Copyright and Fair

Use
Crystal Cervantes

Copyright
First I would like to define what copyright is and
what materials are under its protection. According
to the United States Copyright Office copyright is a
form of protection provided by the laws of the
United States for "original works of authorship",
including literary, dramatic, musical, architectural,
cartographic, choreographic, pantomimic, pictorial,
graphic, sculptural, and audiovisual creations. So
depending on the creator of the work another
person literally has the right to copy it under
certain circumstances under fair use.

Copyright
I do know that the copyrights last for that persons
life span and up to 100 years after that, not
indefinitely which could mean that someone else
can tweak it and copyright it after but I am not
exactly sure how all of that works since it goes
through the law. If a person were to use the
material in a way the holder feels like they are
being stolen from the situation usually gets
resolved in civil court but it all is resolved at their
cost through lawyers, etc. In some areas there
could even be criminal consequences to unfairly
using material but most cases are solved out of
court.

Fair Use
According to Stanford University Libraries fair use is when
another person copies copyrighted material done for a
limited and transformative purpose, such as to
comment upon, criticize, or parody a copyrighted work.
Therefore a person may use copyrighted material under
fair use for either commentary or criticism or for a parody.
There are other reasons a person may use the materials
but those are the two categories that fair use usually falls
under. The full material cannot be used but bits and
pieces here and there can. I see this as a protection for
the creators of the work so it is not stolen from them and
passed as someone elses work, like in plagiarism but also
as a way for others to use it for their own purposes.

My Responses
Response to Eimy Sandoval
I was in the same boat. I basically knew it existed but
I did not know exactly what it meant or included. You
are correct about how it can have an impact in the
education system due to the fact that it is not really
talked about. We would see sheets of work passed
out with the copyright information on there but that is
about it. if anyone used copyrighted material in a way
they are not suppose to nothing was ever said and I
believe it is because it is thought that it is "ok" since
technically they cannot get caught as easily as with
plagiarism and it truly is sad because to me it is still
stealing someone else's work.

Response to Shelby Cromeens

For as long as I can remember teachers have lectured
every year about plagiarism and how important it is
but I cannot remember not once where a teacher has
mentioned anything about copyrighting until this
semester in this class. I knew it existed but I did not
have a clear understanding about it until having
researched about it now. I believe they did not lecture
us on it as much because I have noticed most
teachers use copyrighted material for their class and
we don't know much about it so we never thought
anything of it, especially since it was used in a class as
material for us to learn from, which can be considered
as proper use for some. But I still do not believe it to
be right unless they have proper permission.

References
Stim, R., (2010). What is Fair Use? Copyright & Fair
Use Stanford University Libraries. Retrieved from
http
://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/fair-use/what-is-fair
-use/

United States Copyright Office. (2015). U.S.

Copyright Definitions. Library of Congress.
Retrieved from
http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/definitions.html