What Is Copyright?

Copyright is a type of protection given to an “original work of authorship” (Title 17, United States Code). This is meant to promote the arts and sciences by protecting author’s rights and the rights of the public.

What Can Be Copyrighted?

Copyright is afforded to any original work in a fixed medium, published or unpublished.

What Cannot Be Copyrighted?

• Works that are not set in a fixed or tangible form
• Titles and names
• Ideas, concepts, procedures, methods, discoveries, and facts
• Obvious works that do not have an author (for example, a 12-month Julian calendar)
• Works whose copyright has expired and is in the Public Domain
• Although facts (including recipes and formulas) cannot be copyrighted, the arrangement of these facts can.

Copyright Duration

US copyright protection is currently set at the life of the author plus 70 years. Works created before 1978 have different copyright duration rules. The American Library Association has a “Copyright Slider Tool” that makes it easy to find out the copyright standing of a work: http://librarycopyright.net/digitalslider/

Works published prior to 1923 are now in the public domain.

Some Pointers for Staying Copyright Compliant

• Only use a small piece of the item and only what is absolutely necessary.
• Only use it for personal and class-related purposes.
• Don't make a copy for someone else or make your copy of the material available in any openly accessible fashion.
• Don't use it if you are in any way adversely affecting the commercial potential of the work.
• Make sure that you take your excerpt of the work from a legally-obtained version of the work. 

Using Materials for Educational Use (Fair Use)

Fair Use allows for the use of copyrighted material for educational purposes, “such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research.”

As a student doing work for OCOM, you have a lot more rights than you would out in the real world. For example, if you were writing a paper and you found an illustration that perfectly depicts what you are talking about in your paper, you can’t just use the illustration – you would need to get permission to use that work. But if you are a student who is just using the work in the classroom and your paper is not going to be published or available to the public, then it would be acceptable to use the illustration, as long as you cite it properly.

Students are allowed to make a single copy of a journal article or book chapter for their own personal use, as long as it is not used for monetary gain. Photocopying an entire book is not.

If you are confused as to whether the work you want to use falls under Fair Use, you can conduct a Fai Use Analysis:http://librarycopyright.net/fairuse/. There are four aspects to look at when conducting a Fair Use Analysis:

• The Purpose, including whether it is for commercial or nonprofit educational use;
• The Nature of the work;
• The Amount used in relation to the whole;
• The Effect on the market or value of the work.

 A Fair Use Analysis is just a guide. If you do an analysis that comes out in your favor, it doesn’t mean that you are not infringing – it just means that there is a chance that you might not be infringing. If you have doubts, you should always seek permission.