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Frequently Asked
Questions on Copyright*
I'd like
to give my students copies of a few articles I've found that directly
relate to class discussion. How many may I copy and distribute? May I post them online?
An instructor
may make one copy per student of a single chapter from a book, one article
from a periodical or newspaper, a short story, essay or short poem, or
a chart, graph, diagram, drawing, cartoon or picture for discussion or
classroom use within certain guidelines of brevity and spontaneity (see
guidelines below). These copies cannot be used to create an anthology
or course pack, nor can these copies be made from "consumable"
items such as workbooks or exercises. If a faculty member want to post material online, it would need to be an environment
with limited access (a password-protected site such as electronic reserves or within a course in a course management system).
For further
information, see Guidelines For Classroom
Copying of Books and Periodicals
May I
show Flags of our Fathers in my class to discuss the depiction of historical
events in film?
The copyright
guidelines concerning performance include the following requirements:
The performance (film, musical, etc) must be shown in a classroom or place of instruction,
be presented by the instructor or students in the class as a part of face-to-face
instruction, and be legally acquired. In other words, an instructor may
show a video owned by the library, as part of his/her classroom instruction
if related to a class discussion or assignment. He/she cannot show a film that is not
directly related to the course curriculum.
Now that
the library is offering reserve materials electronically, have the policies
for copying materials for library reserves changed?
There are
a few differences in the reserve policy for electronic reserves. In general,
faculty may place the following items on reserve:
- An original
copy of a book, journal issue, audiocassette or videocassette tape from
the library's collection or the professor's personal collection.
- photocopy
of ONE chapter from a book owned by the library or the professor or
a SINGLE ARTICLE from a periodical owned by the library or the professor
.
- A photocopy
of ONE chapter from a book or a SINGLE article from a periodical NOT
OWNED by the library or the professor for only ONE course for ONE semester
without permission of the copyright owner.
- A single
copy of a video taped off-air for only ten (10) days following the taping.
To comply
with copyright guidelines electronic reserve material will be password-protected
so that only students in a particular course will be able to view articles,
using a specific password assigned to them by the instructor of that course.
Copyright notification will appear before a student may view the electronic
document. Material may only be on reserve for one semester; if an instructor needs it for a second term, he/she must
obtain permission from the copyright holder.
I saw
a great cartoon on a web site that I would like to use for my own website; If I give credit for the cartoon, may I use it?
Although there are various interpretations to the application of fair use guidelines to online materials,
everything on the web, both text and graphics, are
copyrighted. Unfortunately, many users and amateur web creators frequently "cut and paste" from other sites on the web,
the creator of the site find may not necessarily be the
creator of the graphic you want. You should obtain permission to use any
item on the web unless you can claim fair use.
The Nursing
Department at the University of Nowhere has a great page with links to resources for nursing students; may I offer a link
to it from my own web page?
A web site's
URL is not copyrighted; it is simply an address to that site; therefore
you may include a link to that site. However, some copyrighted web sites
are compilations of links, and one would not copy those lists of links.
Although it is not necessary for you to get permission from a creator, it is acourtesy to inform the creator
of the original site that you are linking to it, particularly, if you plan to provide a link to a page within a larger site (deep linking).
HCC does
not subscribe to The Journal of Nothing. Every issue has an article with great tips for engaging students. May I request a standing order for the library's ILL department
to request that article for me each quarter?
No. All ILL services operate under certain copyright guidelines concerning requests
of journal articles. This "rule of five" states that within
one year a library request copies of more than five articles from
the last five years of issues of the same periodical title (regardless
of whether one patron or more make the requests). Therefore, providing
that no one else has requested articles from that periodical you may receive
up to five articles from that journal within the last five years.
*Section
107 of the Copyright Law of 1976 allows for "fair use" of copyrighted
materials for educational purposes. One should consider the following
four factors to determine whether a particular use of copyright materials
falls under fair use:
- the purpose
and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial
nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes.
- the nature
of the copyrighted work [creative or factual]
- the amount
and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted
work as a whole
- the effect
of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted
work (US Code, Title 17, Section 107) Educators, librarians, and copyright
owners have also agreed to several sets of guidelines in addition to
the Copyright Law. Most of the answers to these questions apply the
more stringent guidelines for use. If you apply the fair use test mentioned
above and feel reasonably confident that your use falls with fair use,
you may be more liberal in your application of the following questions.
This page has been adapted with permission from Langsdale Library, University of Baltimore
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