Tonight I attended the "Copyright, Intellectual Property and Knowing your rights forum " presented by DANZ (Dance Aotearoa New Zealand). This was both fascinating, intense and such good information to know. We were having a conversation about what is copyright and contract law understanding what that really means to artists who are creating works in the community.
This is stuff you need to know people and let's not be silly about it. This stood out as key info to me and I wanted to share it with you. It may seem it bit disjointed, I apologize, I am happy to chat more about anything that jumps out to you. I have taken it verbatim from the presentation of Elizabeth.
We are lucky in Wellington there are always people at hand with information willing to share information on anything your need to know today it came from a lovely woman called Elizabeth Heritage from Creative Commons Aotearoa and her knowledge on copyright law.
So massive thank you to all of the people that have created this information that I am able to share with you:
Copyright
Copyright is in play from the moment you create a piece of work and then record it, film, audio, notation, written
It is very restrictive
The right to control copies
It does apply online
No C in a circle is required
May be owned my the employer
Can be assigned by contract, how it can change hands and be assigned (this is particularly
key in the work you might wish to create with others)
The expression of the idea: Copyright occurs when you make the thing
Lasts for ages + 50 years, be aware of copyright laws in America and how that effects us.
Exception:
Fair Dealing (v limited)
You may make a copy for private study, some exceptions for teachers (Check this out) for criticism and review.
Permission:
A licence or to ask for permission
Licence: Is permission in advance to make copies, a statement of permission
The law says you have exclusive rights to your work
How do you know if work is available in the public domain? Be aware of moral rights, these are manners and contribute
Public Domain
Will take some research, guess by the age of the information or if it is labelled.
Attribution
Copy but say I did the work: The creator and the owner
Non Commercial
You can copy, adapt but don't sell the thing that you made
If you want to sell we need to have a chat
No Derivatives
You can copy my work but must not change it is any way. Exactly how I made it. Mustn't change the work in any way
Share Alike
You can copy my work and do cool stuff, then replicate the work as you own so it can sit alongside me.
Most common form of copyright for artists
Copy
Make new
Attribute me
Don't make money without my permission
Creative Commons will download code to you so you can add to your website with all the formal information you will need
Creative commons.org/choose
Why?
Creativity always builds on the past
Obscurity is a bigger problem than piracy
Utilize creative commons resources
Internet has changed how we work with copyright on the internet
www.creativecommons.org.nz
My final thoughts for is:
Use of resources
Share the resources
Be the resource
Keep having a conversation about it and this is a ever changing climate of information
If you're not sure ask for help, Creative Commons, DANZ, Creative New Zealand are great resources if your ever doubt, quote copyright law into Google and see what comes up.