Guidelines for Compliance with the Copyright Law

INTRODUCTION
As amended, the Copyright Act of 1976 grants to copyright owners the exclusive right to reproduce their works, prepare derivative works, distribute copies of their works, perform their works, and display them. Anyone who does one of these acts without the copyright owner’s permission has infringed the copyright unless the act falls under one of the law’s exceptions. The simplest way to comply with the law is to obtain the copyright owner’s permission to use or reproduce the work. The Office of Print Services has subscribed to the Copyright Clearance Center and is responsible for obtaining copyright clearances on campus.

Basic guidelines for compliance with the law are set forth below. Any questions about these guidelines or other copyright matters may be directed to University Legal Counsel.

Faculty, staff, and students are expected to follow these guidelines in good faith. Rather than look for “loopholes” in the letter of this law and its regulations, you should subscribe to the spirit of the protection it gives to the rights of others. Requests for permission to use copyrighted material are required to be made whenever that course is indicated.
Finally, in any instance where these guidelines or the law are consciously ignored or violated, the responsibility and possible liability will rest with the individual so acting and not the University.

SUBJECT MATTER OF COPYRIGHTS
Facts and ideas are not subject to copyright, but the manner in which an author expresses them is. The following types of material, either published or unpublished, may be subject to copyright:
  1. Any written works (books, journal articles, texts, glossaries, bibliographies, study guides, laboratory manuals, syllabi, tests or forms);
  2. Musical works, including accompanying words;
  3. Dramatic works, including accompanying music;
  4. Films, film strips, transparencies;
  5. Pantomimes and choreographic works;
  6. Pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works;
  7. Video and audio tapes and cassettes;
  8. Sound recordings;
  9. Architectural works; and
  10. Computer programs.
Certain works are not protected by copyright. Publications of the federal government are generally not copyrightable, and works published more than 75 years ago are no longer copyrighted, unless they were updated during that period.

NOTICE OF COPYRIGHT
Most published works contain a notice of copyright, but the omission of such a notice does not mean that the work is not copyrighted. Common copyright notices include the symbol © (the letter c in a circle), the word “Copyright,” or the abbreviation “Copr.,” and the identity of the copyright owner and the date of publication. You should assume all works published within the preceding 75 years are copyrighted even if no notice is present. A copyright does not expire because a work is out of print.
Where reproduction of copyrighted materials is permitted, each copy should contain a notice of copyright.

FAIR USE OF COPYRIGHTED WORKS
The Copyright Act permits certain infringements of copyrights under the rule of “fair use.” What constitutes “fair use” cannot be stated with certainty, and each case depends upon its particular facts.
The Act contains a four-part test to assist in determining whether use of a copyrighted work constitutes fair use. The four factors are:
  1. The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit education purposes;
  2. The nature of the copyrighted work;
  3. The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
  4. The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyright work.
Due to the difficulty of applying these factors, three sets of guidelines have been developed by private groups to assess fair use for the reproduction of books and periodicals, music and broadcast programming. While these guidelines are not the law, if you stay within them, you should be within the bounds of fair use. These guidelines are summarized below.

GUIDELINES FOR CLASSROOM COPYING OF BOOKS AND PERIODICALS

Single Copies
For use in teaching and preparation for teaching or research, it is permissible to make or have made a single copy of a chapter from a book; an article from a periodical or newspaper; a short story, a short essay, or short poem, whether or not from a collective work; and a chart, graph, diagram, cartoon, or picture from a book, periodical or newspaper.

Multiple Copies
For use in classrooms, it is permissible to make or have made multiple copies (not more than one copy per student) when the limitations listed below are followed:
  1. The copy of a complete poem does not exceed 250 words and two printed pages, and the copy of an excerpt from a longer poem does not exceed 250 words.
  2. The copy of a complete prose article, story or essay is less than 2500 words, or the copy of an excerpt from any prose work is not more than 1000 words or 10% of the work, whichever is less. However, a minimum of 500 words is allowable.
  3. The decision to use the work is so close in time to the moment of its use that it would be unreasonable to expect a timely reply to a request for permission.
  4. Not more than one poem, article, story, essay or two excerpts are copied from the same author, or more than three are copied from the same collective work, during a class term; and not more than nine instances of such multiple copying for one course occur during one class term. These restrictions do not apply to current news sections in periodicals and newspapers.
  5. Multiple copies are not made of works intended to be “consumable” during the course of study, such as workbooks, exercises, standardized texts, etc.
  6. No charge is made to the student beyond the actual cost of the copy.
  7. Each copy includes a notice of the copyright.
  8. Copying of the same material is not repeated from semester to semester.
GUIDELINES FOR EDUCATIONAL USES OF MUSIC
Permissible as a “fair use” of copyrighted printed music would be the following situations:
  1. Making emergency copies to replace purchased copies which for any reason are not available for an imminent performance, provided purchased replacements copies are substituted within a reasonable period of time and the made copies are destroyed.
  2. For academic purposes other than performance, a single copy of an entire performance unit that is out of print or unavailable except in a larger work may be made solely for research or preparation to teach a class.
  3. For academic purposes other than performance, making single or multiple copies of excerpts of works so long as the excerpts do not constitute more than 10% of the whole work and do not constitute a performable unit such as a selection, movement, or aria. The number of copies made should not exceed one copy per student.
Not considered a “fair use” of copyrighted printed music, and therefore not permissible, would be the following instances:
  1. Copying to produce or replace an anthology, compilation, or collective work;
  2. Copying of or from works intended to be “consumable” in the course of study or of teaching, such as workbooks, exercises, standardized tests, and answer sheets, and similar material;
  3. Copying for purpose of performance or as a substitute for the purchase of music, with exceptions as previously noted; Copying, even where otherwise permissible, without inclusion of a notice of copyright.
Special rules relating to copies of sound recordings (such as tapes, discs, or cassettes) are listed below.
  1. A single copy of recordings of performances by students may be made, but only for evaluation or rehearsal purposes. It may be retained by the institution or the individual faculty member.
  2. A single copy of a sound recording of copyrighted music may be made from a recording owned by the institution or the faculty member, but only for the purpose of constructing aural exercises or examinations. It also may be retained by the individual faculty member.
GUIDELINES FOR OFF-AIR RECORDING OF BROADCAST PROGRAMMING
A broadcast program may be recorded and retained by an educational institution for 45 days after the date of recording, at which time it must be erased or destroyed. Faculty may use the recording once in classroom teaching during the first 10 school days of the 45-day retention period. Recordings may be made only at the request of individual faculty members, and the same person cannot request a recording of the same program more than once. All copies must include the copyright notice.

COPYING PRINTED MATERIAL FOR RESERVE USEAGE IN THE LIBRARY
Faculty must obtain permission from copyright owners before a University Library staff member will place photocopies of any material on reserve for student use. Print Services will assist in obtaining copyright clearance which may take as long as six weeks. Please be sure to request permission for more than one semester if you want the reserve materials used for longer than one semester.

COMPUTER SOFTWARE
Most computer software is licensed rather than sold outright, and the license agreements can be complicated. These agreements generally contain numerous limitations on the use of the software, including restrictions on making copies of or modifications to the software. Networking is generally not permitted. Although copying software to a hard disk is permissible, if such copying permits simultaneous uses of the software, that would probably infringe the copyright.

Backup copies are permissible as long as the backup copy is not used while the original is in use.