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Ethan Hall
Orloff
English I
April 22nd, 2015

Research Design

Copyrights, Trademarks, and Fair Use

1. Copyright is a thing given to works that arent physical works that protects it from being
copied. Trademark is a similar thing but given to names of things such as brands, companies, or
products. Fair use is a way that you can use parts of copyrighted material without getting in
trouble.

2. I know that things that are copyrighted cannot be copied except through means of fair
use. Fair use is very confusing, but basically if its a parody then its fine to use the copyrighted
material. Fair use also lets you use parts of copyrighted material if it meets enough standard. The
problem with it is that fair use is very confusing. Copyright protects things that patents cant.
Patents protect physical things, while copyright protects not physical things, such as words,
music, digital productions, and other things as such. Trademark is like copyright but for Title of
Companies, movies, books, etc. You can also use both copyrighted material and trademarks IF
you get permission from the maker(s) of the said material or trademark.

3. The reasons I have wanted to research copyrights, trademarks, and fair use is because
of a few things:

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A) There has been a lot of talking from the teachers every time we are doing some type of
research about Dont copyright stuff and what not, and I just want to know whats considered
violating copyright laws, and whats considered fair use.
B) Since I want to be starting a YouTube channel (not telling you the name or anything.) I
wanted to know whats considered fair use to see if/when I could use certain things in videos,
such as song clips, and logos, which brings in trademarks.

4. I want to learn in what circumstances I could use parts of copyrighted material and how fair
use works, and just what trademarks are and what it means to trademark something, how to do it,
and things like that.

5. Numbered list of questions:

I.

What is a Trademark?

II.

What is Fair Use?

III.

What is Copyright?

IV.

What can be copyrighted?

V.

VI.

How does fair use work?

VII.

What can happen if you violate copyright laws?

VIII.

How do you get something trademarked?

IX.

Are there trademark laws?

A.

X.
XI.

What can be trademarked?

If so, what are they?

In what circumstances could you use copyrighted material?
What is considered a parody?

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XII.

What would be considered fair use?

XIII.

What are all the fair use laws, and what do they mean?

XIV.

Why are so many people confused about fair use?

XV.

How does YouTubes copyright detection system work?

XVI.

What do I do if someone falsely claims copyright against me?

XVII.

What do I do if someone copies my copyrighted material?

XVIII.

How long do copyrights last?

What is the most effective way to get permission to use someone elses copyrighted

XIX.

material?
Is there any other way to be able to use someones copyrighted material other than

XX.

through fair use?

XXI.

When is certain ways of citing sources acceptable (just putting in a link vs MLA format)?

XXII.

Does citing your sources decrease the chance of getting in trouble for violating
copyright?

XXIII.

What happens if some who didnt know about copyright violated copyright laws and got
sued for it?

XXIV.

When did copyright originate?

XXV.

When did Fair Use originate?

XXVI.
XXVII.
XXVIII.
XXIX.
XXX.

When did Trademarks originate?

Why did copyrights, fair use, and trademarks originally originate?
Who created Copyrights?
Who created Trademarks?
Who created Fair Use?

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6. My plan for collecting information is to research the information by going to

libraries, using the internet, and trying to schedule an interview with a lawyer that does
fair use cases. I will work in class when I can and over the weekend, as well as, if I need
to, work after the Annotated Bibliography is due on more research (the sources just wont
be on the Annotated Bibliography)