tuesday, december 07, 2004
LAUSD is also stupid in the details
I have to follow the LAUSDnet Design Standards when working on the school website for Web Design class (AKA design slavery). This section of the standards annoys me as much as my principal does:
Notification of Copyright text that should be on first pages
Copyright-2003 © Los Angeles Unified School District - All rights reserved.
The District Logo and other District Artwork posted on LAUSDnet pages are protected by US and International Copyright Law. They may not be duplicated/copied for use in other documents by non-District Personnel nor used on non-lausdnet pages (http://www.lausd.k12.ca.us) without notifying webmaster@lausd.k12.ca.us nor can any of the artwork be altered in any way by anyone, District or non-district, without expressed written permission. LAUSDnet users are reminded that motion pictures, television programs and sound recording files are protected by copyright law. Copying and/or downloading these files is prohibited.
It’s blatantly incorrect. First of all, LAUSD doesn’t own the copyright to my work. They’re not paying me and I didn’t give it to them.
Secondly, yeah, the district logo is protected by copyright law, but that means it’s sometimes allowed to be duplicated or altered, according to fair use doctrine. I could use it to link to LAUSD on a webpage or refer to the stupid district in print. I could even make a parody and publish it in our little newspaper.
The last two sentences of the copyright notice bother me the most. LAUSD thinks it can stop people from pirating? OK, but it shouldn’t lie about the law. Obviously, not every piece of multimedia on the internet is illegal and not supposed to be downloaded. What about the iTunes Music Store? Not to mention ads and music posted for publicity, Creative Commons, and works in the public domain. But you knew all that. I wanted to vent.
A revised notice (without pseudo-legal capitalization):
The district logo and other district artwork posted on LAUSDnet pages (www.lausd.k12.ca.us) are protected by United States copyright law. Use of the art in other documents by non-district personnel or on non-LAUSDnet pages is restricted - notify webmaster@lausd.k12.ca.us first. With few exceptions, the artwork also may not be altered in any way without express written permission. LAUSDnet users are reminded that most creative works are protected by copyright law and may not be copied or downloaded without permission from the creator.
comments (2)
So if I wanted to make a parody tshirt using the LAUSD logo I couldn't?
– Mr. WTF on 3/28/2006 23:09:51
i believe that yes, you could. they want you to think that you couldn't, though.
– britta on 4/2/2006 03:32:15
comments are off. for new comments, my email address is brittag@gmail.com.
