Copyright law controls how you may use the original works of other creators/authors. It covers all types of works, for example, images, novels, songs and photos. Copyright is usually automatic from the moment a work is created, but some countries require fixation. If we take music as an example, fixation means that you need to type your lyrics and record your song before it becomes copyrighted.
The image below states the most important things to be aware of when it comes to copyright:
"The fundamentals of copyright" by Maggiehjort via Wikimedia Commons. Copyright and related rights waived via CC0 1.0.
The rights you get as a copyright holder are divided into economic and moral rights:
Economic: the right of financial compensation when someone wants to use your work.
Moral: protects the bond between the creator and his/her work. This includes always being recognized as the author of the work.
Most countries define the copyright length as the author's lifetime plus 50 years. Many countries (The European Union and the USA included) have extended that to 70 years after the author's death.
This work, "Thinking is not enough", is adapted from a photo by Tingey Injury Law Firm on Unsplash, used under the Unsplash license. "Thinking is not enough" is licensed under CC BY 4.0 by Margareta Hjort.
Copyright and sharing is a hot topic in higher education. The Open Access movement works towards a more fair option of sharing research results so that everyone can read them. There is also a rising number of Open Educational Resources on the internet, whose purpose is to make education available to everyone, everywhere.
"Wiley's 5 Rs" by Abbey Elder is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
Whether academic librarians and university faculty own and control the copyright in their works created in their professional capacity depends on various factors. These include the laws in place such as work-for-hire in some cases, the terms of the employment or contractor agreement, university or school policies, and the terms of enrollment at the particular institution.
In Sweden, we have something called "lärarundantaget" (teacher exception), which means that traditionally the teachers, not the university, own the copyright for their teaching and research material. This means that the university needs to ask permission before using copyright-protected materials of teachers and researchers.
