Copyright And You!

When dealing with copyright there is a lot you need to take in, what is copyright? Who gets what in joint copyright and what is fair use? Well let's start with intellectual property. John Locke states that; Physical items cannot be copyright on their own, so a tree cannot be given copyright status. That is, unless through the exertion of skill and labour is used to create a productive product, through this exertion creates private property. So too can intellectual skill and labour create ideas and concepts that are also covered by intellectual property. So copyright is a way of enforcing intellectual property. When working in an interdisciplinary team like I did with the firefly games team this trimester who gets the copyright and legal protection?

If this were out in the real world then as a freelance audio engineer and joint creator of the audio files, both Blake and I would have copyright over our creations. The games team has the right to use the sounds for the intended purpose, i.e use in the game but using the sounds in any other context will be in breach of copyright and could result in legal repercussions. However under fair use there are exceptions allowed for: The reporting of news Parodies To copy for class or quote for scholarly purpose To criticise For research And some other means.

So in this case the games team fall under the category of fair use and are free to use the audio files for any of the above related reasons.

But this still begs the question, in the real world what share do Blake and I get for joint copyright?

As a joint production between both blake and myself at the start of the creation process we would have signed a contract stating 50/50 ownership (or something similar) of all the audio relating to the game. Neither party can reap any benefits without the permission of both parties. Neither party can reproduce or copy the material unless given permission by both parties.

So we both get an even split of the royalties from the audio assets only accessable together

References: Week 3: Copyright & Contracts – Self-Directed Practitioners. (2016). Medium. Retrieved 9 December 2016, from https://medium.com/self-directed-practitioners/week-11-copyright-contracts-de8b049cd8f4#.ndnkesdln

Intellectual property Joint copyright Copyright act Using samples Fair use