Although copyright law exists to protect an author's right to his or her works, the protection is not in perpetuity but has time limitations. Depending on the country where the copyright law is in place, the protection can be from several years to several decades. In the case of the United States Copyright Act of 1976, "the duration of the copyright for works created after January 1, 1978 is life of the author plus an additional 70 years as per 17 USC §302(a) as amended 1998 and current to November 2008 (Standler 2010). This is a general provision though since there are some works that are already considered in the public domain (especially those published before 1923) while others have continued to have copyright protection since notice of copyright has been re-acquired by descendants of the author. Other copyright duration provision is different for the "the copyright term for 'works made for hire' which is 95 years from the date of first 'publication' (distribution of copies to the general public) or 120 years from the date of creation, whichever expires first (Radcliffe 1999)."
Copyright law has certain exclusions wherein permission of the original author is not required under certain conditions. One of these conditions is contained in the Fair Use provision of the U.S. Copyright Act. "Under the doctrine of fair use, an author may make short quotations for purposes of criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, or scholarship, without first obtaining permission of the copyright owner of the quoted work. However, every quotation must be clearly identified with the source of the quotation and the name of the author of the quoted text. (Templeton 2008)" Students who write various academic papers are familiar with this doctrine and know that they can quote from various sources provided they provide the proper citations and references. Absent any citation or reference, the student is guilty of plagiarism and is considered academically dishonest as well as in gross violation of the copyright laws not only of the United States but other countries' as well.
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Copyright Law in Hong Kong Internationally, Hong Kong has been obligated to protect copyright pursuant to various international as well as domestic copyright conventions which apply to Hong Kong. Amongst the importance of intellectual property right, copyright as well has been recognized under Article 15(1) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and cultural rights (ICESCR) specifying that "The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone… to
As technology and the capability of removing artifacts from recordings improve this area of the law will be likely to be revisited in the future. This last revision to copyright law raised more questions than it answered. For instance, was it acceptable to colorize black and white movies? Did this alter them from the original work, or was this an acceptable? Was it OK to alter pieces of work to
Copyright Laws vs. Peer-to-Peer File Transfer This paper presents a detailed examination of copyright laws, with a comparison to peer-to-peer file transfer. The author will take the reader on an exploratory journey, in which the details and outcomes of several well-known cases will be scrutinized. The author will also discuss the importance of copyright laws, and the elements of various cases that caused the rulings to go the way they did.
Technology has quickly taken over several key areas of entertainment. From journals to music, everything seems to make the shift towards online and streaming versus hard copy. With emerging technologies and increasing internet usage, debates arose over the topic of artistic and literary works. More specifically copyright law and the open list approach versus the closed list approach. While the government changes policy and law according to need and evolution,
This is problematic, because if left unaddressed this can hurt innovation and the ability of companies to create new technology. The reason why, is due to the fact that certain firms are using copyright laws to protect their profit margins and dominance inside the sectors. This is considered to be monopolistic, as they are hiding behind these regulations to maintain the status quo. When you compare the underlying strengths and
News commentaries online face even more difficulties in regard to laws regarding digital distribution and what constitutes fair use. Fair Use Focusing on Educational Uses The fair use exception as it applies to educational cases has raised significant issues for teachers and public relations practitioners. Emerging technologies bring new challenges for today's teachers; the Internet and availability of computers and digitizing equipment provide ready access to great reservoirs of information and
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