TASK #1
COPYRIGHT

1. What is copyright -- if you have the copyright in a webpage's visuals, text, sound, and design, what do you have the right to do with the webpage?
2. Why might web writers/developers need to know about copyright?
3. What is the symbol for copyright? Find an example on the web of something that is copyright protected.
4. What do you have to do to get copyright protection in the US?
5. Answer the story question: Pretend that Bob, someone who's taken a class at MSU called "intellectual property for web authors," decides to move to Canada after receiving a job offer for $105,000.00 per year, full benefits, as a web developer for XYZ Company. Bob moves to Canada and becomes a permenent resident. What will Bob know need to learn more about?

TASK #2
FAIR USE

1. What is fair use?
2. What are the four elements of the Fair Use Four Factor Test?
3. Why would a web writer/developer need to know about fair use?
4. Judge the following story: For a class presentation, you are preparing a 10 minute movie that reinterprets a poem written in 1982. The words of the poem are included, but to the poem you add images and song clips. The poem, images, and song clips are all copyrighted by someone other than yourself. Do you have to make a Fair Use determination about using these materials?

TASK #3
LICENSING

1. What is the creative commons website all about?
2. Why might a web writer/developer need to know about creative commons?
3. Can you locate three different kinds of creative commons licenses, list them, and describe what they do, or what their requirements are?
4. Can you find something on the web that is marked with a creative commons license to use as an example for class?
5. Is using a creative commons license on something strictly "legal"?

TASK #4
DMCA

1. What is the DMCA?
2. When was it enacted into law?
3. What are two of its main provisions?
4. Why would a web writer/developer need to know about the DMCA?
5. Judge the following story: The owner of a website has numerous copyrighted materials posted within his website. However, in order to get access to the website you have to have access protected by technological measures. Mary needs the images in the owner’s website to complete a class project. The copies she wants to make will be Fair Use. Can Mary use technological measures to circumvent the anti-access technological measures set up by the owner so that Mary can get into the website and view, even copy, the owner’s copyrighted works?

TASK #5
WORK MADE FOR HIRE: Using whatever resources you can find on the web, answer the following questions:

1. What is a Work Made for Hire?
2. Why would a web author, either free lance or traditionally employed, need to know about "Work Made for Hire"?
3. If you were working as a freelance webauthor and began subcontracting work to other webwriters, what could you do to make sure you had complete ownership in the materials that your subcontractors developed?
4. Judge the following story: Bob has been working as a freelance professional web deisgner/writer for several years but he recently became employed by the ABC Refrigerator Manufacturing Company delivering refrigerators. Bob noticed that ABC didn't have a webpage so he spent about two weeks creating a webspace for the company. He wrote all the content, took all the pictures, and even developed a software application that allows consumers to plug in their personal preference variables to learn their "ideal" refrigerator. Three weeks after Bob created the webspace, the company entered into a merger with CDE Refrigerator manufactoring company. One of the big selling points was the ideal refrigerator software and the webspace in which it sits. Bob would like compensation now for his copyright ownership rights in the webspace. Is he entitle to any compensation as author and holder of copyrights in the space or is the space a Work Made For Hire?

TASK #6
TRADEMARKS, SERVICEMARKS & PATENT

1. What is a trademark?
2. What is a servicemark?
3. What is a patent?
4. Can you find visual examples of items marked with a trademark and a servicemark on the web?
5. Can you find a description of an item that is patented?
6. Why would a person or company want to obtain a trademark on a logo?

Additional Tasks, additional questions