Copyright

Examples of Copyright in the following topics:

• Copyrights

  • Copyright Office.
  • If the business developed the work in question, the value of the copyright is equal to the cost the business incurred securing the copyright.
  • Since a copyright eventually terminates, it is amortized.
  • This means that the book value of the copyright is divided by the useful life of the copyright to determine the amortization amount.
  • This continues until the value of the copyright equals zero.

• Introduction to Contributor Agreements

  • There are three ways to handle copyright ownership for free code and documentation that were contributed to by many people.
  • The first is to ignore the issue of copyright entirely (I don't recommend this).
  • The third way is to get actual copyright assignments from contributors, so that the project (i.e., some legal entity, usually a nonprofit) is the copyright owner for everything.
  • (Also, actual copyright transferral is subject to national law, and licenses designed for the United States may encounter problems elsewhere (e.g., in Germany, where it's apparently not possible to transfer copyright). )
  • Because they know they can do this, most contributors cooperate when asked to sign a CLA or an assignment of copyright.

• Transfer of Copyright

  • Copyright transfer means that the contributor assigns to the project copyright ownership on her contributions.
  • Some projects insist on full assignment because having a single legal entity own the copyright on the entire code base can make enforcement of the license terms somewhat more convenient, if they ever need to be enforced in court.
  • Some simply get an informal statement from a contributor on a public list mailing list—something to the effect of "I hereby assign copyright in this code to the project, to be licensed under the same terms as the rest of the code."
  • Since the FSF is copyright holder for a lot of popular software, they view this as a real possibility.
  • In general, unless there's some specific reason why your project needs full copyright assignment, just go with CLAs; they're easier for everyone.

• Digital Media and Intellectual Property Issues

  • Generally, it is "the right to copy," but also gives the copyright holder rights including:
  • Although copyright laws protecting intellectual property are considered territorial and restricted to the territory of their origin, most countries are parties to at least one or more international copyright agreement.
  • Most jurisdictions recognize copyright limitations, allowing "fair" exceptions to the creator's exclusivity of copyright, and giving users certain rights.
  • To protect their intellectual property both offline and online, businesses that rely heavily on copyright protection laws have advocated the extension and expansion of copyrights to the digital space.
  • The widespread sharing and repurposing of online content has led to concerns over copyright issues.

• Using Creative Commons Licenses

  • Creative Commons licenses are based on but do not replace copyrights.
  • Under an "all rights reserved" copyright, the licensor (the copyright owner) and the licensee negotiate for individual specific rights.
  • Under a "some rights reserved" copyright, standardized licenses can be reused when no commercial compensation is sought by the copyright owner.
  • The Creative Commons copyright licenses and tools thus forge a balance inside the traditional "all rights reserved" setting that copyright law creates.
  • These tools give a simple, standardized way to grant copyright permissions to the creative work of individuals, companies, and institutions.

• Legal Barriers

  • The government creates legal barriers through patents, copyrights, and granting exclusive rights to companies.
  • Intellectual property rights, including copyright and patents, are an important example of legal barriers that give rise to monopolies.
  • The intent behind copyright is to promote the creation of new works by providing creators the opportunity to profit from their works.
  • When the copyright on a work expires, the work is transferred to the public domain, enabling others to repurpose and build on the work.
  • Copyright is an example of a temporary legal monopoly granted to creators of original creative works.

• Openly Licensed Content

  • A work can be in the public domain if (a) it was originally designated as such by the creator or (b) its copyright license has expired.
  • Category (b) includes materials whose copyrights are no longer valid.
  • (Copyrights generally include a "copyright term"—a length of time over which they will apply, after which the copyright expires.)
  • The length of a copyright term varies, but it is generally on the order of 70 years beyond the life of the creator.
  • For example, Mary Shelley's book Frankenstein, originally published in 1818, is now far outside of its copyright term and therefore is in the public domain.

• The MIT / X Window System License

  • The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall beincluded in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
  • IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BELIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTIONOF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTIONWITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

• Contributor License Agreements

  • But in both types, the core language is the same: the contributor grants the project "...perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge, royalty-free, irrevocable copyright license to reproduce, prepare derivative works of, publicly display, publicly perform, sublicense, and distribute [the] Contributions and such derivative works."
  • When you request CLAs from contributors, make sure to emphasize that you are not asking for actual copyright assignment.
  • This is a license agreement only; it does not transfer copyright ownership and does not change your rights to use your own Contributions for any other purpose.

• Further Resources

  • Creative Commons is an organization that promotes a range of more flexible and liberal copyrights than traditional copyright practice encourages.
  • They offer licenses not just for software, but for text, art, and music as well, all accessible via a user-friendly license selector; some of the licenses are copylefts, some are non-copyleft but still free, others are simply traditional copyrights but with some restrictions relaxed.