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Copyright and ethics in relation to

multimedia

By

J.A.Amaraweera

(Librarian)

Buddhist & Pali University of Sri Lanka

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Multimedia - Introdution

• The term multimedia was originally used to describe packages of learning materials that consisted of a book, a couple of audiocassettes and a videocassette.

• Such packages are described then as multiple media or mixed media

• Because of its capability of integrating the four basic skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing, multimedia is of considerable interest to the language teacher.

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Multimedia - definition

• Multimedia refers to computer-based materials designed to be used on a computer that can display and print text and high-quality graphics, play pre-recorded audio and video material, and create new audio and video recordings.

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Multimedia - definition

• A combination of two or more digital media (text, graphics, audio, animation, video, etc.) used in a computer application or data file, such as an online encyclopedia, computer game, or Web site Multimedia applications are often interactive. Synonymous in this sense with digital media

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Multimedia - definition

• In a more general sense, any program, presentation, or computer application in which two or more communication media are used simultaneously or in close association, for example, slides with recorded sound. Still images accompanying text are considered illustration

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What is Copyright

• The exclusive legal rights granted by a government to an author, editor, compiler, composer, playwright, publisher, or distributor to publish, produce, sell, or distribute copies of a literary, musical, dramatic, artistic, or other work, within certain limitations (fair use and first sale).

• Copyright law also governs the right to prepare derivative works, reproduce a work or portions of it, and display or perform a work in public. Such rights may be transferred or sold to others and do not necessarily pass with ownership of the work itself. Copyright protects a work in the specific form in which it is created, not the idea, theme, or concept expressed in the work, which other writers are free to interpret in a different way. A work never copyrighted or no longer protected by copyright is said to be in the public domain

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What is Digital rights ?

• Digital rights – Ownership of information content published and

distributed in electronic format, protected in the United States by copyright law. Digital rights management (DRM) uses technologies specifically designed to identify, secure, manage, track, and audit digital content, ideally in ways that ensure public access, preserve fair use and right of first sale, and protect information producers from uncompensated downloading (copyright piracy).

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International copyright

Copyright protection extended to works published outside a country's borders, currently governed by national copyright law and international agreements, such as the Berne Convention and the Universal Copyright Convention.

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Berne Convention

An international copyright agreement creating an International Union for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works signed in Berne, Switzerland, in 1886, ratified in 1887 by several European countries and their colonies, and revised periodically. By 1974, there were 64 signatories. The United States joined in 1988. To receive copyright protection under the Berne Convention, first publication of a work must occur in a member country. Works published in nonsignatory nations receive protection if published simultaneously in a signatory nation. Protection is for the author's lifetime plus 50 years, except for anonymous or pseudonymous works and cinematographic works for which protection expires 50 years after the work has been made available to the public.

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Universal Copyright Convention (UCC)

An international copyright convention drafted in 1952 under the auspices of UNESCO, revised in 1971 and ratified by over 65 countries, including the United States. Under its terms, each signatory nation extends to foreign works the same copyright protection it gives to works published within its territory by one of its own citizens.

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What is Intellectual property ?

Tangible products of the human mind and intelligence entitled to the legal status of personal property, especially works protected by copyright, inventions that have been patented, and registered trademarks. An idea is considered the intellectual property of its creator only after it has been recorded or made manifest in specific form. Abbreviated IP.

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Sri Lanka – Intellectual Property Act

Parliament of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka

Intelectual Property Act, No. 38 of 2003

[certified on 12th November, 2003]Printed on the order of Government

Published as a Supplement to Part II of the Gazzette of the Democratic Socialist

Republic of Sri Lanka of November 14, 2003

Printed at the Department of Government Printing, Sri Lanka

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IPA Sri Lanka

• An Act to provide for the Law relating to Intellectual Property and for an efficient procedure for the registration, control and administration thereof ; to amend the Customs Ordinance (Chapter 235) and the High Courts of the Provinces (Special ) Provisions Act, No.10 of 1996 ; and to provide for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto be enacted by the Parliament of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka

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What is fair use?

Conditions under which copying a work, or a portion of it, does not constitute infringement of copyright, including copying for purposes of criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.

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Fair Use according to the PIA No.38 of 2003

• Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (1) of section (9), the fair use of a work, including such use by reproduction of copies or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship or research, shall not be an infringement of copyright.

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Fair use… Contd.:

• The following acts shall be permitted without the authorization of the owner of the copyright:-

• The reproduction of a short part of a published work for teaching purposes by way of illustration, in writing or sound or visual recordings, provided that the reproduction is compatible with fair practice and does not exceed the extent justified by the purpose of such reproduction.

• The reprographic reproduction for face to face teaching in any educational institution the activities of which do not serve direct or indirect commercial gain

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What is Public domain ?

Works not protected by copyright, or for which copyright has expired, which may be printed for distribution and sale, quoted, excerpted, reproduced, and made available online to the public without infringement, for example, a government document over which an agency decides not to exercise copyright in order to make its content widely known.

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Duration of Copyright

• The economic and moral rights shall be protected during life time of the author and for a further period of seventy years from the date of his death.

• In case of a joint authorship, the economic and moral rights shall be protected during the life time of the last surviving author and for a further period of seventy years from the death of the last surviving author.

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What is ethics ?

• The principles of conduct governing an individual or group; concerns for what is right or wrong, good or bad

• The process of determining how one should hold the interests of various stakeholders, taking into account moral values/principles

• Conforming to an accepted standard of human behavior

• The process of determining right and wrong conduct

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Ethical issues of Multimedia

• Plagiarism – copying of others works or creations• Pornographically reproductions or copying• Censored works • Creations tends for violence ie. Ethnic, Caste or

creed • Creations leads to wars and coups, insurrection• Defamatory reproductions• Creations harmful for religious harmony• Distortions

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