Developer Day: Professor Ezor presents "Copyright Law for Developers" (Update: Video) 4

Our own Professor Jonathan Ezor presented during webOS Developer Day on Copyright Law for Developers, with the description:

This session is an introduction to the business side of developing apps for the global market. It covers the issues surrounding intellectual property and copyright laws and the implications of the development and deployment tactics used. Learn the impact of decisions such as open source vs. closed, incorporating the work of others into your app, porting and cloning apps from other platforms, and controlling ownership of your end product.

There really was a wide range of topics that anyone (not just mobile app developers) should really pay attention to.  Continue reading after the break for some highlights from the talk, along with the full video (to be added shortly).

Update: video is online and after the break!

• You do not need to copyright your material/app to have ownership of it, but it is necessary in order to file any action in court, and it can increase any damages you receive.
• Be careful where you perform that work and what contracts you have in place that indicate who ultimately has ownership of that data. For example about doing any personal work on your employer's machines or during your work hours may mean that they actually own it and you lose the right to that material
• Be sure that you have the rights to distribute any material in your apps that you do not own or have permission to. In addition to stills, audio or video from television shows or movies, this also potentially spills over to stock or public domain photos where you may need to permission of the subject of the photo to include it
• While an app may be Open Source or free, it is still not free to distribute or reproduce. Open Source simply implies that the source data is freely available, but is still protected under copyright laws

 Thanks Jonathan!