Copyright Questions of the Month: Theft of Intellectual Property?

Q. Others are copying our district’s materials from our website and then printing them to sell. I am considering adding a statement: No one may resell material on this website at any time. Some of the information on the website is public knowledge, but the district does not want other school districts making money off our work. What can we do?

A While your proposed notice may deter some folks from reselling your material, it isn’t required to protect the district’s intellectual property. But consider whether the information you have posted is even protectable by copyright in the first place. The Feist Publications, Inc., v. Rural Telephone Service Co., 499 U.S. 340 (1991) decision explained that just assembling public information into a logical organization does not generate a creative work entitled to copyright protection. In that case Rural Telephone was claiming a copyright on its telephone directory. The court found that organizing names, addresses, and telephone numbers into an alphabetical list did not use sufficient creativity to garner a copyright on the list. So depending on what information you have included on your website, you may not have a copyright in the information at all. There is another form of copyright known as “thin” copyright; it is a copyright on the selection and organization of the information but not on the information itself. That is the type of copyright applied to almanacs and cookbooks, for example, where the actual facts involved in the work are not protectable. The selection and organization of the facts, however, may be subject to copyright protection to the extent that the selection and organization are creative.

Back to your question, you say that some of the information on the website is “public information.” Without knowing exactly what that information is, a specific answer is not possible. But consider whether the information is the state school calendar, or something similar. That information, generally known, is probably not protectable. If your district has used a creative layout of that public information, your artistic design may be protected by copyright, but that would be the extent of the protection.

ROYALTY-FREE MEDIA

Q: I need to locate a list of media our school can use without considering copyright law. Do you have such a list?

A: There is not really any material you can use without at least considering copyright law. But there are some sources that do a lot of the considering for you. Sites that offer public domain media (media that either were never covered by copyright or whose copyright has expired) that may be freely used. Because the works are in the public domain, students and teachers can modify the works or use them in public performances or even for commercial uses. Note that some of the sites and producers that provide public domain media offer them under some sort of license. They believe that they have spent a lot of time to research and collect the media, and they should be rewarded financially; therefore, they make you agree to some sort of terms of service to use or access the media. What does that mean to you? It means that while under copyright law you can do anything you like with the media, you have signed a contract that says you agree that you will only do what the one supplying the media allows. Typically the license will prevent you from offering the media to others as a collection, or from an online website. It could affect what you or your teachers plan to do with the media. Always inquire what the ultimate use will be for the media, and compare that use with the terms of service presented to you. If you exceed your license, you have breached your contract and can be held liable in that manner, though not from violation of copyright law.

Another source of materials available to schools is royalty-free media sites or products. Royalty-free media are protected by copyright, but the copyright owner allows them to be accessed without additional royalties for use. Does that mean that royalty-free media are free of cost? Not at all. Some royalty-free media are made available for free (though with use restrictions), but many are available only upon payment of access to a website or upon purchasing a collection of media. Regardless of the cost (or non-cost) of the media, you will be bound by some terms of service or license.

Here are some sources to get you started:

• A1 Free Sound Effects: www.a1freesoundeffects.com
• Authentic History: www.authentichistory.com
• Brainy Betty: www.brainybetty.com/soundsforpowerpoint.htm
• CCmixter: http://ccmixter.org
• Flickr: www.flickr.com (use the Creative Commons search)
• Freeplay Music: www.freeplaymusic.com
• Internet Audio Guy: www.internetaudioguy.com/iag/freemusic/freemusic.htm
• PD Photo.org: http://pdphoto.org
• Royalty Free Music: www.royaltyfreemusic.com
• Stock Footage for Free: www.stockfootageforfree.com
• Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org

Every effort is made to provide accurate, up to date information in response to copyright questions. However, this column is not intended to take the place of legal advice. For more information, consult your school district’s attorney.