Copyright Principles

Copyright is a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States to the authors of "original works of authorship," also referred to as "intellectual property." This protection is available to both published and unpublished works.
Intellectual property consists of anything that an individual has written or created. It could be music, text, graphic images, photographs, sounds, or other creative endeavors.
Fair Use Doctrine is part of the copyright laws. It states that "limited portions" of material may be used without written permission for certain purposes, such as reporting the news, academic research, and schoolwork. It doesn't specifically define what "limited portions" means, however, so it is important that copyright material not be overused. Also, the Fair Use Doctrine still requires you to give credit to the author or creator of any material that you use.

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. The organization has released several copyright licenses known as Creative Commons licenses. These licenses allow creators to communicate which rights they reserve, and which rights they waive for the benefit of recipients or other creators. The available licenses are as follows:

  • Attribution (by): Licensees may copy, distribute, display and perform the work and make derivative works based on it only if they give the author or licensor the credits in the manner specified by these.
  • Noncommercial or NonCommercial (nc): Licensees may copy, distribute, display, and perform the work and make derivative works based on it only for noncommercial purposes.
  • No Derivative Works or NoDerivs (nd): Licensees may copy, distribute, display and perform only verbatim copies of the work, not derivative works based on it.
  • ShareAlike (sa): Licensees may distribute derivative works only under a license identical to the license that governs the original work. Derivative work refers to copyrighted material that has been altered or changed. Such material is still protected by copyright laws. If you take a copyrighted photograph and alter it using computer software, that photograph is still protected and you may not use it without written permission from the copyright holder.

Citation List

Citation list is a list of sources that have been used in research or construction of a project. It is important when using the Internet for research or for design work that credit be given where it is due. Every TechYES project should have a citation list.

Copyright Rules

Ownership of a book, song, or other resource does not mean you can use it. You still have to get permission and cite it properly.

  1. Copyrighted material cannot be used without written permission from the creator of the material (or its copyright holder).
  2. Material does not require the © symbol to be displayed to be protected. Even if no mention is made regarding copyright, people must assume that all material from another source is protected.
  3. Penalties for violating copyright laws can range from the mild to the severe. A person who breaks the copyright law might simply receive an e-mail from the author asking her or him to stop using the material. If the material is published on a website, the violator might find the site shut down by the Webmaster. Or the violator could be sued by the author or prosecuted by federal authorities.
  4. To make sure that you do not violating copyright laws, it is important that you do the following:
  • Follow the directions on the site regarding use of the material. It might ask you to create a link on your page or to notify the author or creator.
  • If there are no directions, write or e-mail the work's author or creator and ask for permission to use her or his material. Do not use it until you are given permission.
  • Do NOT use any material if you don't have permission.

Royalty Free

Some web resources are labeled “royalty-free.” This does not mean you can just download and use them without citation. It means that you do not have to pay a fee to the author every time you use it. Follow all the rules on the website when you find royalty-free images, video, or audio.