4 Digital Copyright

Generally speaking, there are no differences in how copyright law is applied to digital formats and online works compared to print (analog) works. What this means, however, is that extra care should be taken to ensure any online work you are using has been posted with permission from the owner of that work. For example, showing a YouTube video in your class is perfectly acceptable so long as the video posted is not in violation of any copyright laws (e.g., a full movie or music album recently posted may be in breach of the original copyright restrictions).

When deciding whether or not you can re-use online material, the following steps outline a systematic way of approaching a copyright situation (adapted from Our Digital World^[1]):

1. Determine the category of the content to get an initial sense of the copyright rules. For example, both a multi-media item and the individual components of that item may be protected by copyright. For more information on the different categories (e.g., original works, compilations, sound recordings, etc.), click here.
2. Determine who owns the copyright. This will inform you of the term rules and where to start the permission process, if necessary.
3. Find out how long the copyright lasts. If the term limits have expired (e.g., life-plus-fifty rule in effect), you do not need to look any further.
4. If the copyright has not expired, you need identify the owner (Step 2) and ask for permission to post/re-use their works.