9/22/17

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 right of "fair use" designed for non-profit research, teaching, and scholarship
  • Materials in the "public domain"
  • How to use Mandala in light of copyright law
• It does not provide legal advice (please see disclaimer below)

Fair Use

• U.S. copyright law provides for "fair use" of copyrighted materials without payment or permission in certain circumstances, which are often associated with 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.
  • Fair use is a flexible doctrine based on the weighing of four factors - the purpose of the use, the nature of the work used, the amount used, and the effect of the use on the market for the work.
• 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, work published prior to 1923 is in the "public domain" and can be reproduced 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

Copyright Request and Release Form

The following templates may be useful if you need to seek copyright permission or if your project requires a release form.

• Copyright Request
• Release Form (Oral Histories, Interviews, etc.)

Mandala

• Supports your work within copyright law and "fair use"
• Allows you as editorial user to restrict each asset or collection as needed.  You may choose among the following restriction classifications:
  
  • Public
  • Private
  • Group 
  • Class

Disclaimer

• This advice orients you and better prepares you for a consultation with your attorney and/or the University's General Counsel
• This document does not substitute for legal advice
• This document focuses on U.S. copyright law and 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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