Lesson Two: Copyright laws and how they relate to the Internet
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Lesson Two: Copyright laws and how they relate to the Internet

This section includes: how the Internet relates to implied licenses, links and URLs, images, email, content, html and licensed materials.

Lesson Two will provide you with the background information needed to better understand how U.S. copyright laws apply to the Internet. Most users believe that "if its on the web it's fair game!" Not true. Current U.S. copyright laws also apply to published information on the web. In this lesson you will read about some of the issues that pertain to web usage, such as implied license, links and URLs, images, e-mail, content, html, and licensed material and how it relates to the copyright laws.

Implied License
What is the relationship between an implied license and web usage? Does implied license mean that you have been granted permission to do whatever you want with the material you find on the Internet? What are the real issues here?

The issues are:

• The web was created with the knowledge that we are able to attach hypertext links from one page to another. Basically, users can jump from one site to another.
• This also means that by uploading your web page to the Internet, you have given other users permissions to link to your web page.
• What about normal web activities, such as viewing web pages, clicking on links, and seeing the web text on your computer screen?

A user may view the material found on the web, but they do not have the permission to use the material for their own commercial gain.

Links and URLs
What is a link? A link refers to an icon, or other visible hot spots that make a connection between one location in a hypertext system and another.

Can you freely link your web page to someone else's web page without asking permission?

• A link is a URL, therefore it is not copyrightable (a URL is a trademark issue).
• You can create a link from your web page to another without asking for permission (it is common courtesy to contact the other site prior to creating a link).
• Most web links are HREF links.
• You may freely link to a non-framed HREF link.

For example, links found on the Food at RootsWeb web site, http://food.rootsweb.com/, links you to other web pages. This is the basis for the web.

Linked Lists A link list is a list of links created by a site to provide you with a list of web sites on a particular subject. Is copying someone's list of links infringing on their copyright? For example, the list created by Yahoo! At http://dir.yahoo.com/Computers_and_Internet/Internet/World_Wide_Web/Searching_the_Web/
Search_Engines/ is a list of links to search engines available on the web.

Again, a URL is copyrightable, but what about a list of links? A list is not copyrightable as it has the same basis as printed telephone books. There is nothing original in providing a list of names alphabetically. But, if the site can prove that there is some original thought put into creating a link list, then it may be protected as a compilation work.

It is advisable that copying a link list form someone's web page would probably be a violation of copyright, but selecting a few links from the list is probably ok.

What can you do to prevent someone from linking to your web page? There isn't much you can do to prevent someone from linking to your web site, but you can try some of the following?

• Search the web for sites that link to yours by doing a search in the AltaVista search engine
  • In AltaVista, do a link search with the following search feature:
    Link:your web site address. For example:
  • link:courses.wccnet.org/~mccarthy/instructor. This will find pages with a link back to your web page.
• Ask the other site to remove the link.
• Password protect your site.

Framed HREF Links
What about frames and HREF links? A framed HREF link sometimes implies that you have created the work. Take a look at the frames example at http://www-instruct.wccnet.org/~mccarthy/copyright/href2.htm Select one of the links and observe the results. You will notice that the link is brought into the web site, implying that the link was created by the mccarthy site. Take a look at the URL. Do you see http://www.ala.org/ for the American Library Association listed in the address box of the browser? No. This example implies that the mccarthy site has created the link sites.

Copying Images from the Web
Can you copy someone else's image from the web and post it on your web page? The short answer to this question is no.

We all know how easy it is to find images and copy them to a disk. Using the AltaVista search engine, you can find an image two ways:

1. Go to http://www.altavista.com site, select the Images tab
2. Type in keywords of the images your are looking for
3. View the results

OR

1. In the search box, type image:keyword, where keyword is the image you are looking for (i.e. image:toys)
2. View the results

How easy is it to copy an image to a disk from the web? With your mouse over the image, right click on your mouse, select the "save image as" option, in the pop up window select where to save the image (i.e. A drive, desktop…..).

E-Mail
E-mail messages are considered the copyright of the author unless it was created for an employer within the scope of the employment. Yes, sending a copy of someone else's e-mail message to someone else is making a copy of the document.

Original Material and Content
What are the issues with original material placed on a web site? You can place originally created text, graphics, audio, video and any other material on your web page. You own the copyright to the material you have created. You are not infringing on anyone's copyright.

What about web content? The content of web pages is to be considered as the content of articles from magazines and journals, chapters in a book or multimedia. Web pages created by someone else include original text, images, audio and video. These original content are protected by copyright laws. Content on the web receives the same protection as material published in print or software.

HTML
What about HTML? Since it is so easy to view a web page's source by selecting View > Page Source from the browser menu, does it mean that you can copy someone else's HTML code? HTML is a hypertext markup language, but it is also simple tags. These tags are not copyrighted, therefore, you could probably copy someone's HTML but not the content.

Other areas of discussion with HTML includes web page design and different browsers displaying the same web page differently.

Licensed Material
You should not use any copyrighted material that is not in the public domain without first requesting permission of use. Request a license that will provide you with the rights to use the material, whether text, audio, video, graphics, or anything else. A license provides you with:

• How you can use the text, graphic, audio, or video
• How much you have to pay to use the material
• Any other conditions or restrictions agreed upon

Other Issues
Web Page Design-Take a look at the following two sites: The official White House page at http://www.whitehouse.gov and the Why?Network web site at http://www.whitehouse.net (select the Why icon) See the similarities with the web design? Is this site implying to be or impersonating the official White House web site?

In Conclusion
You are complying with the law if you:

• Own the copyright
• A law exempts the work
• You have written permission to use the work
• You have an implied license to use the work
• Work is in the public domain
• You can apply fair use

Test
Take the fair use test at: http://www.stfrancis.edu/cid/coprbay/fairuse.htm

Evans, James. "Whose Web site is it anyway?" (protecting intellectual property on the Web) Internet World, Sept 1997 v8 n9 p46(4)

Butler, Susan P. . "Stay on the Right Side of Copyright Laws." (Industry Trend or Event) Macworld, August 2000 v17 i8 p105

Samuels, Edward. The Illustrated Story of Copyright. New York : Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Press, 2000.

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