What are Digital Rights?
The relationship of digital rights and current copyright laws is a constantly evolving topic. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act was signed into law in 1998 and it provides an update and extension of prior copyright laws to meet the demands of today's electronic distribution system. At the present time a number of legislative proposals are being considered to deal with the use of copyrighted material that is transmitted over the public Internet, especially downloading music files stored on computer networks.
What is a copyright?
In general terms, a "work" may be copyrighted, which protects the author's "intellectual creation", whether the item is in the form of printed matter, video or audio, and includes items produced for distribution in digital format. Under current laws, a specific copyright notice is not required to be displayed on an item to denote copyright protection - that protection is implicitly granted at the time of creation. In general terms, when a copy of a work is purchased, the rights granted to that copy include the fair use of the material, but not rights to sell additional copies to others. Fair use includes the right to utilize the material in educational settings, within certain limits. For example, limited portions of copyrighted works may be reproduced for student use in the classroom.
What are video digital rights?
In general, educational digital rights are granted by a video producer to a buyer when the buyer wishes to change an analog video program into a digital format. A fee is usually paid to the producer for this right. Although subject to negotiations between the producer and buyer, in general, digital rights include the right to make a defined number of copies on CD disc of the program for distribution or loan within a defined service area, such as a city, county, or multi-county region. Digital rights may further include permission to store the program in a digital format on a computer for individual use or display (projection).
Are educational digital rights the same as Internet transmission rights?
No, there is an inherent difference. The right to transmit or distribute a video program over the Internet is not implicitly included when digital rights are obtained, but can be granted by a producer or copyright holder in a similar fashion that cablecast, closed circuit and broadcast rights are granted. These rights are sometimes called IP Transmission Rights (IP for "Internet Protocol). As is the case when obtaining digital rights, IP rights are granted for a fee in a contract and under a specific set of circumstances that are negotiated between the producer and the contract buyer. Transmitting, downloading or streaming a digital video program are distinct rights which may or may not be included in the final contract with the producer. It is always wise to inquire what specific rights are provided when any digital media is purchased. When a single media program on a CD is purchased, it may not specifically include IP transmission rights.
What rights are included with media distributed by e-Mod.com?
All media distributed by e-Mod.com provides both digital rights and Internet transmission rights for the distribution area contained in the site license. The media may be downloaded over the public Internet from an e-Mod / iDVS web site, stored on a computer, and transmitted across a school's local area network. As necessary, a "hardcopy" of the media may be carried to other locations and then stored on an individual computer or network. The media may be stored on classroom computers and viewed and/or projected in the classroom setting.
Is the copyright violated when a media file is annotated with the e-Mod / iDVS viewer software?
No it is not. When an iDVS annotation is created, no copyright violation occurs. The iDVS viewer software creates a file that stores the annotation information that is separate from the original media file. The original media file is not altered in any way. This separate annotation file is keyed to the time sequence code in the original media file so that during playback, they may be viewed together.