All Copyright FAQs
Copyright is a form of legal protection that allows authors, photographers, composers, and other creators to control some reproduction and distribution of their work.
There are several different rights that come along with copyright. In general, copyright holders have the exclusive right to do and to authorize others to do the following 5 Basic Rights:
- Reproduce the work in whole or in part
- Prepare derivative works, such as translations, dramatizations, and musical arrangements
- Distribute copies of the work by sale, gift, rental, or loan
- Publicly perform the work
- Publicly display the work
These rights have exceptions and limitations, including the "fair use" provisions, which allows certain uses without permission of the copyright holder.
Sources:
(from U of Michigan)
Any content you create in a tangible format! Not only scholarly work, but even your to-do list at home, your monthly report, your email messages, your child's art work or notes you take at meetings and presentations.
There are many things that are not protected by copyright, including:
- Facts and ideas
- Titles
- Processes, methods, systems, and procedures
- Constitutions and laws of State governments
- Materials that have passed into the public domain
Sources:
(U of Mich)
No! Copyright protection is automatic, but if you wish, you can register with the U.S. Copyright Office. You also may provide a copyright notice, for example: © 2005 Trisha L. Davis
Links:
In general, copyright registration is a legal formality intended to make a public record of the basic facts of a particular copyright. However, registration is not a condition of copyright protection. Even though registration is not a requirement for protection, the copyright law provides several inducements or advantages to encourage copyright owners to make registration. Among these advantages are the following:
- Registration establishes a public record of the copyright claim.
- Before an infringement suit may be filed in court, registration is necessary for works of U.S. origin.
- If made before or within 5 years of publication, registration will establish prima facie evidence in court of the validity of the copyright and of the facts stated in the certificate.
- If registration is made within 3 months after publication of the work or prior to an infringement of the work, statutory damages and attorney's fees will be available to the copyright owner in court actions. Otherwise, only an award of actual damages and profits is available to the copyright owner.
- Registration allows the owner of the copyright to record the registration with the U. S. Customs Service for protection against the importation of infringing copies.
Registration may be made at any time within the life of the copyright. Unlike the law before 1978, when a work has been registered in unpublished form, it is not necessary to make another registration when the work becomes published, although the copyright owner may register the published edition, if desired.
Sources:
(from US copyright office)
The term for copyright protection has changed over the years. Currently, copyright lasts from the moment a work is created until 70 years after the death of the author, except for works produced by a company/employer in which case the copyright lasts 95 years from the date of publication. The resources listed below give a more complete view of the terms for copyrighted materials
Links:
- The University of Minnesota: Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States: This chart gives a detailed view of the various terms for copyrighted materials
- Cornell: Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States : This is another chart that gives a detailed view of the various terms for copyrighted materials
- Is it Protected by Copyright?: Michael Brewer and the ALA Office of Information Technology Policy have built a Flash-based tool to help you determine the public domain status of a work based on when it was produced.
Copyright has expired for works published in the United States before 1923, which means they are in the public domain. You are free to use or reproduce works in the public domain however you want. In addition, some works published between 1923 and 1963 may also be in the public domain, but this can only be determined on a case-by-case basis. All works created after 1963 are under copyright, except for work produced by the U.S. government, and state constitutions and laws.
Links:
- Stanford: Copyright Renewal Database: This links to a searchable database that can be used to check if a specific title is still under copyright. This database only includes titles that have filed a renewal of copyirght with the U.S. Copyright Office
- United States Copyright Office: Search Copyright Information : This links to the U.S. Copyright Office's own searchable database of all materials that have been copyrighted since January 1, 1978. It also includes information for searching for titles copyrighted prior to January 1, 1978.
Sources:
(from U of Michigan)
Fair use allows limited use of copyrighted material without permission from the copyright holder for purposes such as criticism, parody, news reporting, research and scholarship, and teaching. There are four factors to consider when determining whether your use is a fair one. You must consider all the factors below, even though all the factors do not have to be in favor of a use to make it a fair one.
The four fair use factors are as follows:
- The purpose and character of the use, including whether the use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
- The nature of the copyrighted work, such as whether the work is fiction or non-fiction, published or unpublished;
- The amount of the work used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole, such as using a poem in its entirety, or using one chapter from a long book;
- The effect of the use upon the potential market for the copyrighted work.
Sources:
(from U of Michigan)
Just because your use is for non-profit educational purposes does not automatically give you permission to copy and distribute other people's work. While many educational uses may be fair, you will probably need to evaluate your use each time you are reproducing copyrighted material — to show in your class, to hand out copies, to include in your writing, or to post on Carmen.
Sources:
(from U of Michigan)
The law pertaining to fair use is rather vague and therefore it is not easy to define specific limits. The key to determining if your intended use falls within legal fair use you need to consider the four factors mentioned under "What is Fair Use?" Below is a link to a Fair Use Analysis Tool provided by the University of Minnesota that can help you in making decisions about fair use in your classroom.
Links:
- Fair Use Analysis Tool from the University of Minnesota: This tool helps you think through the your intended use of material by applying the four factors of fair use.
If you determine that your desired use is out side the limits of fair use, you have two main options. First, you can obtain permission form the copyright owner. This may require that you pay royalties to the copyright owner. Your second option is to change your proposed use. You may decide to use less of the copyrighted material and/or choose other materials that fall under fair use.
Works residing on a site that makes no mention of copyright should be presumed to be copyrighted; just because something is freely available on a website does not mean it is in the public domain. If a work is published online with a statement that it is in the public domain, you will have to judge whether or not these claims are trustworthy, keeping in mind that such claims will not protect you should a copyright holder object to your use.
You may encounter works online for which the author or creator specifically grants rights to use them, such as those released under a Creative Commons license. A Creative Commons license allows you to make certain uses of a work without asking for permission, provided you follow the terms set by the creator.
Sources:
(from U of Michigan)
Unless you created the work as part of your job as an employee or under contract as a work for hire, you are the author and the initial copyright holder. However, if you have transferred your copyright to someone else, such as a journal publisher, you are no longer the copyright holder and may not have any privileges to use the work. If you are not sure, you should consult your publishing agreement to see if you have retained any rights.
If you have not retained rights to use your work, then you must treat it like any other copyrighted work — decide whether the use you want to make is a fair use, and if it isn't, then ask for permission.
Sources:
(from U of Michigan)
Students hold the copyright to the academic works they create, such as their papers, projects, theses, and dissertations. There are also privacy concerns related to the use of student work. If you wish to use student work, ask for permission.
Sources:
(from U of Michigan)
Yes! The Center for the Study of the Public Domain at Duke University's Law School has published a web version of Tales from the Public Domain: Bound By Law at http://www.law.duke.edu/cspd/comics/digital.php
Sources:
"Section 108 of the U.S. Copyright Code allows libraries and archives, under certain circumstances, to make reproductions of copyrighted materials without the permission of the copyright holder." Michael Brewer and the ALA Office for Information Technology Policy have posted a Flash-based tool to help determine whether or not a particular reproduction is covered by this exemption. Visit http://librarycopyright.net/108spinner/ to see it in action.
Sources:
Yes, The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), and SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) have released a new, short video to help librarians effectively engage disciplinary faculty and researchers on the topic of author rights.
The author is the first owner of copyright. The author is either the creator of the work or the person that employs someone to create the work. Many authors do not retain their copyright ownership; they sell or transfer it to someone else in return for a lump sum payment or periodic payment known as a royalty. In this way, the author and copyright owner (sometimes referred to as "copyright claimant") may be two different people.
Sources:
(Stanford)
You may unknowingly sign away all your personal rights, including Fair Use! This means you may have to request permission to:
- Use your own works for a course pack;
- Store a copy on your web site;
- Distribute a copy to colleagues.
- Explicitly retain ownership of your content.
- Transfer only some of your rights to the publisher.
- The 5 Basic Rights in connection to any personal, professional or non-profit educational activities.
- Transfer only some of your rights to the publisher.
- Only sign a publishing agreement after you read and understand the content.
- Talk to your publisher about granting only those rights needed for their publication.
- Try to keep all other rights, specifying those of particular value to you or your institution.
Links:
- SPARC Author’s Addendum: This is an author's addendum that was developed by Michael Carroll of the Villanova University School of Law.
- Surf Foundation/JISC's Copyright Toolbox
Yes, displaying or performing copyrighted photographs and music for classroom purposes is allowed under section 110 of U.S. Copyright Law.
Sources:
(U Minn)
Yes, changes made to enhance your instructional purpose, e.g. commentary, criticism, even parody, are activities allowed under the fair use provision.
Sources:
(U Minn)
Under certain conditions, purchased or rented pre-recorded video programs may be used in the classroom. Section 110 (1) of the copyright law enables teachers to use (perform) such a video without a public performance license (which is normally required whenever a video is shown outside of the home). The conditions which must be satisfied are: 1) the use must take place in a non-profit educational institution, 2) the use must occur in a classroom or similar place devoted to instruction, 3) the use must be part of a regularly scheduled course (thus ruling out extra-curricular or recreational use), 4) the use must be exclusively by the instructor and the students in the classroom, in the course of face-to-face teaching activities.
Sources:
(UC Berkeley)
Up to 10% or 3 minutes, whichever is less, in the aggregate of a copyrighted motion media work may be reproduced or otherwise incorporated as part of a multimedia project.
Sources:
(CONFU)
Works residing on a site that makes no mention of copyright should be presumed to be copyrighted; just because something is freely available on a website does not mean it is in the public domain. If a work is published online with a statement that it is in the public domain, you will have to judge whether or not these claims are trustworthy, keeping in mind that such claims will not protect you should a copyright holder object to your use.
You may encounter works online for which the author or creator specifically grants rights to use them, such as those released under a Creative Commons license. A Creative Commons license allows you to make certain uses of a work without asking for permission, provided you follow the terms set by the creator.
Sources:
(U of Mich)
Plagiarism is using others' ideas and/or words without clearly acknowledging the source of that information. It may be intentional (e.g., copying or purchasing papers from an online source) or unintentional (e.g., failing to give credit for an author's ideas that you have paraphrased or summarized in your own words). (UIUC)
You are committing plagiarism if you:
- Submit a paper to be graded or reviewed that you have not written on your own.
- Copy answers or text from another classmate and submit it as your own.
- Quote or paraphrase from another paper without crediting the original author.
- Cite data without crediting the original source.
- Propose another author's idea as if it were your own.
- Fabricating references or using incorrect references.
- Submitting someone else's presentation, program, spreadsheet, or other file with only minor alterations.
This is not a definitive list — any action in which you misleadingly imply someone else's work is your own can constitute plagiarism.
Sources:
(PSU)
When you commit plagiarism, you hurt yourself and the community in the following ways:
- You deny yourself the opportunity to learn and practice skills that may be needed in your future careers. You also deny yourself to opportunity to receive honest feedback on how to improve your skills and performance.
- You invite future employers and faculty to question your integrity and performance in general.
- You commit fraud on faculty who are evaluating your work.
- You deprive another author due credit for his or her work.
- You show disrespect for your peers who have done their own work.
Sources:
(PSU)
Unintentional plagiarism: Research-based writing in American institutions is filled with rules that beginning writers may not be aware of or don't know how to follow. Many of these rules have to do with research and proper citation. Sometimes you may not be sure what needs to be cited and what doesn't.
Intentional plagiarism: It may seem easy and harmless to copy and paste sections from articles or papers found online to fill an assignment. You should keep in mind, however, that although such behavior may seem harmless, it actually degrades the quality of education that you are receiving and devalues the degree that you are working toward.