Speaker 1: Hey Jim, thanks for that report you gave me the other day. My client loved it.

Speaker 2: You gave it to your client?

Speaker 1: No.

Speaker 2: I made a copy for him. We have a limited subscription to those reports. You can't copy them or distribute them without permission. Really? Geez. Next thing I know you'll be posting stuff like that to the web and emailing it all over the place.

Speaker 1: We're not supposed to do that either?

Speaker 2: No. No? Yeah. Yeah? No. Intellectual property like published reports, articles, and content you find on the web has to be managed carefully. We have to balance its use with our rights, licenses, and copyright requirements.

Speaker 1: I know. I read our copyright policy when I joined the company.

Speaker 2: Good. That's a start. But it really comes down to what we do on a daily basis. If you have a few minutes, I can explain the basics of copyright to you. Okay. Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution gives Congress the power to promote the progress of science and useful arts by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries. It means that in the United States, a copyright holder has some exclusive rights to his or her work. And those rights are protected by U.S. copyright law.

Speaker 1: Oh. I always thought no copyright symbol, no problem.

Speaker 2: Nope. Copyright is automatic. As soon as something is captured in a fixed format, such as being written down or recorded, it is protected by copyright. Neither registration or publication are required, nor is the use of the copyright symbol, although it's a good idea to use the copyright symbol as it reminds people that the work is protected by copyright.

Speaker 1: So what are the copyright holder's rights?

Speaker 2: Copyright holders have the exclusive right to copy, distribute, perform, and display their work, and the right to create a derivative work, like when a book is made into a movie. This is why you may need permission if you want to email a research report to your project team or a customer, post an article or report on a company wiki or an intranet site, reprint articles in a company newsletter, post a news story about our company on our website, or make a photocopy of a newspaper article to hand out at a meeting.

Speaker 1: Really?

Speaker 2: For everything? Well, a lot of things, such as books, magazine and online articles, songs, screenplays, choreography, photos, artwork, podcasts, and software. They're all protected by copyright. But not everything. Ideas, facts, and data are not protected by copyright law. Logos and taglines aren't either, although they might be protected by trademark law. Anything created by the U.S. government is not covered by copyright law, neither are works for which the copyright has expired.

Speaker 1: But what about fair use? If it's for our research, doesn't fair use mean I can use the material?

Speaker 2: Maybe. Fair use recognizes that certain uses of the copyright-protected work do not require permission from the copyright holder. Fair use allows for the use of the copyright-protected work for commentary, parody, news reporting, research, and education. The U.S. Copyright Act lists four factors to help determine when a use may be considered fair use. The first is the purpose and character of the use. If the use is intended to help derive financial or other business benefit, then it is less likely to be considered fair use. That usually ends the analysis for most business uses. Next is the nature of the copyrighted work. The use of a purely factual work is more likely to be considered fair use than the use of a creative work. Third, an evaluation of the amount and substantiality considers how much of the work was used. Even a small portion may be too much to qualify as fair use if what is used is the heart of the work. And finally, fair use considers the effect of the use on the market or the potential market. If your use is likely to result in economic loss to the copyright holder, then it is less likely to be considered fair use. None of these factors alone is enough to determine fair use. You have to weigh all four in order to determine if the use is really fair use. This stuff is confusing. For example, many people confuse the physical ownership of a book or a CD with owning the copyright to that work. The first sale doctrine permits lending, reselling, disposing, etc. of the item, but it does not permit reproducing the material, performing it, or any of the copyright holder's other exclusive rights. Attribution is another area of confusion. People think if they just cite their source, they're good to go. But attribution is not a substitute for copyright permission. If the work is protected by copyright, you must obtain permission from the copyright holder or their agent in order to use it. And lots of people confuse the legal concept of the public domain with the fact that a work may be publicly available, such as information found in books or on the Internet. The public domain comprises all those works that are either no longer protected by copyright or never were.

Speaker 1: Oh, I see.

Speaker 2: Most people do not intentionally violate copyright law. Like you, they are simply unaware of their responsibilities as they go about their everyday activities, which often involve the use and distribution of published information.

Speaker 1: Is this a big problem?

Speaker 2: Imagine millions of employees moving billions of documents around the world with no idea what their copyright responsibilities are. It kills me.

Speaker 1: I guess it is a big problem. But does it really matter? I mean, who's going to know?

Speaker 2: It matters. For many reasons. First and foremost, it's the law. It's unlawful to infringe on the rights of copyright holders. They can sue for damages or to recoup lost profits as a result of infringement, which is costly and, well, it looks bad for the company. It's also a matter of ethics. Demonstrating respect for the rights of copyright holders is simply the right thing to do. When we generate intellectual property, we want our rights respected, so we should respect the rights of others. And finally, copyright ensures the continued availability of the high-value material we rely on. Our needs are served by copyright holders' information development. And the royalties we pay fuel further development.

Speaker 1: Very interesting. So what do we do when we want to use copyrighted information?

Speaker 2: I'm always here to help, but the best advice I can give you is know the facts, remember your responsibilities, and when in doubt, get permission.