The university and the library are committed to complying with all applicable laws and regulations surrounding the use of information including copyright laws and the provisions regarding copyright in The Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA). While complying with existing laws and regulation, the library believes in vigorously defending the exceptions within these laws for education, scholarship, and the advancement of knowledge as these and the ethical use of information are critical to the educational, research, and public service mission of the university.
The primary purpose of the policy and related links to additional information is to aid faculty, staff, and students in understating the applicable laws and developing guidelines for use of materials within the institution. To that end information on copyright has been organized into the following areas:
What Can I Use?
- Course Materials and Copyright for Professors: how can I use materials for teaching?
- Using Library Materials – Course Reserves and Creating Links to materials (permanent URL’s)
- Obtaining/Seeking Permission from the Copyright owner.
- Fair Use or How can I make sure I’m following copyright law in my classroom?
- Public Domain materials
- Freely Available Materials – Creative Commons Licensing
What Are My Rights?
- As an Author/Creator - Author’s Rights: what are my rights when I create a work? How do I retain copyright over my published material?
- As a student in the classroom? – As an author of a Thesis or Dissertation?
- Basic Copyright Rules: how does copyright law operate generally?
- University Policies for Faculty and Students
Brookens Library’s Director of Collections and Scholarly Communications is available to answer questions about this policy and assist you in. The Director Collections and Scholarly Communications can assist you in answering questions about this policy, regarding copyright, completing a fair use analysis, obtaining the information you need to answer your copyright questions, and related issues, but they cannot and will not offer legal advice.