An interesting flash point today is copyright law. A copyright gives someone an exclusive legal right to reproduce, publish, or sell his or her literary, musical, or artistic works. The U.S. law that governs copyright protection is called "Title 17" of the U.S. Code. You can find this code explained on the U.S. Copyright Office website at www.copyright.gov
Essentially, a copyright means creative work is someone's property. If others would like to duplicate that work, they need to ask permission and possibly pay the owner. Authors, musicians, and artists often sign over their copyrights to publishers, who pay them royalties for the right to duplicate their work.
New electronic media, however, have complicated copyright law. For example.
When you purchase something, like a music CD, you have the right to duplicate it for your personal use. What happens if you decide to copy a song off a CD and put it on your website for downloading? You might claim that you put it on your website for your personal use, but now anyone else can download the song for free. Are you violating copyright law?
You can reproduce the work of others "for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research." This is referred to as "fair use." So, is it illegal to scan whole chapters of books for "teaching purposes" and put them on a CD for fellow students or co-workers?
New technology like webcasting (using digital cameras to broadcast over the Internet) allows people to produce creative works. If you decided to webcast your and your roommates' dorm room antics each evening, would you be protected by copyright law?
Blogs, or web logs, are becoming a popular way to broadcast news and opinions. Are these materials copyrighted? Is it illegal to share words and images on blogs?
The answer to these questions is "yes," but the laws are still being worked out.
The problem is the ease of duplication. Before computers, copyrights were easier to protect because expensive equipment like printing presses, sound studios, and heavy cameras were required to copy someone else's work. Today, anyone can easily duplicate the works of others with a scanner, CD/DVD recorder, or digital video recorder.
Ultimately, violating copyright is like stealing someone else's property. The fact that it is easier to steal today does not make it acceptable. Nevertheless, a few scholars have argued that copyright law is antiquated and that this kind of electronic sharing is how people will use text and music in the future.
Asking Permission
To avoid legal problems, it is best to follow copyright law as it is currently written. You need to ask permission if you would like to duplicate or take something from someone else's work. You can ask permission by writing a letter or e-mail to the publisher of the materials. Publishers can almost always be found on the Internet. On their websites, they will often include a procedure for obtaining permissions. Tell them exactly what you want to use and how it will be used.
In some cases, especially when you are a student, your use may fall under the "fair use clause" of the Copyright Act. Fair use allows people to copy works for purposes of "criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research" (17 U.S. Code, sec. 107). If your use of the materials falls under these guidelines, you may have a limited right to use the materials without asking permission.
For example, fair use would likely allow you to use a song legally downloaded from the Internet as background music in a presentation to your class. However, it does not allow you to distribute that song freely for your friends, even if you claim you are doing so for educational purposes.
Plagiarism
One type of copyright infringement is plagiarism. In Chapter 7 of the book “Technical Communication Today” by R. Johnson-Sheehan, plagiarism is discussed in depth, but the subject is worth briefly mentioning here. Plagiarism is the use of someone else's text or ideas as your own without giving credit. Plagiarism is a violation of copyright law, but it is also a form of academic dishonesty that can have consequences for your education and career.
For example, cutting and pasting words and images off the Internet and "patch-writing" them into your documents is a form of plagiarism, unless those materials are properly cited. To avoid questions of plagiarism, make sure you cite your sources properly and, when needed, ask permission to use someone else's work.