Copyright Laws and Designers

Copyright laws were created to protect the work of the artists/author. When a piece of work gets copyrighted, the holder of the copyright receives exclusive rights for that particular piece of work. These rights are as follows: to reproduction of the work, sell copies, import/export work, create works that adapt to the original work, to display the work publicly, to sell rights to others, and rights to broadcast both radio and television (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright). This means that if another designer/author wants to use something that is copyrighted, they need to request permission from the person who holds these rights. Without this permission the offender could face fines or prison time if prosecuted (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright).

When it comes to works that have a copyright, there are a few exceptions. Depending on what one might want to do with the work of art, he/she may not need permission to use it. Reproducing a piece of work for criticism, comment, news reports, teaching, scholarship, and research are all legal ways to go about using a copyrighted work of art without having to get permission to do so. These exceptions fall under “fair use”, and the determination of fair use for a specific means of use is set by a few statutes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use). However, simply changing the formatting of a work of art, and then calling it your own is not one of these exceptions. This still violates the copyright law. For example, a designer cannot take a three dimensional piece, design it in two dimensions, and call it their own work of art (vice-versa).

Copyright laws do not have rights over public domain. Public domain is considered material that is public property, and it is available to anyone who wants to use it. Designers can use materials that fall under public domain as much as they want without fear of doing something illegal. Mere ideas and informational facts fall under public domain, and therefore cannot be copyrighted by any individual (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain). This means that if a design already exists representing a certain idea, another person can come up with a different design expressing the same idea as long as it is done in a different manner. The new work of art cannot be viewed as too similar to the original work or else it would fall under the rights of the original holder. For example, although there may be many cartoons with dogs (the idea of dogs is under public domain), but as long as the new cartoon character does not resemble or remind people of previous cartoon dogs, legally there is not a problem. Also, copyrights don’t last forever so when they expire the items holding the copyrights fall into public domain allowing everyone to use them as they see fit (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain).

Lawsuits filed by groups like the RIAA (Recording Industry Assoc. of America) and the MPAA (Motion Picture Assoc. of America) have helped decrease the distribution of channels to designers. Recently, these groups have been taking a lot of action to protect their copyrighted material. The main goal of these lawsuits is to dissuade people from file sharing and reproducing these songs and movies. Because of these lawsuits, the activity on file sharing websites has greatly decreased, which decreases resources for designers (http://news.cnet.com/2100-1027-5113188.html). Also, before these lawsuits designers had an easy access to materials like this, but now it would be a very bad idea to go ahead and use these types of works without permission.

Copyright laws may slow down designers, but it shouldn’t affect them too much. If they want to use a certain work to help with their design, they just need to take the time and ask for permission. If that doesn’t work then all they need to do is find a way to create their image in a manner that has not been done before (without using others works).

Works Cited

“Copyright.” Wikipedia. 16 Oct. 2008.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright>.

“Fair Use.” Wikipedia. 16 Oct. 2008.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use>.

“Public Domain.” Wikipedia. 16 Oct. 2008. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain>.

” RIAA lawsuits yield mixed results.” CNET News. 4 Dec. 2003. 20 Oct. 2008. <http://news.cnet.com/2100-1027-5113188.html>.

~ by jdoughn2 on October 21, 2008.