As an institution of higher education, Huntington Junior College strongly believes in intellectual property. As such, Huntington Junior College respects intellectual property and has made it a priority to ensure all employees and students respect the copyrights of others. All Huntington Junior College employees and students must comply with copyright law. Copyright infringement through inappropriate copying or distribution of copyrighted content is a personal and a company liability and will result in disciplinary action, including dismissal from the school. Huntington Junior College’s copyright policy does not allow for the application of “fair use.” Please ensure you have permission from the author before using ANY copyrighted material.
Copyright Clearance Center obtained the following information regarding copyrights. For more information, please visit www.copyright.com.
What is Copyright?
The purpose of copyright law is to provide authors and other creators (and those who obtain rights through such persons) with an incentive to create and share creative works by granting them exclusive rights to control how their works may be used. Among the exclusive rights granted to those authors are the rights to reproduce, distribute, publicly perform, and publicly display a work. These rights provide copyright holders control over the use of their creations and an ability to benefit, monetarily and otherwise, from the exploitation of their works. Copyright also protects the right to “make a derivative work,” such as a movie from a book; the right to include a piece in a collective work, such as publishing an article in a book or journal; and the rights of attribution and integrity for “authors” of specific works of visual art. If you are not the copyright holder, you must ordinarily obtain permission before re‐using or reproducing someone else’s copyrighted work. Acknowledging the source of a job, for instance, is not a substitute for obtaining consent. However, permission generally is not necessary for actions that do not implicate the copyright holder's exclusive rights, such as reviewing, reading, or borrowing a book or photograph.
What is Protected by Copyright?
The rights granted under the U.S. Copyright Act (embodied in Title 17 of the U.S. Code) are intended to benefit “authors” of “original works of authorship,” including literary, dramatic, musical, architectural, cartographic, choreographic, pantomimic, pictorial, graphic, sculptural and audiovisual creations. This means that virtually any creative work that you may come across in readable or viewable format, including books, magazines, journals, newsletters, maps, charts, photographs, graphic materials; unpublished materials, such as analysts' reports and consultants' advice; and non‐print materials, including websites, computer programs, and other software, databases, sound recordings, motion pictures, video files, sculptures, and other artistic works are almost certainly protected by copyright.
What is NOT Protected by Copyright?
Not everything is protected by copyright. This includes works that are not fixed; titles, names, slogans, ideas, facts, and data; listings of ingredients or contents; natural or self‐evident facts; and public domain works (more on this below). However, some of these things may be protected under other areas of law, such as patent or trademark law or by contract. It is essential to be sure that no other form of protection restricts the use of such materials before using them.
How Long Does Copyright Protection Last?
In the U.S., a work created on or after January 1, 1978, is ordinarily protected for a term equal to the author's life plus 70 years after the author's death. This is called the “life‐plus‐70” rule. Works created by companies or other organizations have a copyright term of 95 years. For works created before 1978, the duration of protection depends on several factors. For comprehensive information on time, see http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html#hlc.
Fair Use
Fair use is a defense under U.S. law that may be raised by the defendant in a copyright infringement case. Fair use recognizes that certain types of use of other people's copyright-protected works do not require the copyright holder's authorization. Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act codifies the fair use doctrine. See: www.copyright.gov/title17/. However, there are no absolute rules around fair use. Generally, the reproduction (photocopy or digital) or use of someone else’s copyright‐protected work is more likely to be fair use if it is for one of the following purposes: criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or academic research.
To determine whether a particular use qualifies as fair use, the statute requires a fact‐specific analysis of the use based on four factors:
- The purpose and character of the use (for example, whether for commercial or nonprofit educational use).
- The nature of the copyright‐protected work (is it primarily factual or highly creative?).
- The amount and substantiality of the portion used.
- The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyright‐protected work.
All four factors must be considered and balanced against the other factors in each fair use analysis. Although some see fair use as a solution to many of their reproduction activities, the scope of the fair use doctrine is much narrower than most people assume. Further, fair use is an ambiguous notion, and the law does not state exactly how or how much of a work may be used without obtaining permission. Consequently, even copyright law experts often have difficulty predicting the outcome in cases involving fair use.
The bottom line is that fair use requires an appropriate risk assessment of whether re‐use under certain circumstances may be considered fair use. To avoid copyright risks, [Company] permits using short quotes from works. Otherwise, permission procedures in this policy should be followed, and the advice of [Company’s] Copyright Officer should be sought when a fair use determination may be necessary.
Copyright and Foreign Works
The U.S. is a member of two major copyright treaties, the Berne Convention and the Universal Copyright Convention. As such, when [Company] uses a copyright‐protected work from almost any other country, U.S. copyright law applies to the use of that work, assuming the service takes place in the United States. Similarly, other participating countries' copyright laws apply to U.S. works in those countries. While these treaties establish certain conventions that render the rules of participating countries consistent to some degree, there are differences in each country’s law, and [Company’s] Copyright Officer should be consulted if there are questions regarding the use of materials by employees or others outside the U.S. Licensing intermediaries such as Copyright Clearance Center offer agreements that allow the use of materials from other countries as well as the use of materials across borders, which can simplify the permission process a great deal.
Copyright and Digital Works
Any non‐digital content protected by copyright is also covered in a digital form. For example, print books are protected by copyright law, as are electronic books. A print letter is protected by copyright law, as is an e‐mail letter. In both cases, the copyright is generally owned by the author, regardless of who has received the letter. Whenever you wish to use material found on a website, it is always important to review and understand the terms of use for that site because those terms will tell you what use, if any, you can make of the materials you find there. When obtaining permission to use works on the Web (such as posting them on [Company’s] public‐facing corporate website), always attempt to acquire worldwide rights, as most Web uses of content are on a global basis.
Peer-to-Peer
Repairing and distributing copyrighted music, movies, television shows, pictures, and software through peer-to-peer (P2P) networks is illegal. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) presents a clear set of procedures that Huntington Junior College must follow when we receive notice that an individual using the College network may be violating copyright laws. When the College receives official notice of a violation from a copyright holder or their authorized designee, the Director (in cooperation with the IT manager) notifies the individual of that complaint. We do this by emailing the notice of infringement to the individual and asking that the infringing material be removed within 48 hours. If we do not hear back from the individual within 48 hours, we terminate network access for the computer in question. This is done both to protect the individual from continuing to violate the law and to protect the College. The DMCA also requires the College to establish procedures for repeat offenders. In such a case, the Director, in conjunction with the IT Manager, will immediately terminate network access and refer the matter to the President for further action.
HJC does not monitor the specific content of the information that travels across the College network or through the College's connection to the Internet. However, the College does monitor the type of information that travels across the College network and through our connection to the Internet.
In response to regular notices of infringement, Huntington Junior College will not release the names of any individuals or any other personally identifiable information to the copyright holder. However, copyright holders have recently sought subpoenas to obtain the names of individuals sharing copyrighted information. If the College does receive such a subpoena, we are required to release the name of the individual violator(s).
The sharing of materials protected by copyright is a serious matter. People caught sharing music files illegally have been subpoenaed and subjected to substantial fines. If you share copyrighted materials illegally, you risk losing computer access, facing College action, including dismissal, and facing prosecution under civil and criminal laws.
You should be aware that the unauthorized distribution of copyrighted material, including unauthorized peer-to-peer file sharing, may subject community members to civil and criminal penalties as follows:
- In general, anyone liable for civil copyright infringement may be ordered to pay either actual or "statutory" damages affixed at not less than $750 and not more than $30,000 per work infringed. For "willful" infringement, a court may award up to $150,000 per work infringed. At its discretion, a court can also assess costs and attorneys' fees. See Title 17, United States Code, Sections 504, 505 for details.
- Willful copyright infringement can also result in criminal penalties, including imprisonment of up to five years and fines of up to $250,000 per offense.
- For more information, please see the Web site of the U.S. Copyright Office at www.copyright.gov, especially their FAQ's at www.copyright.gov/help/faq