What's the Policy?

Q: Should copyright notices be posted on campus websites?

Karen Eft, IST-AVCO

Although a notice is not legally required to assert copyright on works published on and after March 1, 1989, displaying a copyright notice on websites is still a very good idea. A notice clarifies who owns the work, emphasizes that the owner asserts copyright, and encourages contact by those who wish to use the material. If any legal disputes arise, a posted notice may help defend against claims of "innocent infringement".

The Office of Technology Transfer (OTT) Copyright Matters website (http://www.ucop.edu/ott/crprimr.html) states that "All software, publications, multimedia, and other copyrighted works developed on campus and belonging to the University should bear a clear, standard copyright notice imbedded in the title page or screen or other prominent location."

Ownership of copyrighted works created at the University is determined by the 1992 Policy on Copyright Ownership (http://www.ucop.edu/ucophome/uwnews/copyr.html), which "provides copyright ownership to faculty for their scholarly and aesthetic copyrighted works, and … provides the University ownership of its employment-related works." (Additional clarification is included on the OTT Copyright Matters website.)

According to the U.S. Copyright Office (see Copyright Basics [http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html]), a copyright notice should contain all of the following three elements:

• the symbol © (the letter C in a circle), or the word "Copyright", or the abbreviation "Copr.";
• the year of first publication of the work; and
• the name of the owner of copyright in the work, or an abbreviation by which the name can be recognized, or a generally known alternative designation of the owner.

As an example, the UC Berkeley home page (http://www.berkeley.edu/) includes the following notice at the bottom of the page:

Copyright 2002 UC Regents. All rights reserved.

The University of California Office of the President home page (http://ucop.edu/) copyright notice

© 2002 The Regents of the University of California

also features a hyperlink from the year (2002) to a page containing their Terms and Conditions of Use (http://ucop.edu/services/terms.html).

Posting notice that material belongs to the University does not prevent others from using the material under appropriate circumstances. In some cases, permission (or "license") to use a work can be as simple as a letter or permission statement. As stated in the Interim E-Berkeley Policy section on Copyright (http://socrates.berkeley.edu:7015/e-Berkeley.policy.html#copy), "It is helpful for you to post permission notices for appropriate use of online works by others." For example, to clarify the conditions for further use of this article, BC&C's About this publication page (http://istpub.berkeley.edu:4201/bcc/about.html) states that

Portions of Berkeley Computing and Communications may be reprinted or adapted for nonprofit purposes by universities, colleges, or K-12 schools, provided the source is accurately quoted, duly credited, and a copy of the document in which the material appears is forwarded to the BC&C Editor.

and includes contact information for inquiries. For more information, particularly related to more complex situations such as making software publicly available, see What are the different methods for distributing copyrighted works? (http://www.ucop.edu/ott/crworks.html#methods) on the OTT website.

Is it okay for me to use material from others' websites?

On the other side of the equation, when you are interested in material that is posted on someone else's website, the UC Electronic Communications Policy (http://www.ucop.edu/ucophome/policies/ec/) "User Advisories", Section II.B. "Allowable Uses" states that:

In accordance with federal law, users should assume that material created by others, in electronic or other form, is protected by copyright unless such material includes an explicit statement that it is not protected, or unless such material is clearly in the public domain.

Do not confuse the term "public domain" with works that are "publicly available", i.e., distributed electronically. Many works are distributed with certain permissions expressly granted, and if so, you may use the work only for the purposes stated. More information about using copyrighted works and "fair use" is contained in the Interim E-Berkeley Policy section on Copyright (http://socrates.berkeley.edu:7015/e-Berkeley.policy.html#copy).

Links to additional information about copyright-related topics are provided in our Copyright Information Resources page (http://socrates.berkeley.edu:7015/copyright/).

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Berkeley Computing & Communications, Volume 12, Number 3 (Summer 2002)
Copyright 2002, The Regents of the University of California