Role of Copyright

Not too long ago, the only familiarity most of us had with copyright was the copyright notice inside the books we read. Most faculty members would have been aware of assigning a copyright to a publisher, but this was typically an inconsequential act. Today, copyright has complicated ramifications throughout academic life.

You probably have an intuitive understanding of copyright's importance in the creation and distribution of creative works--books, journal articles, electronic publications, music, movies, software, and more. You are probably aware that when you make and distribute copies of others' work to others, it may or may not be a fair use. Most of us, know that massive public distribution of copyrighted works without the owners' permission is illegal.

The role of copyright in the flow of research is undergoing dramatic and exciting change. The options for scholarly communication have never been broader or more effective. You will find discussion of copyright woven throughout important aspects of research and teaching, such as:

• the use of others' works in the classroom, fieldwork, and the laboratory;
• building on the works of others to create new works;
• open source software development;
• use and reuse of datasets;
• Creative Commons licensing;
• open access to research results and its acceleration of the pace of scientific discovery;
• the digitization of books in the public domain and digital access to works still in print, as well as orphan works; and
• the resulting opportunities to discover knowledge that's been hard to access in the past.

Copyright enables us and it throws stumbling blocks in our path. If you take the time to learn a little bit about it, you can exploit its benefits and avoid its pitfalls.