Copyright & Fair Use

Copyright law has to do with exclusive legal rights for authors of material for an extended period of time. The law protects work or parts of work that my be distributed or performed such as showing a movie, playing an audio recording or acting out some ones work. I like the idea behind copyright laws. It gives the owner ownership of their work. As a music producer I have to be careful with what music I use. Fair use law is another law I stand behind. It allows teachers or students to use other peoples material for educational purposes. When using some one else's  material in a lecture of performance, its all ways best to contact the original owner of the material you are copying. 

 I found a case involving the copyright and fair use law. Eldred vs. Ashcroft was the court case. Eric Eldred had made an archive of old literature on the internet and was having legal issues with having the site up. Eric said in an interview that "old books, songs, and movies should flow continuously into the public domain". I agree, you should be able to access such materials. As long as there is no downloading or re-selling of the material is going on then it should be ok. In Eldred's case he has to prove why his works are in order with fair use law.  Eldred lost the case in 2001. Lawrence Lessig, Eldred's lawyer said that the material is protected for a limited period of time. But with the copyright term extension act they may be able to extend the rights to unlimited protection.

Works Cited

Stanford University Libraries Copyright Law and Fair Use 19 December. 2002 http://www-sul.stanford.edu/cpyright.html

Carnevale, Dan Supreme Court Will Hear Copyright Case Affecting Online Resources March 8. 2002 http://chronicle.com/article/Supreme-Court-Will-Hear/7131/