배움에는 왕도가 없다 - Korean Proverb

Copyright

The United States Copyright Office defines "copyright" as "a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States for "original works of authorship", including literary, dramatic, musical, architectural, cartographic, choreographic, pantomimic, pictorial, graphic, sculptural, and audiovisual creations."

In short, a copyright is a legal protection that protects original pieces of work from use without the explicit consent of the person who created the work or holds the copyright. It's important to understand that a copyright does not have to filed with the Copyright Office for a work to be protected by copyright law.

Exceptions to the copyright law are original works that are in the public domain. Items in the public domain are not owned by an individual person, group, or organization and can be freely used without permission. Items can be a part of the public domain if the copyright has expired, the creator intentionally places it in the public domain, the copyright owner fails to follow the rules for renewing a copyright.

It can be a little confusing to determine if a copyright has expired. As 31 December 2021, all work published in or before 1926 will fall into the public domain. Works published between 1926 and 1963 may be in the public domain if a copyright renewal was not filed with the copyright office in the 28th year of publication. Basically, this means that a work published in 1963 would fall into the public domain if the copyright was not renewed in 1990, a work published in 1962 would become part of the public domain if not renewed in 1989, and so on.

On 1 January 1978, the copyright laws in the United States changed. Works published in or after 1978 are protected by copyright until 70 years after the author's death. If multiple authors are credited with the creation of a work, then the copyright will extend to 70 years after the last author's death.

Works within the public domain in the United States:

Works (books, movies, and sound recordings) that entered the public domain in 2022 can be found on the American Writer's Museum website.
Goodreads also has an extensive list of books that are now within the public domain

How to check the copyright status of a work:

For any work registered between 1 January 1978 to present, you can check online at the U.S. Copyright Office's Public Catalog
For work registered prior to 31 December 1977, checking the copyright status can only be done in Copyright Public Records Reading Room
Stanford University also has a searchable database for copyright renewals for books published between 1923 and 1964, though there are some restrictions as to what's included in their database.

Plagiarism

Merriam-Webster defines "plagiarism" as "to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own : use (another's production) without crediting the source." It does not matter if the work is published or unpublished, copyrighted or in the public domain.

Bowdoin University defines four types of plagiarism:

Direct Plagiarism: copying someone else's work exactly without quotation marks and without attributing the work to the creator.
Self Plagiarism: submitting work that you previously submitted for another class without the express permission from both of the teachers/professors.
Mosaic Plagiarism: paraphrasing or introducing an idea introduced in someone else's work without immediately attributing credit to the orginal creator.
Accidental Plagiarism: forgetting to include quotation marks or incorrectly identifying the source.

For examples of Direct and Mosaic plagiarism, click here to visit Bowdoin University's site.

How to Cite Your Sources:

There are many different acceptable formats for citing your sources but three of the most common formats are APA, MLA, and the Chicago Manual of Style. The format you use to cite your sources will likely depend on the preference of your teacher or professor.

While there are dozens of websites that will generate a citation based on the selected format, they are not recommended because the the rules are constantly changing and the websites are not always up-to-date. APA is currently on its 7th edition, MLA is in its 9th edition, and the Chicago Manual of Style is in its 17th edition. While the print versions of the manuals will ensure the most comprehensive rules for when and how to cite your sources, Purdue University maintains an Online Writing Lab that makes every effort to stay up-to-date.

Generally speaking, attributing credit usually involves the inclusion of a footnote or parenthetical citation in the body of the paper and a reference/bibliography page included at the end.

Fair Use

The U.S. Copyright Office defines "fair use" as "a legal doctrine that promotes freedom of expression by permitting the unlicensed use of copyright-protected works in certain circumstances." Some of the circumstances that might fall under fair use are criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, research, and/or a parody of another's work. In order to be considered fair use, four factors must be considered according to Section 107 of the Copyright Act:

The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes
The nature of the copyrighted work
The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole
The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work

On their site, Stanford University has posted an extensive list of examples in which fair use did or did not apply. You can check out that list here: Summaries of Fair Use Cases.

One of the most famous examples of parody is the artist Weird Al Yankovic. However, as summarized in Stanford's fair use case summaries, there can be a fine line between what is fair use and what is not fair use. Partly to navigate that line, Weird Al Yankovic always asks for permission before parodying a song, not only out of respect for the other artists but because fair use can be a grey area.

For even more information regarding copyright, fair use, and public domain, check out the following video from Common Sense Education: