1. What is copyrighted?
Ideas are not copyrighted, but the expression of those ideas captured in writing, video, audio, or other formats is protected by the copyright law. The old rule of copyrighted materials containing a copyright symbol is gone. Since January 1, 1978, anything set into a physical format (such as slides, handouts, illustrations, video and audio recordings, Web pages, PowerPoint presentations, photos, artwork, books, journals, even personal notes) is protected under the copyright law, whether it contains a copyright symbol or not.
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Authors think they own the copyright, but rarely do. Most often the publisher of the journal, book or image owns the copyright and not the author(s) or creator(s). Most faculty sign the copyright to their article or book over to the publisher.
Many publishers do allow authors to use and share their works for educational and non-profit use. Several publishers have recently given retroactive permission to authors to post their work on an institutional repository or their own faculty Websites. Check the agreement you signed with your publisher or the publisher's Website to determine your rights.
For articles written by other faculty or colleagues, asking the author for permission may not be enough. You may need to find out who is the true copyright holder to seek permission. Here are some quick tips for determining the true copyright holder:
Just because you cannot find a copyright statement does not mean it is not copyrighted. Works published since 1978 are not required to publish a statement or include the copyright symbol.
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3. What are the general steps for considering whether something is fair use?
If you can answer yes to all these questions you are probably covered by fair use, but if you answer no to one of them, you will need to carefully weigh all the fair use criteria.
If most of these answers are no, you may need to consider seeking permission or paying the royalty fee for using the copyrighted materials.
If your use is covered under fair use, you do not need to seek permission or pay a royalty fee. However, repeated use over several years for the same class, program, etc., may not be covered. Some publishers believe that you should seek permission or pay a royalty fee for repeated use of copyrighted works, though this is not stipulated by the copyright law.
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4. Is there a formula for determining whether the amount I am using is covered by fair use? Is 10% or 25% of a work too much or too little?
There are precise formulas for sound recordings, videos, and creative works, but there are no similar guidelines for factual and scientific information.
Think about how you would want your work used. The article may be 20 pages long, but if you use the most important page or section of the article, it may not be fair use. Would you want someone to use all the images or figures from your article, or just a few?
5. What about repeated use of the same material?
When you repeatedly use a copyrighted work over and over again, you may want to consider seeking permission, though this is NOT stipulated by the copyright law.
Restating the information in your own words or creating your own table of data is not a violation of copyright, though you do need to cite the source of the information.
If you use an online article that is part of NAU's electronic subscriptions, you can repeatedly link to it without seeking permission or paying fees.
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6. What does it mean when something is in the public domain? May I freely use it?
When something is in the "public domain," it is not covered by the copyright law. What is in the public domain? Usually U.S. government documents and works that have expired copyright terms are public domain materials.
U.S. government documents are considered to be free to the public and are not covered by the copyright law. Therefore, government documents are usually within the public domain unless they specifically state that they have restrictions on their use. However, documents created by the governments of other countries may be copyrighted.
When copyrights do expire, the works pass into the public domain and are freely available for use. However, this is complicated by several prior and recent changes in the copyright law that have an impact on how items may be copyrighted, how long those copyright terms last, and how the copyrights may be renewed.
Basically, anything published before 1923 is no longer copyrighted, but after that it is best to check the "Copyright Term and the Public Domain," a chart created at Cornell.
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7. Are materials on the Web/Internet publicly available for free use?
Like other materials, Web pages and their content are protected under the copyright law. Most people who have Web content expect others will use it, but not for commercial purposes.
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1. What does it mean to seek permission for use of copyrighted materials?
Please see the section on seeking permission for more information on the permissions process.
2. What is the Copyright Clearance Center?
The Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) works with numerous publishers to help authors, educators, and others seek and usually pay for the right to use copyrighted materials. By representing numerous publishers, it provide a centralized service for seeking permissions to use the materials for classes, creating paper or electronic course packs, including materials in books or other published materials, and placing items on library reserves (paper or electronic). Individuals or institutions may set up accounts and requests may be made online.
The advantages of using this service are:
The disadvantages of using this service include:
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1. Are the restrictions on sharing files the same if the journal is an open access journals?
Open Access titles - those that provide free access immediately or after a certain period of time - are still copyrighted materials either owned by the publisher or the author. You should treat them the same way as other materials. The advantage of these titles is that they are free to everyone, so placing a link to the Website on your Web page or course site gives everyone access to this resource.
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2. What is the Creative Commons?
Creative Commons is an alternative to traditional copyright, designed to facilitate the sharing of materials, especially those on the Internet. The Creative Commons "contracts" allow you, the author, to retain copyright while giving permission to others to use the material for non-profit purposes. If you are placing materials on the Internet, you may want to select one of the Creative Commons contracts. By placing a CC symbol on your Web page, you alert others that you permit use of your materials.
When using materials, you may also want to check to see if the Creative Commons symbol appears on the Web page or document. This may permit you to freely use the work for educational, but not commercial purposes. Read the terms of the license to see what restrictions, if any, the author has placed on the work.
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