Glossary of Copyright Terms

Abbreviations and Terms

Bona fide: An adjective understood by educated speakers of English to mean sincere, genuine; as a legal term, its meaning involves the concept of exercising good faith to comply with the law.
Click-wrap License: A contract in electronic format that asks the user to accept the terms of the license by clicking a "yes" or "no" button before or after seeing the complete agreement. A "yes" gives the user access to the software or database. A "no" prevents the user from gaining access.
CONFU Guidelines: The Conference on Fair Use's Final Report of recommendations for fair use guidelines for Digital Images, Distance Learning, Educational multimedia, and the Use of Computer Software
CONTU Guidelines: National Commission on New Technological Uses of Copyrighted Works, July 31, 1978 guidelines to regulate the amount of material photocopied for interlibrary loan.
Durable links: Addresses or URLs that consistently and only produce the article or site the user is requesting.
Droit Moral: See Moral right
Fair Use: Fair use is applied in 17 U.S.C. # 107 to describe the kinds of exceptions to the exclusive rights of copyright owners allowed by the law.
Good Faith: A term used to indicate that a sincere and genuine attempt or effort has been made to comply with copyright law. According to Vassar College Policy & Principles, good faith increases the likelihood that activities are in fact fair use. Good faith reduces the risks of liability in the event of infringement. Good faith is also important for securing the benefit of college assistance and support in the event that its faculty, student employees, librarians, and staff may face infringement allegations. Ultimately, good faith is best manifested through knowledge of, and diligent application of, the four factors.
Linking, Weblinking, Hyperlinking, Framing: The placement of a different URL on a webpage to effect an immediate jump to another selected web page. Their URL may be written out, or represented by a word(s) or graphic. It has engendered a number of law suits involving TicketMaster Corp. v. Microsoft Corp, Washington Post et al v. TotalNEWS, Shetland Times v. London Times, and the Dilbert Hack Page.
Moral Right: The notion of the creator of the work as the "author" whose personality is exemplified in the work. The work is considered an extension of the author's being. See the article on reserve by Sheri Lyn Falco.
NII Agenda for Action: The government's 1993 plan for the Internet.
Shrink-wrap License: An agreement placed in the packaging of computer software that states that acceptance of the terms and conditions of the licensing agreement is indicated with the opening of the package. Often there is no opportunity to read the entire agreement before opening and thus accepting its terms.
Tear-open License: A notice of the presence of a licensing agreement inside the package. Note that the licensing agreement itself most likely states that acceptance of the terms and conditions of the agreement was indicated with the opening of the package. There is no opportunity to read the entire agreement before opening and thus accepting its terms.
URL: Uniform Resource Locator, the address of a web site.
Web-wrap License: An Internet contract that asks the user to accept the terms of the license by clicking a "yes" or "no" button before or after seeing the complete agreement. A "yes" gives the user complete access to the website. A "no" prevents the user from gaining access to all or some of the information on the site.
Work-for-hire: A work-for-hire is a work produced by an employee within the scope of his/her employment. In other words, it is a work whose creation was commissioned or ordered explicitly by an employer AND/OR a work produced on company time and/or with company-owned materials. Generally speaking, music created expressly for a motion picture, newpaper articles, and translations are considered works-for-hire. Murals may also fall into this category because they are commissioned works. In these cases, the copyright owner of the work is the "employer," i.e. the publisher, film company, or patron. However, there is often ambiguity surrounding the issue of whether or not something is a work-for-hire. Authors of articles in periodicals can retain their rights, as can artists, musicians, etc. In these cases, a contract should state who holds the copyright.

Organizations

AALL: American Association of Law Libraries
AAUP: American Association of University Professors
ALA: American Library Association
ARL: Association of Research Libraries
CETUS: Consortium for Educational Technology in University Systems
EFF: Electronic Frontier Foundation
Information Infrastructure Task Force, Intellectual Property and the National Information Infrastructure: The Report of the Working Group on Intellectual Property Rights (1995): Recommendations reflected in S. 1284 and H.R. 2441 of the 105th Congress that has caused controversy. Some charge it invites invasion of the privacy of digital information users, and exposes on-line/internet service providers to unspecified legal liability, by failing to address the unique circumstances of these new communications media..... reduces educators' and the public's access to digital information by creating a new "transmission right" which would make electronic communications "distributions" within the meaning of the Copyright Act, and by categorizing even "browsing" as a potentially infringing "reproduction"..... erodes the traditional concepts and practices of "fair use" by failing to reaffirm their importance in the digital environment.. ."
WIPO: World Intellectual Property Organization
One of 16 special agencies of the UN responsible for the administration of treaties and protection of intellectual property throughout the world.