Additional Resources

Additional Resources

More information about copyright concepts

Liability and remedies

1. Generally, to establish a claim of copyright infringement, creators or copyright holders need only show that they have a valid copyright in their works and that the defendants copied protected expression from the works. However, other facts may be relevant in some cases, such as if defendants assert that an exception or limitation applied to their uses or that their works were independently created.
2. The copyright laws of some countries grant copyright holders statutory remedies for infringement. The type and amounts of remedies including damages are established by law. Be aware of the existence of statutory damages and other remedies permitted by applicable law, including statutory provisions that award legal fees in some circumstances.

Licensing and transfer

Many creators and copyright holders need help to fully exercise the exclusive rights or they may simply give others permission to exercise the right granted by copyright law. Some creators choose to license some or all of those rights, either exclusively or non-exclusively. Others choose to sell their rights outright and allow others to exercise them in their place, sometimes in exchange for royalty payments. There are often formalities associated with the sale or exclusive licensing of copyrights.

Termination of copyright transfers and licenses

The laws of some countries grant copyright holders the right to terminate transfer agreements or licenses even if the transfer agreement or license doesn’t allow termination. In the United States, for example, copyright law provides two mechanisms for doing so depending on when the transfer agreement or license became effective. For more information on these rights and a tool that allows creators and copyright holders to figure out if they have those rights, visit rightsback.org.

Courses, trainings, and Resources

• CopyrightX by Harvard Law School.
  • This is a course on copyright provided by the Harvard Law School’s HarvardX distance learning initiative.
• United States Copyright Office Circular #1, “Copyright Basics.”
• Copyright for Educators & Librarians by Coursera. All rights reserved.
  • A course on copyright provided by Coursera

Resources on moral rights

• Author’s Rights
• Moral rights in the United States
• Moral rights basics, by Betty Rosenblatt

More on philosophies of copyright

• William Fisher, “Theories of Intellectual Property,” in Stephen Munzer, ed., New Essays in the Legal and Political Theory of Property (Cambridge University Press, 2001).
• Craig, Carys J., “Feminist Aesthetics and Copyright Law: Genius, Value, and Gendered Visions of the Creative Self” (2014). Osgoode Legal Studies Research Paper Series. 31.
• Greene, K.J. “Intellectual Property at the Intersection of Race and Gender: Lady Sings the Blues.” American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law. 16, no. 3 (2008): 365-385.

More information about the public domain

• Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States by Cornell University Library Copyright Information Center. CC BY. 3.0.
  • This provides copyright information on when resources fall into the public domain, depending on the circumstances under which they were written.
• Out of Copyright: Determining the Copyright Status of Works
  • This is a website to help determine the copyright status of a work and whether it has fallen into the public domain in the European union.
• The Public Domain Manifesto by Communia. GNU General Public License
  • This is a website with information about the public domain, the values of some of its supporters, and some recommendations on how to use the public domain.
  • If the website is down, you can find an archived version on the Wayback Machine.
• The Europeana Public Domain Charter. CC BY SA
  • This is a multilingual resource that establishes some principles for cultural heritage institutions on how to approach the digitization of public domain works.
• Center for the Study of Public Domain by Duke Law School
  • This website contains information and events regarding the public domain.
• Public Domain Review
  • This is an online journal and not-for-profit project that showcases works which have entered the public domain. The journal is dedicated to the exploration of curious and compelling works from the history of art, literature, and ideas.
• Margoni, T., 2014. The Digitisation of Cultural Heritage: Originality, Derivative Works and (Non) Original Photographs (Institute for Information Law (IViR) No. ID 2573104).
  • A paper that explores whether non original reproductions of public domain works should receive copyright protection, with special focus on the European Union.

More information about Traditional Cultural Expressions

• Is it possible to decolonize the Commons? An interview with Jane Anderson of Local Contexts, by Jennie Rose Halperin, CC BY
  • An interview with Jane Anderson from Local Contexts that explores the complementary visions between Creative Commons and Traditional Knowledge.
• Sharing Indigenous Cultural Heritage Online: An Overview of GLAM Policies
• Whakatōhea TK Labels presentation
  • The Whakatōhea Digitech team share with other Iwi about their Iwi’s journey with the Labels
• Whakatōhea TK Labels wānanga
  • The Whakatōhea Digitech present about the Labels to New Zealand institutions

More information about limitations and exceptions to copyright

• Fair Use Evaluator
  • This is an online tool to help users understand how to determine the “fairness” of use under U.S. copyright law, and work with materials under fair use.
• U.S. Copyright Office Fair Use cases
• Best Practices in Fair Use for Open Educational Resources
  • American University Washington College of Law’s Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property offers a series of workshops, interviews, and webinars that were conducted over the course of 2019 and 2020.
• Copyright and Exceptions by Kennisland. CC0 1.0 Public Domain Designation
  • This is an interactive map of European copyright exceptions.
• A Fair(y) Use Tale by Eric Faden. CC BY-NC-SA 3.0
  • This is a fun and creative educational fair-use mashup which ironically makes use of clips from Disney films as it explains how copyright works. The discussion of fair use begins around the 6-minute 30-second mark in the video.
    
• The Treaty of Marrakesh Explained (DOCX) by the World Blind Union.
  • This is a post prepared by the WBU that explains some of the basic points of the Marrakesh Treaty, and how it ought to be implemented nationally.
• Copyright and Access to Knowledge by the International Library Federation Association, CC BY 4.0.
  • IFLA is proposing an international framework that takes into account the needs of libraries to have a balanced copyright system.
• Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market
  • This is a Wikipedia article that explains the European Union’s 2019 copyright directive. This directive extends existing European Union copyright law and includes some additional exceptions for things like text- and data-mining. CC BY SA 4.0
  • Here is the European Commission’s “Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on copyright in the Digital Single Market” (14 September 2016).