Copyright Rules and Reminders
Copyright laws protect authors, artists, musicians, scientists, inventors, researchers, etc...! You will be planning and drafting many compositions for this class, as well as your other classes this year. Thus, copyright laws protect you too!
Copyright laws give writers legal authority to copy and distribute their work. They are so important that they are even included in the U.S. Constitution. Article I, Section 8, Clause 8 of the Constitution gives Congress the power to make laws: “[t]o promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited time to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.” When you illegally download music without permission from the artist who owns the copyright, you are infringing upon their Constitutional rights! When you copy and paste someone else's words and ideas into your essay and turn it in as if those ideas and words were yours, you are infringing upon another person's Constitutional rights. When someone breaks copyright laws, it is called "infringement". The guilty party can be fined or ordered to pay restitution to the original author, or he/she can be sentenced to jail. It's important that you understand that copyright laws will be taken seriously in our class. The videos and resources below can help you better understand copyright regulations.