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9/1522/17

Overview

  • In the U.S., content including books, journal articles, photos, audio and video are intellectual property and therefore can be protected by copyright restrictions.
  • This document attempts to orient you about the :
    • The right of "fair use"
    exemption
    • designed for non-profit research, teaching, and scholarship
    • Materials in the "public domain"
    • How to use Mandala in light of Copyright
  • It does not provide legal advice (please see disclaimer below)

...

  • U.S. copyright law provides for "fair use" for non-profit research, teaching, and scholarshipof copyrighted materials without payment or permission in certain circumstances
    • Generally this means that you can reproduce portions of a work without securing copyright permission from the publisher and/or author
  • Recent case law has held that fair use will be judged in light of purpose
    • For sufficiently new or transformative purposes, quite a lot of a copyrighted work can be used.
    • Old guidelines that emphasized counting words or calculated pre-determined percentages of a given work are no longer useful

Older "Public Domain" Materials

  • Generally, books that are older than 20 years are work published prior to 1923 is in the "public domain" ( and can be reproduced without copyright restrictions)and disseminated in any form
  • A thorough summary hosted by the University of North Carolina can help you assess whether a given work is in the Public Domain: http://www.unc.edu/~unclng/public-d.htm

...

  • This advice orients you and better prepare prepares you for a consultation with your attorney and/or the University's General Counsel
  • This document is does not meant to substitute for legal advice.
  • This document focuses on U.S. copyright law and practice.  practice 
  • International copyright varies widely from U.S. law and practice.
  • Copyright law and it's interpretation are continually changing, particularly in the web environment.

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