This Copyright Brief is not intended to be an exhaustive resource on the copyright issues connected to adult education, literacy, and the Internet, however, it should provide an overview of intellectual property and copyright issues in this arena. One of the newest policies to affect our use of Internet-based resources is the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 . Intellectual property means the ideas and the representation of those ideas, whether it is in a tangible, physical form or an intangible one. When using another person's intellectual property, one should always include proper credit to the source similar to the way we cite books or articles in research papers. However, some use may not be permitted by law and may require payment to the creator or holder of the copyright on that idea or material.
Federal statutes governs the reproduction of intellectual property in any medium or format.
One of the most important things to be considered before using the work of someone else in research, art, or education is the item's copyright status. In general, works traditionally thought of as being covered by copyright laws include books, photographs, music, dramatic works, audio- and videocassettes, and sculpture, but software, multimedia, and databases are also covered. Copyrighted works are not limited to those that bear a copyright notice. Fair use is vague and depends entirely on the particular facts of individual situations. The last of these is the most critical.