One of the things I am struggling with, as I read this interesting and timely thread, is the jumble I see being made of units of analysis. Set the US IRB issues aside for a minute. While US law makes it clear that renumeration is required for another person to perform a musical work...there is no such requirement for someone to write about the work. Anyone could critique the musical line, or the lyrics, or the performance. They could evaluate the presence or absence of the A-minor cord without payment or permission to do so for work they could gain access to through legal means. However, if they want to talk to the author - using the interview responses as data - or gain information directly from the author - like through an online survey - they need to gain the author's permission...it's really hard to interview people who don't agree to be interviewed or surveyed. The difference is the unit of analysis. One is a things (document, webpage, sheet music, etc.) and the other is a person (interview subject, blood donor, survey taker, etc.). The fact that a "person" created the "thing" we are analyzing is really pretty much life on this planet - and the reason why plant biologists and geo-scientists don't usually deal with IRB's or "human" subjects - but if the "thing" is the unit of analysis it stands alone in most cases. Yes there are exceptions...there always are. Now just to cloud the water...assume I am doing a meta-analysis of interview texts across 10 published academic papers. Whose permission is required? Each individual interview subject?...the written text is their words. The paper's authors"...they are the primary authors of the works so they own the words in print. Or maybe the publishers?...they own the communication medium that allowed the interviews and associated papers to be available to me for analysis. Answer...no one, it's a "thing"...an article. A silly aside just to make the point. You could add many people to the list...the mailperson who delivered the journal - they had control and custody over the work and were the last person to touch it before it came to me. The printer who moved the words onto the paper that was bound and delivered to me...he had custody too. Now don't tear me apart here, I already said they were silly asides...but it proves the point...the unit of analysis is the thing...not the people involved. Having spent a number of years reading IRB applications I can tell you that this issue is the primary place applications are held up in review. Researchers want to say they are analyzing a "thing" say a webpage, when in fact their unit of analysis is a "person" who was selected for interview through the identification of their publicly available webpage. It's really basic stuff but this thread shows how easy it is and how often even experienced researchers mush it all up and confuse the units. Lois Ann Scheidt Doctoral Student - School of Library and Information Science, Indiana University, Bloomington IN USA Adjunct Instructor - School of Informatics, IUPUI, Indianapolis IN USA and IUPUC, Columbus IN USA Webpage: http://www.loisscheidt.com Blog: http://www.professional-lurker.com Quoting Jeremy Hunsinger <jhuns@vt.edu>:
So.... when you look at blogs... you find them to be the sole and original composition of a single author? because I find this a curious position because I find so very little in the world that fits this position of 'mine in the first place'. I mean your book which is coming out on this topic has to be derivative of the original texts, laws, and practices combined with your opinions, so I'm wondering what the base of the concept of originality, this is not to say that blogs are not copyrightable... the question is ... whose copyright is there on what page. On Aug 10, 2007, at 5:31 PM, Ed Lamoureux wrote:
On Aug 10, 2007, at 4:35 PM, Jeremy Hunsinger wrote:
we should be clear that putting them into form.... requires them to not be your composition and not a prior composition or prior idea... no?
sorry.. did you mistype this? To be properly protected, the stuff has to have been mine in the first place
as noted in a later post, I DID fail to fully explain the analogy to music and the relationship to the compulsory license system. Once I've written the words down, or noted the music or played it.... in writing, the work is protected (if it was mine to start with) from ANY copying other than that which is allowed via fair use or my permission. In music, the work is protected from copying (that is, re- transcribing the notes as though they were yours) AND from public performance, but in the case of the latter, the protection is afforded through compulsory licensing that compensates me for your public performance . . . you don't have to ask, but you do have to pay.
On Aug 10, 2007, at 4:32 PM, Ed Lamoureux wrote:
sorry IP law is really clear on this. once I put the ideas into form, they are protected by copyright law. You can't copy my song without permission. If you do, it's infringement. Doesn't matter where you do it. If I find out about it, I can seek a cease and desist order
Edward Lee Lamoureux, Ph. D. Associate Professor, Multimedia Program and Department of Communication Co-Director, New Media Center 1501 W. Bradley Bradley University Peoria IL 61625 309-677-2378 <http://slane.bradley.edu/com/faculty/lamoureux/website2/index.html> <http://gcc.bradley.edu/mm/> AIM/IM & skype: dredleelam Second Life: Professor Beliveau
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jeremy hunsinger Information Ethics Fellow, Center for Information Policy Research, School of Information Studies, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (www.cipr.uwm.edu)
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