Campus Copyright Protection: Home

"Copyright, a form of intellectual property law, protects original works of authorship including literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works, such as poetry, novels, movies, songs, computer software, and architecture. Copyright does not protect facts, ideas, systems, or methods of operation, although it may protect the way these things are expressed."

-excerpt from Copyright in General - U.S. Copyright Office

"As a general matter, copyright infringement occurs when a copyrighted work is reproduced, distributed, performed, publicly displayed, or made into a derivative work without the permission of the copyright owner."

-excerpt from Definitions - U.S. Copyright Office

"Fair use is a legal doctrine that promotes freedom of expression by permitting the unlicensed use of copyright-protected works in certain circumstances." Four factors are considered in determining whether using copyrighted works without permission may qualify as fair use:

• Purpose and character of the use, including whether the use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes
• Nature of the copyrighted work
• Amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole
• Effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work

"Other factors may also be considered by a court in weighing a fair use question, depending upon the circumstances. Courts evaluate fair use claims on a case-by-case basis, and the outcome of any given case depends on a fact-specific inquiry. This means that there is no formula to ensure that a predetermined percentage or amount of a work—or specific number of words, lines, pages, copies—may be used without permission. "

- excerpt from More Information on Fair Use - U.S. Copyright Office 

UNE Library Services, "University Of New England Library Services Fair Use Checklist" (2016). Library Services Faculty Publications. 1.
https://dune.une.edu/libserv_facpub/1  

Released under and used by permission through a  CC BY 4.0 license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

If your intended use of copyrighted material does not fall under fair use, you must get permission from the copyright holder.

The TEACH Act (Technology, Education, and Copyright Harmonization), which provides for the use of copyrighted works when teaching remotely, applies only to nonprofit educational institutions.