Hey guys, need a new excuse for your professors? Have you run out of "dog ate my homework" stories. Here's a new one for you. "I couldn't complete the assignment, because I didn't want to be guilty of copyright infringement."
There is a lot of chatter on the net this week about this case (S.D.N.Y. 2009) recently decided in U.S. district court. In this case a textbook publisher successfully sued a person who was selling answers to questions from the textbook via the internet. The publisher did not own the rights to the answers, but instead it held a copyright on the textbook which contained the questions. However the court ruled that the answer sheet was a "derivative work". A derivative work is defined in 17 U.S.C. § 101:
"A “derivative work” is a work based upon one or more pre-existing works, such as a translation, musical arrangement, dramatization, fictionalization, motion picture version, sound recording, art reproduction, abridgment, condensation, or any other form in which a work may be recast, transformed, or adapted. A work consisting of editorial revisions, annotations, elaborations, or other modifications which, as a whole, represent an original work of authorship, is a “derivative work”."
Basically a derivative work is one that is largely based on some other copyrighted material. It does not stand on its own, and is dependent on someone else's work for its substance. In this case the court ruled that the defendant's document which was composed of answers to the questions in the textbook was a derivative work. He could not have answered the questions without the textbook and the answer sheet did not make sense without the textbook.
So my fellow students, what does this mean to us? When we answer questions out of our textbooks are we breaking the law? If this were true than based upon all the homework we are assigned I'd say some of these paralegal instructors are accomplices. One of the bloggers who commented on this case said we should all ask for liability waivers before we agree to submit answers to questions from a copyrighted source. I think this is a little extreme because most of us are not mass producing our homework assignments and distibuting them to other students. I believe the defendant in this case was found guilty of infringement because he was selling his answers and making a profit from them. This is what drew the eye of the textbook publisher and federal prosecutors. Still it makes you think about the fact that we students frequently produce derivative works that we would have to be careful about publishing or profiting from.
Here are some links to blogs about this case,
Joe, I am fairly sure that this argument won't work but I am willing to give it a shot. I do believe that there is an exception for educational use within copyright law but did not take the time to verify that info.
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