The nation's leading Internet Service Provider is starting up a new online community for digital artists age 14 - 18. As a community leader in the their professional Graphic Artists' Forum, your supervisors have selected you to summarize the most important legal issues regarding copyright for their new younger audience in the format of an FAQ sheet (Frequently Asked Questions).

The ten frequently-asked questions are:

1) I'm just a student! Why should I care about copyright?

2) Do I have to write a © symbol on my artworks for them to be protected in the US?

3) What is infringement? How will I know if I have done it?

4) Is it infringement if I scan in a magazine photo and alter it some in Photoshop?

5) Come on, what are the chances of me being sued for infringement? Don't these artists have anything better to do with their time?

6) How do I get permission to use someone else's work as part of my own?

7) According to US law what is Fair Use? When does use become "unfair"?

8) If I create an image today and send in the copyright registration forms, how long will the copyright be good for?

9) What do I do if I don't know whether the image is copyrighted or not?

10) What's an address where can I get the forms for registering copyright?

Competencies:

• Demonstrate comprehension of and obedience to U. S. Copyright Law as it applies to technologically-enhanced imagery.

• Ability to summarize these copyright laws for a younger audience using layman's terms in a text format appropriate for browsing on the World Wide Web. (FAQ format)

Your FAQ must:

• Be accurate -- convey US copyright law correctly

• Specifically answer the questions posed by the young audience

• Be easy to read, using headings, text formatting and bullet points to organize information (like this page is!)

Tips for acing this assignment:

• Keep your young audience in mind. Youthful language and common slang terms are okay, but be clear.

• Avoid technical jargon. Define difficult terms if you must use them.

• Use the resources provided below. All the answers are there.

Some good places to start researching this subject are:

• The Copyright Website at http://www.benedict.com in the section called "The Basics"

• Top 10 Myths About Copyright and Brad Templeton's Copyright Summary
  http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html http://www.templetons.com/brad/copyright.html

• Intellectual Property, Defamation and the Digital Alteration of Visual Images (excerpt) by Raphael Winick, published in the Winter, 1997 edition of the Columbia-VLA Journal of Law and the Arts at http://eon.law.harvard.edu/property00/respect/winickexcerpt.html

• The Handbook of Pricing and Ethical Guidelines by the Graphic Artist's Guild. Chapter: New Technology Issues, particularly "Derivative Works". There is a copy of this book in the LRC.

Your report does not need to BE an actual web page, but should be organized to look and read like one (i.e. single-spaced, use bullet points, etc.). You may insert your graphic from Part II of this assignment into your word processing document if you like, or have it on a separate page. You may make an actual web page if you like for extra style points.