Copyright Information for All Users

Visit Copyright Bay and CyberBee for fun, visual, presentations of copyright law.

Tootle's Top Ten Copyright Facts

1. United States Copyright Law passed in 1976 protects owners from the duplication or copying of their work by others.

2. Consider all works protected by copyright. Software, Music, Movies, Photographs, Books, Poetry, Essays, Speeches, Art, Web pages, etc.

3. Always cite your sources.

4. There's a guide for something called Fair Use of copyrighted materials in an educational setting.

5. If you didn't create it, you are not the owner and you can't reproduce it without permission.

6. Ask permission to use copyrighted works.  - Contact the owner or publisher for permission. Usually a simple phone call or e-mail will grant you permission to use someone else's work.

7. Almost everything is copyrighted the moment it is created. A copyright symbol or notice is no longer required.

8. Items in the Public Domain are no longer protected by copyright law.  If you find something in the public domain to use in a project, you should still cite your source - you didn't actually create it, remember?

9. Items created by the US government are not protected by copyright law. You may use anything produced by the US government in it's entirety without permission.  Again, cite your source, since you are not the owner.

10.  If you create something on your employers time, you don't actually own the work. Even though the ideas are yours, you used company time -so your employer owns the work.