Copyright and Plagiarism

One of the main ethical issues involving the use of information is copyright law. Test your knowledge of copyright law below with the following question:

Everything on the Internet is freely available for anyone to download and/or copy for his/her own use.

True
False

The previous question relates to copyright law. Did you get it right? For more information, visit the Library of Congress Copyright Office web site.

According to U.S. Copyright Law, any original work, including books, music, movies, videos, computer programs, artwork and designs and patents are legally protected. This protection extends to both published and unpublished works.

In most cases, the information or material you find is copyrighted unless it is in the public domain which means it can be freely duplicated or used by anyone. An author/creator DOES NOT have to register a work with the Copyright Office. The work is automatically protected by the Copyright Law as soon as it is created.

 

Fair Use