
Sorting through ownership
Getting permission
When you want to use someone else's work in a way that goes beyond the boundaries of fair use or other statutory authorisation (for example the TEACH Act, or the libraries' exemptions in Section 108 of the Copyright Act) you need to know whom to ask for permission. Getting Permission goes into more detail, so here we'll only address how figure out whom to ask.
Know the ownership drill
In the past, copyright owners were prominently noted in the copyright of published works. But now it can be difficult to work out whom to ask. Nevertheless, if you keep in mind the structure we've set out on the previous page, it can provide steps to approach the task:
- identify the author or authors and contact one or more of them;
- ask whether they own the copyright or whether the work was work for hire;
- ask whether they have conveyed away any of their rights, and if so, to whom.
Orphan works and risk management
If you can't identify authors (or their estates) or business owners, or can't successfully contact them, you probably have an "orphan work." A lot of material in our libraries and archives is in this category - works for which a copyright owner cannot be found. These valuable works will be unused unless a way can be found to allow uses of them that addresses the rights of copyright owners. Until a legislative solution emerges, those of us who wish to make uses of orphan works must ask ourselves how much risk we are willing to take. For more information, please see Public domain and orphan works.
Protecting your work
Protecting your work is easy. It's protected from the moment you hit the save key on your computer, touch your pencil to paper, and so on. Works are protected from the moment of their fixation in a tangible medium of protection. This means that even a grocery list enjoys the full force of federal copyright law.
If you want to go the extra mile to make sure you can enforce your rights in federal court, you'll need to register your automatic copyright with the Copyright Office. It's cheap and fast, but it's only necessary if you think it likely that you would sue someone to stop an infringement of your rights.