Copyright Guide  Tags: copyright rights information_ethics  

Welcome to Swem Library's Copyright Guide

This guide is available to assist College of William and Mary students, faculty, and staff answer copyright and related rights issues. All members of the William and Mary community must be aware of and adhere to the provisions of the United States Copyright Law. We have a moral and legal obligation to honor and abide by copyright rules when we use protected works in support of the academic mission.

The Exceptions for Instructors eTool will help instructors determine fair use of copyrighted works. The Fair Use Evaluator can help you better understand how to determine the "fairness" of a use under the U.S. Copyright Code, provides documentation of your evaluation, and links you to additional educational material. The Digital Copyright Slider is available as a quick guide to answer copyright questions. The Section 108 Spinner is another online tool helpful in making determiniations about whether reproductions by libraries, archives, and museums can be made for educational or preservation use without the permission of the copyright holder.

What is copyright? A copyright grants to its owner the right to control an intellectual or artistic creation, including the right to profit from others using the work in specific ways without permission or from the sale and performance of the work. Copyright protection extends not only to copies of the written word and recordings of sound, but to visual images such as photographs, animated images, motion pictures, or videotapes. It also includes taped live performances.

What is fair use? Fair use is a legal principle that provides certain limitations on copyrighted materials. It is important to realize that there are no bright lines and assessment of whether or not an intended use is a fair use requires a thoughtful analysis of the context and intentions that underlie that use. As illustrative examples, under fair use, a teacher or researcher is allowed a rather limited amount of copying without the copyright owner’s permission for such purposes as: 1) criticism, 2) comment, 3) news reporting, or 4) teaching. These are not the only potential fair uses, but they do apply to many of the activities in which faculty engage.

Use Ask Earl for assistance from the Swem Library Reference Desk.

For any writing project, we also suggest you review the Research Paper Writing & Citation Guide.

The Copyright Advisory Office of Columbia University in the City of New York, a leading provider of copyright resources for the educational community, has launched a fully revised and updated website of copyright issues and information. Read the press release for more information and visit the new site.

The video "Copyright Basics" from the Copyright Clearance Center provides a great overview of copyright and related issues.