Jackson Creek Middle School

Copyright and Terms of Use

What is Copyright?

Webster's Dictionary (1998) defines copyright as "the exclusive legal right to reproduce, publish, and sell the matter and form (as of a literary, musical, or artistic work)"

The U.S. Copyright Office states that "copyright is a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States (title 17, U.S. Code) to the authors of “original works of authorship,” including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works. This protection is available to both published and unpublished works."

A work is eligible for copyright when it is created and fixed in tangible form. The copyright holder has five basic rights: reproduction, distribution, adaptation, public performance, and public display.

What is a Copyright Notice?

Copyright Notice has four parts: symbol and word "Copyright," year of copyright, name of copyright holder, and the phrase "All Rights Reserved."

Copyright © 2002 Jackson Creek Middle School
All Rights Reserved

How does Copyright Laws apply to the web?

Because of copyright laws, almost everything on the Internet is subject to Copyright Laws. In fact, many of the images found on the web are protected by Copyright laws. Some things that are copyrighted include images, HTML coding, web page layouts, fonts, dingbats, and more.

What if the work is not registered in the Copyright Office?

Any work that is created whether a book, article, essay, poem, or web page is protected by the law whether it is registered or not.

Why and How is a work registered with the Copyright Office?

If legal action is ever taken against a copyright infringement, the work must first be registered with the Copyright Office. To learn how to register a work, check out the steps at Copyright Website.

What is Public Domain?

Public Domain consist of those works that are NOT protected by the Copyright Law. These works fall into five categories.

• Originally un-eligible for Copyright: for example, ideas, facts, lists, titles, names, short phrases, blank forms are not eligible for copyright.
• Lost Copyright: for example, all items published before January 1, 1978 that never had a valid copyright notice.
• Expired Copyright: for example, works in which the copyright period has expired and any work published before 1964 in which the owner failed to renew the copyright registration. Usually a copyright period will not expire until seventy years after the death of the owner.
• Government Documents: all federal documents and publications AUTHORED by the Federal Government can not hold a copyright.
• Works Granted to Public Domain: for example, if the owner of the copyright grants the work to the public domain.

If the words PUBLIC DOMAIN does not appear, don't copy the work.

Terms of Use

When graphic sites say "FREE GRAPHICS," these sites are not saying the images are free. They are saying that use of the images are free of charge as long as the terms and conditions are followed. Look at the Terms of Use or Copyright Information for these web sites.

Copyright Law Bibliography

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Last Updated: 02/19/07
Kristina McGlaun, Librarian
Jackson Creek Middle School