This blog post is Part 2 of 2 for the LRNT522: Introduction to Research course that required the class to disseminate an online collaboration session. Melanie Wrobel is a copyright officer with Royal Roads University and conducted a collaborate session on the topic of copyright and to offer insights into navigating the waters of copyright law.
Some key takeaways from this session were:
- Countries that are part of the Bern Convention must follow the law of the land when it comes to copyright law. For example, Canada offers copyright protection of authors death plus 50 years while the United States offers authors death plus 75 years. Therefore depending on where the usage takes place then that country’s law is in effect regardless of the users nationality. For example, a Canadian is living in the United States and wants to utilize some copyright material of another Canadian, then he/she must follow the copyright law of the USA since that is where the usage is going to be originating.
- By default, Canada does not require a copyright statement to be present for each piece of work. In Canada, copyright is automatically implied.
- Ideas are not protected but the expression of an idea is. Expression can be made in the form of literary work, dramatic work, musicals, artistic work, performances, sound recordings, and communication signals.
The area of copyright is quite new to me so this collaborate session was quite informative and provided detailed insights into how much of a minefield copyright law can be.
August 21, 2017 at 1:07 am
Hi again Gavin!
We are discovering how vast the Copyright field is. There are many topics under its umbrella, and most if not all are new to many of us. I would say that everybody has an idea that copyright exists, right? But how many avenues, and to what extent they go is yet not known fully, there is still way to go so let’s keep on readin’ and writin’!
Cheers!