Do I need permission to quote?

No — quotation is exactly the case where a portion of someone's work may be used without permission, provided all five rules hold: your work is the subject, there is a need to quote, the quotation is marked, the source is named, and nothing is altered.

I put it in quotation marks. Is that enough?

No. Marking the quotation and specifying the source are two separate rules. Both must hold, along with the other three.

What does 'BY-NC-SA' allow?

You may use and even adapt the work, but you must credit the creator with the title and name (BY), you may not use it commercially (NC), and anything you build from it must be published under the same combination of licences (SA).

Lesson 2-3

Utilization and Disclosure of Information

Unit 2 — Regulations and Rights in the Information Society

Information and Communication Technology — Baccalaureate Year 1

Textbook pages pp. 20–23Published

When a work may be used without asking: the three exceptions, the five rules of quotation, the fifty-year term, and how to read a Creative Commons licence.

Learning objectives

01State the two halves of the purpose of copyright and why both matter.
02Name the exceptions under which a work may be used without permission, with the condition of each.
03Define quotation and apply its five rules to a piece of writing.
04State the protection period of the author's economic rights and count it correctly.
05Read and combine the four Creative Commons marks — BY, NC, ND, SA — to say what a creator allows.

Summary

Copyright has two halves in its purpose, and the lesson insists on both: it exists to contribute to cultural development by ensuring the fair use of works and the protection of rights. Protection alone would make teaching impossible; use alone would leave creators with nothing. Everything in this lesson sits between those two.

Three exceptions allow a work to be used without obtaining permission: reproduction for private use, reproduction within educational institutions, and non-profit performances. Each is read with its own condition, which is where marks are won and lost. Private use means copying for yourself — recording a CD you bought onto your own phone — and giving that copy to a friend is not private use. A performance is 'not for profit' by the admission fee, not by who organised it: a school concert that sells a ticket is outside the exception.

Quotation is the case students use most. It is using a portion of someone else's work inside your own, and it needs no permission when five rules hold together: your own work is the subject and the quoted part is subordinate; there is a necessity to quote; the quoted material is clearly identifiable, in quotation marks; the source is clearly specified; and the quoted material is not altered. Marking the quotation and citing the source are two separate rules — doing one does not excuse the other.

Two things close the lesson. The author's economic rights expire fifty years after the creator's death — counted from the death, not from publication. And a Creative Commons licence is a mark showing the conditions for using a work: BY (credit the creator with the work's title and name), NC (no commercial use), ND (no alteration of the original), SA (publish adaptations under the same combination of licences). Every mark adds a condition, so two marks are two conditions — and ND and SA cannot appear together, since one forbids what the other assumes.

Key terms

Fair use and protection of rights: The two halves of the purpose of copyright: works can be used fairly, and creators' rights are protected.
Exceptions: Reproduction for private use, reproduction within educational institutions, and non-profit performances — the cases where permission is not required.
Private use: Reproduction for yourself. Giving the copy to a friend is not private use.
Non-profit performance: A performance with no admission fee. The condition is the fee, not the organiser.
Quotation: Using a portion of someone else's work inside your own, allowed without permission when the five rules are met.
The five rules of quotation: Your work is the subject and the quotation subordinate; there is a necessity to quote; the quotation is marked; the source is specified; the quoted material is not altered.
Fifty years: The author's economic rights expire fifty years after the creator's death — counted from the death, not from publication.
Creative Commons licence: A mark showing the conditions for using a work: BY credit, NC non-commercial, ND no derivatives, SA same terms for adaptations.

Sample questions

01A school band plays at a concert with a ten-pound ticket. Say whether the non-profit exception applies, and name the condition that decides it.Understand
02A student copies a paragraph into her paper in the same font, deletes one sentence from it, and writes 'I used several websites' at the end. Which of the five rules of quotation has she broken, and how?Analyse
03Diagrams are published under BY-NC-ND. A teacher uses them in class with the creator named; a shop prints them on notebooks; a designer recolours them. Judge each use and name the mark that decides it.Evaluate

Answers are on the portal, graded there.

Questions students ask

Utilization and Disclosure of Information

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