Copyright Portal

The information presented here is intended for informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice

BEFORE USING MATERIALS OR INFORMATION THAT YOU DID NOT CREATE OR AUTHOR, PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING: 

Posting content on the Web constitutes publishing the content. Therefore, all Web content is classified as an official publication and protected by copyright and intellectual property laws whether or not the Web site or content includes a statement about copyright protections.

Copyright Law

Copyright law governs the making of reproductions of copyrighted works or materials as well as the circumvention of any technical protection measures for digitally produced works.

Copyright Check List

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Washington State University. What Copyright Does Not Protect

University Policies

COPYRIGHT
The copyright law governs the making of reproductions of copyrighted works or materials as well as the circumvention of any technical protection measures for digitally produced works. Under certain conditions specified in the law, individuals and educational institutions, such as the Medical Center, may reproduce portions of works or materials if restricted for private study, scholarship, research or classroom purposes. Liability for any copyright infringement, including protections for digital materials, resides with the user as defined by law.

In keeping with academic freedom and tradition, all faculty own and control instructional materials and scholarly works created at their own initiative with usual UMC resources. Some examples are lecture notes, transparencies, slides, case examples, articles, books, and CDROMs, regardless of the form in which the ideas or processes are disseminated.

-- University of Mississippi Medical Center Faculty and Staff Handbook

4.2.3 Intellectual Property
Individuals must comply with all applicable laws and regulations for copyright, patents, trademarks, software licenses, electronic access licenses, or any other legal binding agreements when conducting UMC business. Information must be:

  • reproduced only after permission has been obtained from the source;

  • properly identified when quoted from other sources; and

  • approved by the appropriate owner and the Division of Public Affairs prior to public release.

-- University of Mississippi Medical Center Information Policy

Patent and Invention Policies and Procedures (pdf)
 University of Mississippi Medical Center. Copyright Q & A for Classroom Use (pdf)
 University of Mississippi Medical Center. Copyright Q & A for General Use (pdf)
 Research at UMC

Rowland Medical Library

Fair Use

It is a principle that is based on the belief that the public is entitled to freely use portions of copyrighted materials for purposes of private study, scholarship, or research. This principle is used extensively in instruction. The following are guideline to help determine “fair use”.

  1. The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes
  2. The nature of the copyrighted work
  3. The amount and substantiality of the portion of the work used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole
  4. The effect of the use in question upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work

Fair Use Check List

bullet The Masters College Santa Clarite, CA. Checklist for Fair Use.
bullet Fair Use and Copyright in the Classroom The University of Georgia
bullet National Association of College Stores Questions and Answers on Copyright for the Campus Community
bullet University of Texas System. Fair Use Rules of Thumb: Coursepacks, Distance Learning, Research Copies, Reserves, Multimedia

Campus and Distance Learning Classroom Use

Distance education is teaching students outside the standard classroom or campus setting.

Classroom Use Check List

bullet Copyright in the Classroom. The Masters College Santa Clarite, CA.
bullet Online Resources for Distance Learning. North Carolina State University. TEACH Toolkit. An Online Resource for Understanding Copyright and Distance Education
bullet University of North Carolina. TEACH Act – Amended Section Chart

Orphan Works

Definition: “Orphan works” describe the situation where the owner of a copyrighted work cannot be identified and located by someone who wishes to make use of the work in a manner that requires permission of the copyright owner. Even when the owner is not found, the user faces uncertainty whether or under what conditions the owner would permit use.

According to the “Report on Orphan Works” by the Register of Copyrights, submitted to Congress in January, 2006, the following are suggested guidelines based on the report recommendations to determine whether a copyrighted work is an orphan work and the user of the work would thereby qualify for the suggested limitation remedies for copyright infringement as suggested in the “Report on Orphan Works” for the recommended statutory language to amend Section 514 of the Copyright Law of 1976. The report recommends that should the copyright owner be located during use of the work, both monetary and injunctive or equitable relief limitations should applied and continued use of the work be permitted if payment of compensation is made to the copyright owner for continued use. To date, the amendment has not been passed by Congress and is not law.

Prior to use of the copyrighted work, have you conducted a “reasonably diligent search” to identify and locate the copyright owner?

A “reasonably diligent search” includes but is not limited to the following sources of information for the copyright owner:

If an individual: request information from the last known employer, professional organization, any known living family member, colleagues or friends, public sources in last place of residence, publisher or producer of last work, published biographical sources, and local public libraries.

If a publisher/institution/organization: request information from a library about mergers, out of business organizations/agencies, name changes, relocations, last known president, director, or other chief executive, existing similar businesses that existed when work was created, and last known place/activity of business operations.

In using the work in a manner that requires permission and the reasonably diligent search failed to identify and/or locate the copyright owner, have you made it clear to the public throughout the use of the work, that the creator and/or the copyright owner are another person or organization, i.e. provided attribution to the individual or institution, organization or publisher?

Public Domain

This concept refers to the state of authorship of a particular work. Works that fall into the public domain belong to the public as a whole and are not protected by the copyright law.

Open Access

An Open Access Publication is one that meets the following two conditions:
The author(s) and copyright holder(s) grant(s) to all users free, irrevocable, worldwide, perpetual right of access to, and a license to copy, use, distribute, transmit and display the work publicly and to make and distribute derivative works, in any digital medium for an responsible purpose, subject to proper attribution of authorship2, as well as the right to make small numbers of printed copies for their personal use.

A complete version of the work and all supplemental materials, including a copy of the permission as stated above, in a suitable standard electronic format is deposited immediately upon initial publication in at least one online repository that is supported by an academic institution, scholarly society, government agency, or other well-established organization that seeks to enable open access, unrestricted distribution, interoperability, and long-term archiving (for the biomedical sciences, PubMed Central is such a repository).

  1. Open access is a property of individual works, necessarily journals or publishers.

  2. Community standards, rather than copyright law, will continue to provide the mechanism for enforcement of proper attribution and responsible use of the published work, as they do now.

Licensing/Ownership

International Copyright

There is no “international copyright” that will automatically protect an author’s writing throughout the world. Protection against unauthorized use in a particular country basically depends on the laws of that country. There are two principal international copyright conventions, the Berne Union for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Property (Berne Convention) and the Universal Copyright Convention (UCC).