Copyright and Public Domain

Posted on September 15, 2011 by timethief

Along with blogging comes responsibility and ignorance of the law is no excuse. Copyrightable works include but are not limited to literary works such as articles, blog posts, stories, journals, or computer programs, pictures and graphics, as well as audio and video recordings. Copyrights do not need not be applied for as they are vested in the creators of intellectual property. When we create something — we own the copyright, which is our exclusive right as the creator to control who else can use our work and in what manner. *

Berne Convention – International Copyright Agreement

The Berne Convention (for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works) was established in 1886 and is an international agreement that governs copyright. The Berne Convention requires its signatories to recognize the copyright of works of authors from other signatory countries (known as members of the Berne Union) in the same way as it recognizes the copyright of its own nationals.

In the United States, the Library of Congress officially registers copyrights which now last for the life of the author plus 70 years.

In the case of a joint work prepared by two or more authors who did not do a work for hire, the term lasts for 70 years after the last surviving author’s death.
In the case of works for hire, and for anonymous and pseudonymous works (unless the author’s identity is revealed in Copyright Office records), the duration of copyright will be 95 years from publication or 120 years from creation, whichever is shorter.

Public Domain

Thanks to organizations like Creative Commons, licenses like the GNU Free Documentation License, and the public domain, there are many images, songs, movies and documents freely available for you to download and republish without fear of violating copyright.

Public domain definition: The public domain is generally defined as consisting of works that are either ineligible for copyright protection or with expired copyrights. Public domain refers to the total absence of copyright protection for work The public domain is a range of abstract materials commonly referred to as intellectual property which are not owned or controlled by anyone. The term indicates that these materials are therefore “public property”, and available for anyone to use for any purpose.

Once in the public domain, it is always in the public domain. However, any variation on any public domain work becomes the property of the person making the variation, and it receives an automatic copyright, just as do completely original works.

When Copyright Protection Becomes Public Domain
The data below will let you know when you can safely use a piece of art or music without permission because it is now in public domain after copyright protection expiration, or how long the copyright protection will last.

Published before 1923 – now in public domain.	Published from 1923 to 1963 – When published with a copyright notice © or “Copyright [dates] by [author/owner]” – copyright protection lasts 28 years and could be renewed for an additional 67 years for a total of 95 years. If not renewed, now in public domain.	Published from 1923 to 1963 – When published with no notice – now in public domain.	Published from 1964 to 1977 – When published with notice – copyright protection lasts 28 years for first term; automatic extension of 67 years for second term for a total of 95 years.
Created before 1/1/1978 but not published – copyright notice is irrelevant – copyright protection lasts for the life of author and 70 years or 12/31/2002, whichever is greater.	Created before 1/1/1978 and published between 1/1/1978 and 12/31/2002 – notice is irrelevant – copyright protection lasts the life of author and 70 years or 12/31/2047, whichever is greater.	Created 1/1/1978 or after – When work is fixed in tangible medium of expression – notice is irrelevant – copyright protection lasts for the life of author and 70 years based on the longest living author if jointly created or if work of corporate authorship, works for hire, or anonymous and pseudonymous works, the shorter of 95 years from publication, or 120 years from creation.

* Reblogging and WordPress.com Terms of Service: “By submitting Content to Automattic for inclusion on your Website, you grant Automattic a world-wide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, modify, adapt and publish the Content solely for the purpose of displaying, distributing and promoting your blog.”

Discussion

I have listed many free sources of images on my Resources page and my list is by no means complete. Do you have favorite sources of free images, songs, movies and documents you would like to share? If so please comment so I can include your sources on my Resources page as well.

Related posts found in this blog:

Copyright basics for bloggers
How to copyright your digital works
Content theft: The come and get it solution
Splog Off! Dealing with content theft
SplogSpot: Dealing with content thieves
Copyright: Fair Use Limitations
What is copyright?

Second Life Virtual Pets Copyright Dispute

Posted on January 4, 2011 by timethief

If you aren’t into having a virtual Second Life then you most likely have not heard of Ozimals or Amaretto Ranch Breedables. The former make and sell breedable virtual bunnies. The latter are newcomers who make and sell virtual horses. Well, the two have wound up in the courts over a copyright dispute.

The concept of raising artificial creatures in a video game originated with Puppy Love by Tom Snyder Productions, released for Macintosh in 1986. Digital pets were a massive fad in Japan, and to a lesser extent in the United States and United Kingdom during the late 1990s. The popularity of virtual pets in the United States, and the constant need for attention the pets required, led to them being banned from schools across the country, a move that hastened the virtual pet’s decline from popularity. wikipedia

Here’s a copy of the Amaretto complaint document (PDF). On 21 Dec 2010 Judge Charles R. Breyer of the United States District Court for Northern California issued a temporary restraining order to Linden Lab (PDF) and “all persons in active concert or participation with Linden Research” from filing DMCA notices against Amaretto or otherwise removing its content from Second Life.

“The gist of the copyright dispute between the parties is whether Plaintiff’s virtual horses infringe on copyrights associated with Defendant’s virtual bunnies.” This reminded me a little of that great line from Ghostbusters: “dogs and cats living together… mass hysteria!”

The underlying dispute involves rival sellers of virtual animals that require the users to keep purchasing food to keep the animals alive.

Read the details > Second Life Ordered to Stop Honoring a Copyright Owner’s Takedown Notices–Amaretto Ranch Breedables v. Ozimals

Discussion:
Virtual living is huge and we are talking about millions of bucks to fake farm or and/or own fake pets.

Do you have a virtual “second life” somehwere online?
Are you a virual farmer and/or virtual pet or livestock owner?
What can we take away from this?

Content thief! Jaipal Banal & mkarunreddy

Posted on May 23, 2010 by timethief

pixelshopinfo splog

Readers, today I discovered several of my posts from this blog have been stolen from it. There’s no one I detest more than a content thief.

Below the whois information on this low life from hell and those who choose to host the splog at pixelshop.info but please do not send any traffic to this splog by clicking into it.

These are the sponsored footer links : Designed By – Web Hosting free by Online Bingo – Free Bingo – Gala Bingo – Download WP Themes – Backlinks

Reverse Whois:

Updated June 1st, 2010 to remove personal information after removal of my content and an apology by the site owner mkarunreddy was made.

You are a content thief! I am a paralegal. You have stolen my content from my blog ie. these entire posts:

http://onecoolsitebloggingtips.com/2010/05/21/select-a-wordpress-com-theme-2/

http://onecoolsitebloggingtips.com/2010/05/19/how-to-select-a-wordpress-com-theme-part-1/

http://onecoolsitebloggingtips.com/2010/05/19/optimize-for-perfection-optimize-for-speed/

http://onecoolsitebloggingtips.com/2010/05/20/google-wave-goes-wide/

and breached my copyright which states:

Copyright © 2007 – 2010 All Rights Reserved

For copyright purposes, onecoolsitebloggingtips.com is not in the public domain. The fact that this blog owner publishes an RSS feed does not grant any rights for republication or re-use of the material except in the manner described below.

All content in this blog created by the blog owner and her guest authors is the property of the blog owner and her guest authors and protected by U.S. and international copyright laws and cannot be stored on any retrieval system, reproduced, reposted, displayed, modified or transmitted in any form, electronic or otherwise without written permission of the copyright owner except as noted below.

A brief excerpt of content (up to 50 words) may be quoted as long as a link is provided back to the source page on this blog and the authorship is correctly attributed.”

Remove all of my content from this site and every other splog you own at once. I’m following up with a DMCA removal notice to your web host.

Update May 23, 2010

My content has been removed from this splog however, the site does bear watching. Any blog with a tagline like the one on this site: “Technology is like fish. The longer it stays on the shelf, the less desirable it becomes.” bears watching. The free theme studded with footer links to bad neighborhoods is gone and has been replaced with another theme. The remaining content on the site all looks as if it’s also been stolen.

one cool site

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Category Archives: Copyright