9/13/17
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 "fair use" exemption designed for non-profit research, teaching, and scholarship
- It does not provide legal advice (please see disclaimer below)
Fair Use
- U.S. copyright law provides for "fair use" for non-profit research, teaching, and scholarship
- 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 Materials that are Out of Copyright
- Generally, books that are older than 20 years are in the "public domain" (and can be reproduced without copyright restrictions)
Copyright Request and Release Form
- Copyright Request
- Release Form (for Oral Histories and Interviews, for example)
Disclaimer
- This advice should help to orient you and better prepare you for a consultation with your attorney and/or the University's General Counsel
- This document is not meant to substitute for legal advice.
- This document focuses on U.S. copyright law and practice.
- International copyright varies from U.S. law and practice widely.
- Copyright law and it's interpretation are continually changing, particularly in the web environment.