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Copyright 4 Educators (AUS)

Part 1 Gold Assignments

Delia Browne's picture
Mon, 2010-09-20 06:16


Zanele Dube is a science teacher at a high school and is considering using the following material in her science classes:

  • Extracts from Charles Darwin's personal diaries and notebooks;

  1. The extracts from CD’s personal diaries and notebooks are literary works.

  2. Literary works are protected by copyright. Initially the copyright was owned by Charles Darwin and subsequently by his heirs, because he actually wrote the material, though publishers may have retained the rights - we would need to know the publishing history. Current ownership depends on when the material was published. If it was published in his lifetime, it is now out of copyright and in the public domain. However, the material could have remained unpublished until a date that brings it within the scope of current copyright. Also, if the material has been republished into a modern edition, that edition is protected by copyright. We need to know when the extracts were published and by whom.

  • Images of Darwin that she downloaded from the internet;

  1. Artistic works.

  2. Artistic works are protected by copyright. Although paintings and other likenesses taken during Darwin’s lifetime will be owned by someone (family, museum…) the copyright in them would have expired (or never existed if not claimed), and copies of these originals on the Internet will most probably be a photograph or possibly a drawing taken from an original, so copyright ownership will be by whoever took the photo or made the drawing, unless they have assigned the rights. It would be helpful if information is attached that identifies when they were made and stating their ownership. Zanele would need to have the contact for the site owner or the image uploader to find out about ownership if the information is not provided.

  • Extracts from Darwin's book "the Origin of the Species";

  1. Literary work.

  2. Original ownership of “Origin of the Species” was probably by the publisher, John Murray (not Charles Darwin) in 1859 and has now passed into the public domain. Current ownership depends on which edition Zanele has used. We need to know the exact edition from which the extract comes because there have been many editions and the extract may be altered from the original. If the extract comes from the 1859 version, it is in the public domain, but if it is an edition published within the last 25 years, it would be owned by the publisher.

  1. Literary work, if we focus on the content; alternatively, it may be considered an artistic work, such as a chart or table.

  2. This is commonly known information. There is no attribution on the page, although Indiana University claims copyright on everything on the website. This probably is not sufficiently original to be copyright protected.

  • A clip from the BBC TV science documentary series “Life" with David Attenborough she taped from television;

  1. Broadcasts

  2. The work is protected by copyright and BBC is the owner of the copyright. There must have been a contract with a TV company here to allow broadcasting in Australia. We would need to ask the local distributor of the film about the copyright and license conditions.

  • Clips from the film " Creation”;

  1. Films

  2. The work is protected by copyright. The owner of copyright depends on the contract. We would need to ask the local distributor of the film about the copyright.

  • Her own original drawings and photographs of animals, trees and fauna she created while on holiday;

  1. Artistic works

  2. Zanele owns the copyright. However, this could be disputed, if it became a matter of commercial value. Even though they were done in her holiday, if they were done specifically for the classroom, her employers may consider that the works belong to them. They could argue that they were done in the course of employment, because teachers don’t just work at school. There might be a contract that settles it one way or the other.

  1. Fact sheet: literary work. Extracts: literary works. Images: Artistic works/interactive films – not sure - would have called the narrated slideshow multimedia.

  2. Ownership of copyright of the fact sheet is her employer’s as it is done in the course of her employment. It may not be exclusively owned by the employers, though. Perhaps it is also owned by her or maybe she has a contract which governs ownership. However, the parts that came from the Guardian newspaper are different. They belong to the newspaper and perhaps the journalist/s who compiled it and wrote the narration. The images are taken from works that may be in the public domain but they have been combined with original narration into a new work that the Guardian owns as a whole, or compilation. This is, however, a derivative work so the ownership of each element would have to be researched for copyright.

  • Her own original quizzes, research, teaching notes and text about Darwin, prepared as part of her teaching job.

  1. Literary works

  2. They are protected by copyright. The employer owns copyright as they were prepared as part of her teaching job, but she may also own copyright or a license for the work – it depends on the terms of her employment.


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Comments

Hi gold group. Helen here

Helen Belfrage's picture
Helen Belfrage
Sat, 2010-10-09 08:14

Hi gold group. Helen here from Violet group - really impressed with the detail behind your answers. I am particularly interested in your comments re:
• Charles Darwin’s Origin of the Species, about being owned by the publisher. I mentioned adaptations in my answer but should have realized that the publisher would now own those rights (assuming that it was covered by the relevant time frame)
• Indiana’s blanket copyright notice versus common knowledge
• distributor versus production company ownership – do distributors merely buy rights to distribute the product which would leave the ownership with the production company or would they now have ownership of copyright within their jurisdiction??

Film 'Creation' and

Mary Lydon's picture
Mary Lydon
Sun, 2010-10-10 23:35

Film 'Creation' and distributor: Hi Helen, thank you for your comments. Somewhere on Smartcopying I saw that if you want to show a film in a way that is not covered by the usual educational licence then you go to the distributor to get permission - and probably be charged a fee. I supppose it makes sense that they would know who owns the film. I don't think they would own it themselves but I suppose they are the owner's agent.

Hi Gold group your answers

titus321's picture
titus321
Mon, 2010-10-11 07:01

Hi Gold group your answers are very detailed. I was very literal in the interpretation in our answers (lime group) rather than considering if she was using a new edition. etc.When you think about all the possible permeations and combinations it is no wonder the average person just glazes over at the mention of copyright!!

Please see new attachement

Delia Browne's picture
Delia Browne
Wed, 2010-10-13 01:59

Please see new attachement with my comments. Go to course materials/ Gold Group and click on attachment.

Delia, Thank you very much

Mary Lydon's picture
Mary Lydon
Wed, 2010-10-13 03:32

Delia, Thank you very much for the comments. I am still absorbing some of what you've said, but I am taking on board the need to back up answers with the evidence source, e.g. 'lifetime of author plus 70 years from 1 Jan 2005'. It's great to get the clarification on all the issues we were doubtful about.