Copyright Resources and Guidelines
Governors State University Library
Copyright and Fair Use in Instruction Resources
Reproducation of copyrighted material without the permission of the copyright owner is illegal and is an important issue for the academic community. The application of "fair use" rights under Section 107 of Title 17 USC (U.S. Copyright Law) does not automatically give free license for all educational copying. Without understanding the copyright laws and their application in the academic setting, Governors State University faculty members, staff, and students are at risk for violating the rights of the authors and publishers of the material being duplicated.
There are legal cases which have tested the educational use of copyright protected works. Notable cases can be found in the "Copyright Law for Academics" section of Ipwatchdog.com (http://www.ipwatchdog.com/copyedu.html#f5 ). There is disagreement between publishers, the educational community, and library community regarding the development of guidelines for the digital environment. The weighing of the four factors in applying fair use in Title 17 Section 107 USC will often result in a decision to request permission from the copyright owner for the use of materials. The University Library's policies are formulated to comply with the law, and set standards for library services.
This page focuses on the use of published materials in the educational setting. Many other issues related to copyright are important in the scholarly community, such as the licensing of software, downloading and sharing of files from the Internet, creation of intellectual property using university resources, and the use of videotaped presentations in the classroom. Please consult with information materials available in the Library, or contact the Reference Desk for more information.
Disclaimer: This page is offered as an educational resource only, and does not have the authority of legal advice or opinion.
GSU Library Copyright Policies and Resources
The Governors State University's policies are based on current interpretation of copyright law, guidelines issued or proposed by library and educational organizations, and case law.
GSU Library E-Reserves Copyright Policy
GSU Library Reserves Policy
GSU Library Fair Use Policy
GSU Library Copyright Bibliography - This is a bibliography of materials held by the GSU Library.
Learn About Copyright and Fair Use
December 2005: "Campus Copyright Rights and Responsibilities: A Basic Guide to Policy Considerations" http://www.arl.org/info/frn/copy/CampusCopyright05.pdf
Cornell University Copyright Information Center http://www.copyright.cornell.edu/site_index/
University of Texas Crash Course in Copyright http://www.utsystem.edu/ogc/intellectualproperty/cprtindx.htm
"An Education in Copyright Law: A Primer for Cyberspace" http://libres.curtin.edu.au/libres13n1/index.htm
An excellent online article by Dr. Robert N. Diotalevi, Program Coordinator, Legal Studies, Florida Gulf Coast University which is published in in the free online journal LIBRES (Library and Information Sciences Research Electronic Journal), Vol. 13 (1), March 2003. (Caution: I had difficulty printing this article off the web. - pb)
10 Big Myths about Copyright Explained by Brad Templeton, Internet pioneer http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html
Purdue University's Copyright in the Classroom page http://www.lib.purdue.edu/uco/instruction/classroom/index.html
Copyright and Graduate Research: New Media, New Rights, and Your Dissertation (from ProQuest Information Services) http://www.umi.com/hp/Support/DExplorer/copyrght/
Copyright Law
United States Copyright Office (part of the Library of Congress) http://www.loc.gov/copyright/
The Copyright Office web page contains fact sheets on United States Copyright law, search engines for searching registrations and documents, information on licensing, information on how to register and record works, as well as other information.
Copyright Office Circulars available at http://www.copyright.gov/circs/:
Circular 1 Copyright Basics
Circular 2 Publications on Copyright
Circular 6 Access to and Copies of Copyright Office Records and Deposits
Circular 7d Mandatory Deposit of Copies or Phonorecords for the Library of Congress
Circular 15a Duration of Copyright
Circular 15t Extension of Copyright Terms
Circular 21 Reproduction of Copyrighted Works by Educators and Librarians
Circular 22 How to Investigate the Copyright Status of a Work
Circular 23 The Copyright Card Catalog and the Online Files of the Copyright Office
Circular 38a International Copyright Relations of the United States
Circular 55 Copyright Registration for Multimedia Works
Circular 61 Copyright Registration for Computer Programs
Circular 66 Copyright Registration for Online Works
IPWatchdog.com Copyright Law for Academics http://www.ipwatchdog.com/copyright/
This page is dedicated to providing information for academics interested in learning more about Copyright Law in general, but particularly those issues that related to fair use. This page contains links to famous copyright cases that have been litigated by the courts: The American Geophysical Union vs. Texaco, Inc., Marcus vs. Rowley, Veeck vs. Southern Building Code Congress International, Inc., Basic Books Inc. vs. Kinko's Graphics Corp.
When Works Pass Into the Public Domain
The protection given by copyright laws is meant to be temporary. Recently passed laws have extended the term of copyright for many materials. To help determine if a work has passed into the public domain, review the links below:
Cornell University's Institute for Digital Collections http://www.copyright.cornell.edu/training/Hirtle_Public_Domain.htm
This site has a chart based on a chart published by Laura Gassaway.
Laura Gassaway's "When Works Pass Into the Public Domain" chart http://www.unc.edu/~unclng/public-d.htm
Laura Gassaway is a well known speaker and authority on copyright and libraries. She is the director of the University of North Carolina Law Library.
Duke University's online journal, "Law and Contemporary Problems" http://www.law.duke.edu/journals/journaltoc?journal=lcp&toc=lcptoc66winterspring2003.htm
(Volume 66, Numbers 1 & 2) is devoted to public domain issues, and contains an article on the history of public domain.
Copyright Guidelines
Indiana University Fair Use Checklist http://copyright.iupui.edu/checklist.htm
This handy checklist helps you determine whether the use of copyrighted material would qualify as fair use, or if permission is needed.
Guidelines for Classroom Photocopying from IPWatchdog.com
These guidelines were written to set minimum standards for classroom use under Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976. These guidelines were included in the legislative history of the copyright act of 1976.
CONFU Conference on Fair Use
The Conference on Fair Use (CONFU) was convened in September 1994 by the working group on intellectual property rights of the Information Infrastructure Task Force (IITF) to develop guidelines for fair uses of copyrighted works by and in libraries and educational settings. Over 80 organizations representing libraries, publishers, multimedia centers, and educational organizations participated. The guidelines that were proposed were never adopted by the publishing industry, or many library groups. Nevertheless, academic libraries have adopted many of the guidelines in their own electronic reserve policies. No litigation from publishers has been brought up to this time which would provide clarity as to whether these guidelines allow too much or too little.
ARL (Association of Research Libraries) http://www.arl.org/info/frn/copy/confu.html
The ARL site contains a complete text of the final report of the commission., Distance Learning Fair Use Guidelines, Digital Images Fair Use Guidelines, Multi-Media Fair Use guidelines, and Electronic Reserves Fair Use Guidelines. The ARL Board decided not to endorse any of the guidelines. The IITF final report suggested that fair use might be more narrowly interpreted in the future.
CONTU (the National Commission on New Technological Uses of Copyrighted Works)
CONTU Guidelines for Interlibrary Loan photocopying: http://www.librarycopyright.net/presentations/GLsInterlibLoan.pdf
CONTU was a special Commission created by Congress in 1976 to study the impact of certain new technologies on copyright law shortly after the Copyright Act of 1976 was passed. The commission recommended guidelines for the
interpretation and application of the new copyright law. Since the commission's work took place prior to the widespread use of the Internet and before the personal computer, therefore there aren't many websites which explain the
commission's work in its entirety. Many of the guidelines concerned photocopying.
New York University's page of CONTU documents (excluding Copyright guidelines, which are prolific elsewhere) http://home.nyu.edu/~gmp216/documents/contu/
Distance Learning
CONFU (The Conference on Fair Use) Guidelines from Copyright Crash Course http://www.utsystem.edu/ogc/intellectualproperty/confu.htm
Although never subscribed to officially by the publishers, library groups, and educational groups who developed the guidelines, they nevertheless provide some guidance as to how fair use might be interpreted in the distance learning environment.
TEACH Act, Digital Millenium Copyright Act, and other recent intellectual property statutes can be found on the Association for Research Libraries Copyright page at http://www.arl.org/pp/ppcopyright/copystatutes/index.shtml.
Electronic Reserves Clearinghouse http://www1.mville.edu/Administration/staff/Jeff_Rosedale/
This page has been established as a resource for designers of electronic reserves services. It contains a wealth of information concerning the development of digital resources for distance learning.
Other Resources
EDUCAUSE http://www.educause.edu
EDUCAUSE is a nonprofit association whose mission is to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology.
CNI Coalition for Networked Information http://www.cni.org
CNI is an organization dedicated to supporting the transformative promise of networked information technology for the advancement of scholarly communication and the enrichment of intellectual productivity. Some 200 institutions representing higher education, publishing, network and telecommunications, information technology, and libraries and library organizations make up CNI's members.
CNI's Copyright Forum http://www.cni.org/Hforums/cni-copyright/
The CNI Copyright Forum is an electronic discussion list with a searchable archives.
CIC The Committee on Institutional Cooperation www.cic.uiuc.edu
The Committee on Institutional Cooperation, established in 1958, is the academic consortium of twelve major teaching and research universities in the Midwest.
updated by Dean, University Library Diane Dates Casey
May 21, 2008
