1) "I can copyright my idea for a Pulitzer prize winning novel."

False

In the United States, as in most nations, a work is copyrighted as soon as it is created in original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression, now known or later developed, from which they can be perceived, eproduced, or otherwise communicated, either directly or with the aid of a machine or device. As soon as you've created your original work, it's copyrighted. Because of the either directly or with the aid of a machine or device provision, it doesn't matter whether you've printed it out, or if it's only on your hard drive or floppy disk. You don't need any special formalities, such as registering the work with the Copyright Office, or providing a copyright notice since 1988.

2) "It's OK to copy something as long as you give proper credit to the author or artist."

True

If the copyrighted work is being used commercially, e.g., all or part of a copyrighted drawing being used in a commercially published book on drawing techniques, that's a strike against it being fair use. On the other hand, if the same drawing were used in a non-profit school to teach children to draw, then this factor would be in favor of finding a fair use.

Most situations are somewhere in between. Although fair use originated "for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research there are four factors considered used to decide whether a particular use of a copyrighted work is a fair use:

• the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes
• the nature of the copyrighted work
• the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole
• the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

3) "If I goof and use someone's graphic on my web page without realizing that it is copyrighted, I cannot be sued as long as it was an honest mistake."

False

There's a pretty simple rule when it comes to the internet. If you didn't create it, and you want to reproduce it, ask the creator. Ignorance of the law in this case is not bliss.

4) "I am a teacher and I have been photocopying materials as handouts for my classes for 20 years. It is still OK to do this as long as the copying is done for nonprofit and educational purposes."

False

Recent court rulings threatens the application of fair use to such common pursuits as photocopying for research, teaching, learning, scholarship, and even quoting from historical manuscripts. The reasoning in these cases will no doubt extend to the internet.
More materials are farther from the reach of faculty, librarians, and students, and the availability of those materials for study increasingly will be subject to payment of a license fee.

5) "If a book doesn't have a copyright notice in the front, it is in the public domain and I can freely use this material."

False

This may have been true in the past, but today almost all major nations follow the Berne copyright convention. For example, in the USA, almost everything created privately and originally after April 1, 1989 is copyrighted and protected whether it has a notice or not.

a darlin creation by Dixie