A few years ago I read an article by a yearbook adviser who operated a trouble-free desktop publishing lab. He advocated the use of “tried and true” software and the virtue of keeping a staid computer lab. My staff, however, has always been adventuresome, and I am proud that we pioneered the use of digital images in yearbooks, produced one of the first multimedia CD yearbooks and have beta tested numerous products.
Fall 1996
As the busses pulled down the gravel road leading to Ouabache State Park’s campground, students stopped their chatter and began to peer out the dusty windows. What they saw was a barren area covered with grass, trees and more trees.
With cameras, backdrops and a few hundred feet of cable, Walsworth’s paper storage warehouse was turned into a live television set Nov. 5 for an electronic field trip sponsored by the Indiana Academy at Ball State University, Muncie, Ind.
Copyright gives its owner five exclusive rights over the work.
As anyone who has ever struggled to drive within the speed limit can tell you, the law can be both a friend and a foe. It sets parameters for acceptable behavior that can help make the world run more fairly, smoothly and safely. But it can also limit our freedom, forcing us to follow someone else’s rules or pay a price for ignoring them.
This is an officially licensed image of Warner Bros. Studios. Using this image in your book without acquiring the proper permission would be copyright infringement.
The line stretches out of the building and into the street. People wait with money and checkbooks in hand, shifting from foot to foot and craning to see the head of the line. It may sound like the ticket line at a Hootie and the Blowfish concert, but it’s not. It’s the yearbook sale during Parents’ Open House Night at Dr. Phillips High School, Orlando, Fla.
These are generally ineligible for copyright because they lack the necessary originality and creativity to distinguish them from the ideas they represent. For example, the words in the well-known airline slogan, “Some people just know how to fly” cannot be copyrighted and, therefore, could be used as a headline or caption in coverage of the school track team.
An explosion of emotion, a click, and in 1/250th of a second, it’s history.
The sharp eyes and quick thinking of a photographer just captured a great yearbook photo on film. The sharp eyes and careful thinking of an editor will get it published.
First, the work must be original. This means that the author must have shown at least a small spark of creativity when he made the work. For example, your school’s cheerleading squad could not claim the copyright to a cheer that has been used by other schools, even if they changed words to reflect your team and school name. Second, the work must be “fixed in any tangible medium of expression.” This “fixation” requirement means that only works preserved in a tangible form (a book, a newspaper, a video, a CD-ROM disk, etc.) – as opposed to those existing entirely in an artist’s mind – will receive copyright protection.
