are told that these categories are to be interpreted loosely, and that it is also tangible if it can be perceived with the aid of an electronic device. So as long as you store your personal original ideas somewhere other than in your own memory, then you have the copyright to that intellectual property.
This copyright will continue to be in effect 75 years after the death of the copyright holder. After that time the material will become public domain. This means that it becomes available for anyone to use.
Copyright give the holder and only the holder to do the following:
- To reproduce the work in copies or phonorecords;
- To prepare derivative works based upon the work;
- To distribute copies or phonorecords of the work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending;
- To perform the work publicly, in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and motion pictures and other audiovisual works;
- To display the work publicly, in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and pictorial, graphic, or sculptural works, including the individual images of a motion picture or other audiovisual work; and
- In the case of sound recordings,* to perform the work publicly by means of a digital audio transmission.
The copyright holder may also authorize another person to do the above as well. A phonorecord can be a cassette tape, CD, vinyl disk or physical objects that can contain a sound recording.
What does all this mean for me?
It means that any material you see on the web or otherwise is likely copyrighted, whether it is specifically stated or not. If the author of that material gives you permission on the website (or in some other way) then feel free to use it. If the author allows you to use it once you meet certain conditions, make sure you meet the conditions before you use that material, and finally, if nothing is stated make sure you get written permission to use the material.
Adherence
- OpenOffice.org specifies it's name as OpenOffice.org and no other spelling or capitalization can be used on their press page: http://marketing.openoffice.org/press_kit.html. This request was observed on the following pages: Open Source Software, About OpenOffice.org, and About PortableApps.com.
- Mozilla only requests that I not mislead my readers to beleive my page is endorsed or created by them, among other requirements. All requirements have been met that have been specified on http://www.mozilla.org/foundation/trademarks/policy.html. The Trademark of Firefox has been used on the Firefox and Extensions page as well as the Open Source Software page.
- Google Docs™ specifies that I use the ™ symbol with that trademark on their permissions page http://www.google.com/permissions/guidelines.html. That trademark was used on the page Online Alternatives to Office.
- Zoho specifies on their trademark page, http://www.zohocorp.com/trademarks.html, that their trademarks can only be used with written permission, which I have received. Their trademark is used on Online Alternatives to Office.
- Microsoft notes that no permissions is required to use the trademarks associated with their software as long as they are spelled and capitalized properly, and they are not used in the possessive form. This can be found on their trademark usage page, http://www.microsoft.com/About/Legal/EN/US/IntellectualProperty/Trademarks/Usage/Office.aspx.
- Android falls under Google, and their trademark and logo are used in accordance with their policies found on their permissions page, http://www.google.com/permissions/guidelines.html. The Android logo can be found on the Android Media page, http://www.android.com/media/.
- Canonical, who is over Ubuntu specifies that we not mislead our readers that they endorse our site as specified in their trademark policy page, http://www.ubuntu.com/aboutus/trademarkpolicy.
- The tie-dye shirt page used content from wikipedia, as cited at the end of that page. The wikipedia page can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tie-dye. According to their terms of use on http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Terms_of_Use and the Creative Commons License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ that page now falls under the Creative Commons License, none of the rest of the pages on this site fall under that license though.
All other images and usage are original work, or they do not fall under any restrictions.
Sources
Parts of this page were obtained from the following sources:
- http://www.copyright.gov/
- Parts of the Copyright Essentials slideshow were used. It can be found at http://school.blainerobertson.net/230/#ppt.