Copyright+Owners

= Copyright Owners = The U.S. Constitution provides //every// author (our youngest students through professional authors and artists) the exclusive right to their works in Article 1, Section 8. Each of us probably owns dozens of copyrights for letters, tests, papers, art, music, and other works that we have created over the course of our careers. When contracted as an employee, the organization that has contracted the intellectual property owns the copyright of those works created "within the scope of employment." As such, lesson plans that teachers develop for Carroll County Public Schools are not under the copyright ownership of the teacher, but rather the school system.

What can you do if you hold the copyright to an item?
 * reproduce it
 * prepare derivative works of it
 * distribute copies of it
 * perform or display it publicly
 * authorize others to sell it, perform it in public, prepare derivative works of it

If you are not the copyright holder, you may not make copies without permission from the copyright owner. "All transactions transferring copyrights must be done in writing. Verbal agreements and simple statements such as 'I claim not copyright in this work' are not binding unless they are signed." (Simpson, 2010).