By: Taban Khajehnassiri
I think it is very important for us to note the results and consequences of not respecting the international laws and regulations on copyright.
I am not a lawyer, but I would like to bring up a new discussion
- a very important one - in this edition of our newsletter.
Somehow it can be considered as my personal opinion about this,
however, I really want to receive your views and opinions about
the title of this editorial. Anyway, I learned about aome of
the facts I am using in this material from different sources, on
articles, books and on the Internet though I do not recall the
main resources but I feel responsible to say thanks to all those
who have tried for clarifying the concepts of copyrights all
over the world specially on the web. I have to appreciate their
writings from which I learned more about the current status of
copyrights on the web and in the world.
In fact, I have to mention this important point that the whole
idea of Copyright has always been under consideration and
practically we are always learning more and more about it on
the web, because it's been really an international topic in
the world. We all have heard about pirate cassettes, CD's and
Disks containing copyrighted materials. You may have heard
about Registration of Company Logos, letterheads and so on.
They are all about copyright laws and I would like to bring it
up here in this edition of WWN although it is somehow long, I
hope it be helpful to you as our esteemed readers.
I know and understand - like many of you - that in Iran we do not
have a clear set of copyright laws and that is why we are facing
a great deal of misunderstandings and also problems in this
regard. As you may know, you can get required information
regarding copyrights from many sources on-line, but most of
them are based on US (or UK, France and German) clearly written
laws about copyright. In Iran, some years ago, we started a
serious study on the idea of copyright but as far as I know,
we did not finalize and make the concerned laws clear to the
public. We have been confused about the whole idea and every
study on this important (Now very important because of the
Internet and new connections internationally) ended in a
familiar statement that "Ok, let see what will happen next."
Again, about two months ago, I read about a round table meeting
with some publishers, writers and translators convened by
a newspaper here in Tehran to study the current status of
copyright in our country. From that report I recall this
statement that we are not ready for the copyright laws! Is this
really what we are looking for on our round tables?!
I think it is very important for us to note the results and
consequences of not respecting the international laws and
regulations on copyright. At present, take a look at what we
are doing on-line in our web sites. You may see texts, graphics,
sounds and multimedia materials used widely that are not for
public domain use. In webfaqt, I have tried to respect the
copyright of those who have written the texts of news stories
and articles by mentioning their copyright notice right after
the used material. But I know that is not enough, so I have
tried to possibly contact them and asked for their permission.
But what about other web sites. Now, I am just talking about
web sites and materials, and I am not going to expand this
discussion to our newspapers, magazines and radio and TV. And
you see how deeply it can be studied and scrutinized. And
also how deep it can affect our success or failure in the
future.
For your kind information, let me write about some of my
findings about the copyright on the web for other countries
accepted these laws basically let's say by heart.
The current copyright laws say: facts can not be copyrightable.
But any written articles containing facts in magazines, in
newspapers, in books or on the web are in fact copyrighted. When
you create an article you are creating a copyrightable property.
As the author of that article you do not need any formal or
actual registration for its copyright. You are the one who is
the copyright holder of that intellectual property you have
created. So we can say that when you use pens, pencils or
keyboards to create a written piece of work, take for instance
this editorial, the writer is holding the copyright even if I'm
just writing about some facts about copyright. As far as I know
and learn there is no age required for validating copyright. It
means that No-one can use the art work a child (For example a
painting) as a part of his or her work to sell it in the public,
there has been lawsuits cases in this regard in other countries
like the USA: "In one recent case, a teacher that used papers submitted
by her elementary students as part of a work that she then sold was
sued for violation of her students' copyrights. She lost."
For more info, regarding the old works published in the US, let
me inform you that published materials before 1965 can now be
considered as in the "public domain". It means that we can
republish it even in the US as far as I know. Copyright laws
are not just for written works, since they have called it the
intellectual property laws so it can be applied to any kind of
graphical, musical works too. Therefore, we can not make use
of such materials on the web unless the creator has mentioned
it somewhere that "Feel free to use these material in any way
or format you want!" You can not copy copyrighted images and
make some changes on them and use them on your pages. They
call it a derivative work and still you are in violation of
the copyright laws. In the US, copyright laws are there to
stay and they do not expire. Spouse, children and even
grandchildren inherit any copyrights of the holder. There,
It is not required to mention on any pages a notice for
the copyright. It is the matter of responsibility not for
the creator of an intellectual work, but the responsibility
of those who are viewing the material in a magazine,
in a paper, in a book or on the web and find it as
copyrighted materials. In order to use them it is a must
to get the permission before using them in violation to
INTERNATIONAL LAWS.
Talking about the Iranian Web Sites, I have to mention some
points. We need clear written copyright laws. We need clear
'public domain' material libraries for texts and graphics,
audio and video etc. We need discussions, articles, books
and follow-ups to clarify copyright laws. I started thinking
and acting about this about seven years ago when I was in
... , there I translated an article on copyright laws
and some weeks later I found another version just like
mine but with another name on the top. First I thought,
that's just a mistake, later I found some of my translations
printed in ... related weekly magazine, I tried to follow
it up but in vain. I started to think we need a deep
protection and support too! Recently I have designed a web
site for a ...! They have erased my name from the HTML
source!! We need to be briefed prior to entering the World
Wide Web. I think you may have experienced similar instances
but sometimes I convince myself who cares!
If you care, please write down your views and send it to your
newsletter.
This article first published electronically as an editorial of WWN February 19, 2000.