COMP2100/6442
Copyright in the context of Software development
Dr Terhi Nurmikko-Fuller
Senior Lecturer in Digital Humanities Centre for Digital Humanities Research Australian National University
A little about me
● Interdisciplinary researcher, based in CASS
● Linked Data and Semantic Web person
● I try to limit my work as much as possible to
○ Using Open Data
○ Using Open Source Software
○ Providing access to new and additional (Linked) Open Data
● I’m not a lawyer!
● Not an expert on Copyright Law, but I work on digital projects with a lot of materials from the creative arts, museums, art, music, galleries, archives…a lot of material and a lot of institutions who care A LOT about copyright restrictions.
● About my slides: underlined in blue are links – please do click on them for further reading, videos, etc.
This is my Plan…
● Intellectual Property (IP)
● Copyright
● Copyleft
● Copywrong
● Why Copyright is 👍
● Why Copyright is 💩
● My GLAM sector copyright story
● Disney (is ruining it for everyone)
That time, is now.
IP
And I don’t mean Internet Protocol (o_O)
What is IP?
● Property = things you own, things that belong to you
● Intellectual = something relating to your brain and mind, like thinking and reasoning and imagination and problem-solving and creativity…
● Intellectual property = intangible things, such as ideas, that your brain has produced. This could be an idea expressed in painting, a book, a song…many different things. Including a computer program!
● There are different categories of IP, including copyright licences, trademarks, and patents…etc
https://www.csoonline.com/article/2138380/intellectual- property-protection-10-tips-to-keep-ip-safe.html
Why should I care?
● IP gives you the right to monopolise (and therefore benefit from!) your intellectual output!
● Which means….You can make $$$!!!!
● As a student at the ANU, you hold the IP of all
your work.
● This means You own it, and not the University
● Which means that, when you leave, you can take it with you, carry on developing it, and possibly even sell it as a commercial product (as long as certain rules are met, for example, that it is not built around an Open Source licence*)
Image from https://d2dzik4ii1e1u6.cloudfront.net/images/lexology/static/a85ad073-c0ca-4799-8d57-f34c6fa92723.PNG
There are many different aspects to IP
Today, we will just talk about:
● Trademarks and Patents ● Copyright
Trademarks and Patents
Trademarks
● IP over a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies a specific product, or brand, or service.
● Trademarks have been around for centuries: ○
■ You can read more about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assize_of_Bread_and_Ale
● Aim is to protect customers and clients from fakes.
○ Some well-known trademarks in computer science, e.g. FireFox
A medieval baker with his apprentice. The Bodleian Library, Oxford.
Scanned from Maggie Black’s “Den medeltida kokboken”, Swedish translation of The Medieval Cookbook ISBN 91-7712-380-8.
The first legislative act concerning trademarks was passed in 1266
under the reign of Henry III, requiring all bakers to use a distinctive
mark for the bread they sold.
Patents
● Patents differ from Copyright because unlike copyright, which applies to any intellectual expression (for example, the content of a book, not the physical object of a book itself).
● Patents apply to functional inventions: things that have functionality, purpose, mechanism, processes…
● Patent trolling = When someone else tries to assert patent rights over something. Open Source (like publishing your code on GitHub) can help as a preemptive measure!
● You might enjoy reading:
○ https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/design/g20051677/patents-changed-the-world/
○ BBC: “9 things You Didn’t Know Were Invented By Women”
Copyright
What is Copyright?
“Copyright is a form of intellectual property that protects the original expression of ideas.” –
From https://www.copyright.com.au/about-copyright/
“Copyright protection is free and applies automatically when material is created.” – From https://www.copyright.org.au/ACC_Prod/ACC/Information_Sheets/An_Introduction_to_Copyright_in_Australia.aspx
“Australian copyright law applies to actions that take place in Australia, even if the material used was created or first published in another country.”
– From https://www.copyright.org.au/ACC_Prod/ACC/Information_Sheets/An_Introduction_to_Copyright_in_Australia.aspx
“[Copyright works by] providing a financial reward to people who have created content that
others find valuable, and lack the skill or time to produce for themselves. – From https://www.copyright.com.au/about-copyright/
Other people’s explanations of Copyright
● The ANU Library provides an overview of Copyright,
○ with links and information about how students, researchers, and HDR students should approach copyright.
Since you are a student at the ANU, this is material you should know. There are links to a many other resources as well.
● The Australian Copyright Council
● The Copyright Agency
● Crash Course Introduction to Intellectual Property playlist
○ This is a series of talks on the topics related to IP and copyright by Crash Course, who specialise in educational
videos. I am a fan of their work, but these videos are here to give you another insight into the topic. You should not consider them a source you can cite in your assignments (NB this is a series of lessons, again, something you’ll want to space out).
● Wikipedia has an extensive page on Copyright.
○ I am a fan of Wikipedia but I would encourage you to use this as a source of information for you, not as a
source to cite in your assignments.
Further readings about Copyright Read: Menand, L. (2014). Crooner in rights spat:
Are copyright laws too strict. The New Yorker.
Watch: Copyright: Forever Less One Day (Disclaimer, mentions death and people who have died)
Engage with the materials from (for the hardcore): Australian Copyright Council
Read about: Katy Perry and the music industry
Summary: What is IP?
https://www.legalwiz.in/blog/difference-between-trademark-copyright-patent-ipr-in-india
Summary: And why should I care?
This is from the slides from last year’s course!
Copyleft
Copyleft
● Guarantee user freedom
● Prevent developers from locking-in or restricting users
● Require that derivatives are shared in the same way (i.e. you can’t take something open and then build on that to make something which is proprietary → you cannot make $$$ from someone else’s free code)
● GPL (GNU General Public Licence)
● GLPv3
● So these are more from the perspective of the user (not the developer)
Copyleft
● Conceptually similar to the Creative Commons Share-alike Licence.
● The copyright of the original is transferred to the new product.
● For example, you can’t take Open Source software (or code from GitHub), and use it to build a commercial product
● But you can choose to let other people use and edit your code.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/au/
Examples of Licences you might know well already
● GitHub (over 30 different options, because like Data Standards, everyone wants to develop their own, I guess): https://docs.github.com/en/free-pro-team@latest/github/cr eating-cloning-and-archiving-repositories/licensing-a-repos itory
● STEAM
https://store.steampowered.com/curator/6942691-License/ and https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
Examples of Licences you might know already
This is from the slides from last year’s course!
Copywrong
Copywrong
● Unethical or illegal use of material
● Disregard for copyright law
● Misuse and abuse of copyright law
● Use and/or distribution of material even when you’re not supposed to
● Incredibly common!
From
https://www.copyright.c om.au/about-copyright/ copyright-myths/
Benefits of Copyright
Benefits of Copyright 1/2
● Protects people whose income is dependent on being able to monetise on their intellectual or creative output e.g. authors, musicians, artists, etc.
● Means that someone can’t just take something you made and make money off it (e.g. by stealing a piece of art you made and selling it off as their work)
● Some argue that this means that it fuels creativity and drives the development of new things…
○ But I do not agree!
https://mimiandeunice.com/category/ip/
Benefits of Copyright 2/2
● Infringements on copyright can be particularly damaging to Early Career people (e.g. junior scholars or those writing their first novels), who have fewer opportunities to defend their rights if their ideas are copied and reproduced by someone else. A powerful publisher (such as Elsevier!) can help defend the author’s case and even take legal action.
● Copyright is automatically assigned to you as the creator, you do not need to register it separately. If you write some code and publish it online, for example, if you can prove it is yours, you can claim copyright (IF You Want To).
When Copyright is
As a person in academia (student, lecturer, professor, anyone)
● If you choose the publish your academic work (for example, you write code, or make a project, and then write it up as an publication for a conference or a journal), be very careful to read the different options about licences, and copyrights that different publishers offer. This one is the one from ACM. The wording is not always that clear! Which one would you choose?
When Copyright is 💩
● https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-21/ken-wyatt-encourages-afl-fans-to-wear-abo
riginal-flag/12580968
● Here is a podcast on the Fight Over the Aboriginal Flag: https://podcastaddict.com/episode/111832709
● When copyright is used to monopolise a thing that should be shared/ be in the public domain.
● When copyright is used by corporations to monetise on a thing that was once free (e.g. Disney owns rights to “Alice in Wonderland” because of the films in 1951 and 2010. Copyright is not held by the family or estate of its original author, Lewis Carroll.
● When publishers (like Elsevier!) claim copyright and licencing rights over the work of academic scholars, whose work should be freely and openly available to everyone!
From
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-06-11/ new-licence-owners-of-aboriginal-flag-thre aten-football-codes/11198002
Disney
If you didn’t do so before, go read: Menand, L. (2014). Crooner in rights spat: Are copyright laws too strict. The New Yorker. At least the bit about Disney!
And Watch: Copyright: Forever Less One Day (Disclaimer, mentions death and people who have died)
For an overview of the Bono Act, or the Mickey Mouse Protection Act, see
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_Term_Extension_Act
Good things about Permissive Licenses
● Can grant freedom to other developers to use your code,
● Reuse almost always requires acknowledgement and attribution. You should do this anyway, because it is the morally and ethically right thing to do.
● You can build on other people’s work, rather than everyone creating code for the same task over and over.
● But not everyone likes the idea!
Examples of things with Permissive Licenses
● MIT/Expat/X11, ISC/n-clause BSD (short descriptions)
● Apache 2.0 (lengthy description)
● There is also the Grant of Patent Licence, created to counter the sort of Patent Trolling – we talked about both of these before!
Creative Commons
“Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization
that helps overcome legal obstacles to the
sharing of knowledge and creativity to address
the world’s pressing challenges.”
● I love CC but I guess not everyone agrees. One reason is that it can be a bit vague in places and some consider it difficult to interpret.
OMG this is boring! Can’t I just put my code on GitHub and that’s it?!?!
Having no licence
● You’d think this was the most open way to share and publish data but actually it is not.
● Remember copyright is assigned automatically, and you don’t need to apply for it.
● No licence = only You have the right to edit, modify, expand, etc on that code!
● Remember: Just because it is online, doesn’t mean it is OK to use it! So you should choose a licence that means others are free to use it. And you should only use code that has been categorised as open!
In Summary
● Copyright can protect you as the person who has created code.
● Open Licences are great for the advancement of Computer Science, for the sharing of knowledge, and just for being a nice person.
● Copyright law can be complicated and change between countries. As an ANU student, you should know what your rights and responsibilities are: ANU Library provides an overview of Copyright. For example, who owns the IP of your code once you graduate??? (You do, don’t worry)
● Always always always attribute the creator of the code you’ve used, regardless of their licence. This is especially true in your assignments. It is better to cite, reference, and attribute too much, than not enough!
Extra bonus material: Our stories of when Copyright went a bit wrong
● Bernardo: A story of FireMe
● Bernardo: Crawling all ACM articles
● Terhi: Collaboration with a British museum
● Terhi: The Story of a administration person using a copyrighted image
● Katrina Grant: Sometimes good! e.g. IKEA can’t rip you off….
● Katrina Grant: Academic article with images from 1700s. Cost = $6,000.
● Katrina Grant: Company wants to pay publisher for poor quality image rather than use a HD image form a museum, because they’re worried about copywrong