User:BigBoyJupiter/A Guide to Copyright and Citations for students

When writing a paper for a teacher, or an essay for a class, you should know about copyrights and citations. If you do not have these two, you could get in trouble with the teacher, and even the law. This book will give a short guide on copyrights and citations for students.

Copyrights

Anything you create originally is automatically copyrighted. This includes your essays, your art, and other work that is considered "original works of authorship." This means that others cannot, without your permission, make copies of your work, distribute copies of your work, perform your work publicly, or display your work publicly. But while it is copyrighted, the copyright must be registered to be able to file a lawsuit. It is also useful to know what is copyrighted before you use it in a paper, or display it somewhere, but not everything is protected by copyright.

What isn't protected?

In general, the following things are not protected by copyright laws:

• Ideas, procedures, methods, systems, processes, concepts, principles, discoveries, or devices, (written or recorded descriptions, explanations, or illustrations of such things are protected by copyright laws.
• Works that are not fixed in a tangible form of expression, like a speech that wasn't written down or recorded.
• Works by the US government.
• Titles, names, short phrases, and slogans, or listings of ingredients or contents (but some titles and words might be protected under trademark law if their use is associated with a particular product or service)
• Works consisting entirely of information that is commonly available and contains no originality (An example is a calendar, or a list of objects)

Copyright Infringement

Copyright infringement is when you do anything to the work of an author that is protected by copyright law without their permission, such as making a poster with Mickey Mouse on it. Copyright infringement disputes are usually resolved through direct negotiation, a notice and take down process, or litigation in civil court. Copyright infringement is any violation of the exclusive right of the owner. These include distributing copies by sale or rental, reproduction, the preparation of derivative work, and public performance or display.

Fair Use

With that all said, there still is a way to use copyrighted material. You can ask the author of the work for permission, or see if it falls under Fair Use. Fair Use is when you can use "limited portions" of a copyrighted work without permission. Usually, Fair Use comes into play when you are using the material for non-profit educational purposes. Not everything is Fair Use. The more educational it is, the more likely it is Fair Use. In general, Fair Use lets you use up to 10 percent or 3 minutes (whichever is less) of motion media, up to 10 percent, but no more than 30 seconds of music, and up to 10 percent or 1,000 words of text, again depending on whichever is less. Even if the creator gives you permission to use their work, you must give them credit.

Creative Commons

Another option is to use Creative Commons. Creative Commons is a website where authors upload their creative works for everyone to use, with some restrictions. More can be found at their website, https://creativecommons.org/

Citations

When writing a paper, usually a factual paper, citations are very important. If you do not cite, you may get in trouble for plagiarism. In general, everything that you use that isn't yours should be cited. There are lots of ways to cite, such as a bibliography, which is a list of books you used. With the modern age though, we use websites more. But, with websites, you still need to cite. Usually, the citations go at the end of whatever you are making. A easy website for citing is EasyBib.