Copyright Information: FAQ
For copyright news, check out the latest news and updates from the Copyright Office.
General
1. Are images
protected under copyright law?
Yes. The U.S. Copyright Office states that "Copyright protects 'original works of authorship' that are fixed in a tangible form of expression. The fixation need not be directly perceptible so long as it may be communicated with the aid of a machine or device." (Circular 1: Copyright Basics). "Original works of authorship" include "pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works," which would cover any and all images in any format, including digital images.
2. If I don't make money from using someone else's work, there's no harm done, right?
Wrong. If you are using a significant portion of someone else's work without their permission, you are infringing on their rights under copyright law and you may be affecting the potential market value of the original work. For example, if a professor makes copies of a book for each member of his/her class, that means that many fewer copies of the book will be sold. So even though the professor did not make any money, he/she still deprived the copyright holder of the work from receiving the royalties for those lost sales.
3. What about works that I have written or produced? Can I use them any way I want to? What about publishing them on my Web site?
This depends on whether or not you actually own the copyright to your work. In some cases your work may be considered a "work made for hire" or you may have assigned or transferred your copyright to a publisher or other organization. If a publisher or university owns the copyright, you will need permission to use the work even if you are the author.
4. What is a work made for hire?
Section 101 of the copyright law defines
a work made for hire as:
(1) a work prepared by an employee within the scope of his or her employment; or
(2) a work specially ordered or commissioned for use as a contribution to a collective work, as a part of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, as a translation, as a supplementary work, as a compilation, as an instructional text, as a test, as answer material for a test, or as an atlas, if the parties expressly agree in a written instrument signed by them that the work shall be considered a work made for hire .
Generally, if one creates a work under the direction or authority of an employer, the employer is entitled to the copyright instead of the author. See University of Pittsburgh Policy 11-02-02 for information about how this is handled at this university.
5. What can
I do to protect my work under copyright law?
Once a work has been fixed in a tangible medium of expression, it is automatically protected under copyright law. See "How to Secure a Copyright" in Circular 1: Copyright Basics from the U.S. Copyright Office for more information including the advantages of registering your work with the U.S. Copyright Office.
6. How do I
get the copyright symbol to appear on my works? Is there a certain format
I have to use?
See the "Notice of Copyright" section on Circular 1 from the U.S. Copyright Office for information and guidelines about copyright notices. It is important to note that a copyright notice is no longer required in order for a work to be protected by copyright law. However, if you do include such notice on your works (including web pages and digital images) it prevents others from claiming "innocent infringement" when unlawfully copying your work.
The © symbol can be produced on a Web page using HTML by typing © or ©. In Microsoft Word, the © symbol is produced by typing ALT+CTRL+C.
7. How do I
know if a work is copyrighted or if it is in the public domain?
This was changed significantly on October 29, 1998 with the passage into law of the Sonny Bono Term Extension Act, also known as P.L. 105-298. Basically, this law extended the duration of copyright by twenty years for all works which were under copyright protection as of October 29, 1998.
Works created on or after January 1,
1978
Section 302 of Title 17 states that "Copyright
in a work created on or after January 1, 1978, subsists from its creation
and, except as provided by the following subsections, endures for a term
consisting of the life of the author and fifty [now seventy] years after
the author's death." (Note: registration is no longer required for copyright
protection since the Berne Convention took effect in 1989.)
Works created before January 1, 1978
Before this time, information was required
to be registered with the U.S. Copyright Office in order to be protected
under copyright laws for a 28 year term. Renewal for an additional term
of 47 years was then possible. Almost everything published in the
U.S. before 1923 is considered to be in the public domain (as of 1998)
because it was published more than 75 years ago (until P.L. 105-298, the
longest possible term of copyright). It is not simple, however to determine
copyright status for materials created during this time period.
To help in the process of determing copyright status, an excellent table titled "When Works Pass into the Public Domain" by Laura Gasaway is available on the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Web site. Also consult Chapter 3: Duration of Copyright from Title 17 (and perhaps legal counsel) in order to determine the intricacies of copyright status for these works.
To be absolutely sure about the copyright status of any work, it is necessary to do a search with the U.S. Copyright Office or have an outside agency such as the Copyright Clearance Center investigate the status of a work. See also Circular 22: How to Investigate the Copyright Status of a Work from the U.S. Copyright Office.
8. Are
all government publications in the public domain?
Generally, U.S. government publications are considered in the public domain, meaning they can be copied, transmitted and otherwise used without restrictions. There are exceptions, however, such as U.S. Postal Service stamps. Some restrictions may apply if the government publication contains copyrighted information within it or was created by an outside government contractor. See Section 105 of the U.S. Copyright Statute for more details on this issue. If a publisher reprints government information, any enhancements or additions to the orignial work fall under copyright.
State government publications may or may not be copyrighted. It is necessary to determine whether or not this is the case before using these materials.
Foreign government publications are usually considered to be under copyright in accordance with several international copyright treaties.
9. If a book is
out of print, do I have to worry about copyright?
Yes. If the book is not in the public domain, the copyright is still in effect and should be respected. Permission would be required for copying large portions of the book. (See brevity question)
One possible exception is in the case of replacing lost, stolen, or damaged materials. This is mentioned in University of Pittsburgh Policy 10-04-01 :
It is not permissible to copy an entire
issue, volume or complete work. However a copy may be made for replacement
purposes if: It
has been determined that a copy is not available Note that this is for replacement purposes
only and would not be applicable for distribution purposes. Normal trade
sources would include the out-of-print market in this case. Both the University and the individual
may be liable in a civil suit for willful infringement of copyright law
for damages of up to $100,000. The copyright law in Section 504 (c)(2)
states that damages may be remitted (i.e. not enforced) under the following
conditions: The court shall remit statutory damages
in any case where an infringer believed and had reasonable grounds for
believing that his or her use of the copyrighted work was a fair use under
section 107, if the infringer was: (i) an employee or agent of a nonprofit
educational institution, library, or archives acting within the scope of
his or her employment who, or such institution, library, or archives itself,
which infringed by reproducing the work in copies or phonorecords; ... This would require the infringer to prove
in court that he or she reasonably thought the use in question fell under
fair use, however, and would not necessarily prevent the filing of a lawsuit
or subsequent attorney and court fees. Willful copyright infringement for commercial
advantage or private financial gain carries criminal penalties. Definitions of brevity (the amount of a
work one can copy without permission under fair use) is included in the University
of Pittsburgh Procedure 10-04-01 which states the following limitations
for prose and illustrations, among other types of works: Prose: A complete article, story or essay of less
than 2,500 words OR An excerpt from any prose work of not more
than 1,000 words or 10% of the work, whichever is less, and not less than
500 words Illustration: One chart, graph, diagram, drawing, cartoon
or picture per book or per periodical issue. These definitions of brevity are adapted
from those in the Agreement on Guidelines for Classroom Copying in Not-For-Profit
Educational Institutions With Respect to Books and Periodicals which is
included in the Report of the House Committee on the Judiciary (H.R. 94-1476)
and have generally been agreed on by the educational and publishing communities. Not without permission. Materials posted
on the Web would be widely accessible by people all over the world. In
effect you would be distributing the information broadly, thus affecting
the market for that work (fair use factor #4). An exception is that works in
the public domain could be reproduced on a Web site without penalty.
It would also be acceptable to provide citations and links to other
websites and/or articles from electronic journals or full text databases. If you are affiliated with the University
of Pittsburgh and want to provide electronic access to articles and other
information on a Web site, you may direct them to electronic journals and/or
full-text library databases available on the University Library System
Web site at http://www.library.pitt.edu.
In these cases, use by University of Pittsburgh students and employees
is covered by licensing agreements. Consult with a librarian if you need
assistance in determining the availability of full-text electronic resources. This is an area that is not perfectly clear
and may not be fully understood until it is litigated. Certainly, limiting
access to students in a particular class makes a better case for fair use,
but even under these circumstances one would have to consider the four
fair use factors and the guidelines for brevity and spontaneity. For example,
the information could be posted for one semester only and could not be
re-used without getting permission. Basically, if it would not be permissible
to distribute copies of articles, images, or other copyrighted materials
in paper format, then it would not be permissible to distribute them in
electronic format. If you do request permission from the copyright holder
to mount the work on the Web, they may require that you use a password
or some method of encryption to protect against unauthorized access or
illegal copying. Under University Library System policy,
which is based on the fair use guidelines, you may place as many as five
copies (depending on the size of the class) on reserve in the library without
obtaining permission. If you want to distribute multiple copies directly
to students, you probably need permission. You can get permission directly
from the copyright holder. This information is posted on the ULS Web site
at http://www.library.pitt.edu/services/reserves/.
Scroll down to the section titled "Guidelines for Placing Materials on
Reserve." The Copyright Clearance and Custom Course
Packet Service is handled by The Book Center in the Textbook Department
- Lower Level (this service was previously located in the Copy Cat).
Guidelines for ordering course packets are provided by The Book Center.
Contact the Custom Course Materials Manager with questions. Unless you create the work, and retain the copyright, this practice is prohibited by copyright
law and University
of Pittsburgh Policy 10-04-01. These items and other "consumable" items
require permission before copying and distributing to students because
such use affects the potential market for sale of such materials. See: The TEACH Act. Wrong. Fair use is a complicated concept
and the general answer to any question about fair use is "maybe." There
are some very definite restrictions to using copyrighted materials even
under fair use guidelines. In general, one should consider the four fair
use factors from Section 107 of the Copyright Law: An excellent brief discussion of fair use
including guidelines for determining whether or not your use falls under
these guidelines can be found on p. 118 of Mary Brandt Jensen's Does
Your Project Have a Copyright Problem? A more extensive treatment is
found in William Patry's book, The Fair Use Privilege in Copyright Law.Copyright
and Fair Use, a Web site published at Stanford University is the
best starting point for learning about fair use on the Web. THE SAME LAWS APPLY. IF YOU DO NOT HAVE
PERMISSION TO USE A COPYRIGHTED WORK IN PRINT, YOU DO NOT HAVE PERMISSION
TO USE IT IN ELECTRONIC FORMAT. In general, one should treat electronic
information with the same consideration as print, audiovisual, or other
information when it comes to copyright. However, there are some unique
qualities about electronic information that stretch the boundaries of the
1976 copyright law which was designed more for the print environment. That
is why Congress passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (PL 105-304),
which updates the law to deal with several important issues in the digital
environment. This was signed into law by the president on October 28, 1998. For an overview of this new legislation,
see the Digital Millennium
Copyright Act Overview published by the UCLA Online Institute for Cyberspace Law and Policy. The Association of Research Libraries Web site
offers an in-depth
analysis of the DMCA by Jonathan Band of Morrision and Foerster LLP. It is available on Thomas,
the Web site of the U.S. Congress. The Digital Millenium Copyright Act may be viewed in full here in PDF format. Many people assume that if an image is
on the Web, it is meant for public access and consumption, but being on
the Web does not equal automatic permission to use an image even though
it is very easy to copy images from one site to another. Actually, one
should assume that an image is copyrighted if it is on the Web since copyright
is automatically conferred upon creation of the work. One exception is
in cases of scanned images of items in the public domain--e.g. illustrations
from a work published before 1923. There are several sources of "copyright
free" or "public domain" images and icons on the Web, but there is often
no way to guarantee that the provider is actually the copyright holder.
If you are not reasonably sure that you have permission to use "copyright
free" materials from the Web, it is best to ask permission. Scanning images
from print resources is possible as long as you consider that all reproduction
rights belong to the copyright holder and you may need permission to do
so. Again, if the image is in the public domain, it is possible to scan
it without infringing on the copyright. If you need to use images to develop
a Web site, the best practice is to create your own images or to hire someone
to create them for you. In general, you do not need permission
to create a link to another Web site. You probably will need permission
if you duplicate information (including images and icons) from another
site on your own. For instance, it is perfectly acceptable to provide a
link to the CNN Web site from your page, but you may not display their logo
(a registered trademark) or reprint an article from the CNN site without
appropriate permission. However, even though it is not required, it is
considered polite to ask permission to create a link to someone else's
information on the Web. Not without permission. Materials posted
on the Web would be widely accessible by people all over the world. In
effect you would be distributing the information broadly, thus affecting
the market for that work (fair use factor #4). An exception is that works in
the public domain could be reproduced on a Web site without penalty.
It would also be acceptable to provide citations and links to other
websites and/or articles from electronic journals or full text databases. If you are affiliated with the University
of Pittsburgh and want to provide electronic access to articles and other
information on a Web site, you may direct them to electronic journals and/or
full-text library databases available on the University Library System
Web site at http://www.library.pitt.edu.
In these cases, use by University of Pittsburgh students and employees
is covered by licensing agreements. Consult with a librarian if you need
assistance in determining the availability of full-text electronic resources. Certainly, limiting access to students in a particular class makes a better
case for fair use,but even under these circumstances one would have to consider the four
fair use factors and the guidelines for brevity and spontaneity. For example,
the information could be posted for one semester only and could not be
re-used without getting permission. Basically, if it would not be permissible
to distribute copies of articles, images, or other copyrighted materials
in paper format, then it would not be permissible to distribute them in
electronic format. If you do request permission from the copyright holder
to mount the work on the Web, they may require that you use a password
or some method of encryption to protect against unauthorized access or
illegal copying. For more information see: the TEACH Act.s There are many arguments about the differences
between traditional and electronic publishing, but none affect the
copyright law. As stated before, the United States Copyright Office advises
that "Copyright protects original works of authorship that are fixed in
a tangible form of expression. The fixation need not be directly perceptible
so long as it may be communicated with the aid of a machine or device."
(Circular 1: Copyright Basics)
So once an image, article, book, or other work is created, it is protected
under copyright whether or not it was published in a traditional
manner. See Circular
1: Copyright Basics for more on this discussion. Any information that has been created by
you as an author is generally acceptable, including syllabi, class notes,
biographical information, curriculum vitae, etc... Articles or papers that
you have written may be posted without permission only if you are the copyright
holder for the work. If it has been published elsewhere, you may not hold
the copyright. If you copy a work or a significant portion
of another work (including images) for which you do not own copyright,
you may be in violation of copyright law. If you are developing an official
University of Pittsburgh web page, see "Guidelines
for University Web Pages" by the The Provost's Committee on the University
of Pittsburgh's Presentation on the World Wide Web. For other guidelines
regarding web pages, see University
of Pittsburgh Policy 10-02-05: Computer Access and Use. Whenever you view a webpage, it is downloaded
from the server on which it resides and is temporarily stored in a cache
on your computer. There has been some discussion about whether or not this
constitutes making a copy of the work. Such viewing of web resources has
so far generally been considered to be acceptable because of the temporary
nature of caching and the necessity of doing so in order to view Web-based
information. If you then print it or save it permanently to a disk, you
are making a copy of the work and would have to consider copyright restrictions. In general, it is safe to print or download
a single copy of a work from a database or Web site for personal
non-profit research purposes. Information on websites is almost always
protected under copyright law, however, and care should be taken not to
violate the copyright by retransmitting or making multiple copies of the
work, etc... In the case of databases, much of the information is covered
by the database license. The users of databases usually have permission
to use information on databases because the organization with which they
are affiliated has paid license fees and agreed to certain restrictions
on the use of the information. The database producer, in turn, pays copyright
fees to the original copyright holder. Each database license agreement
is different, but usage restrictions are generally as strict or more strict
than those of the four fair use factors. It is a violation of copyright and licensing
agreements to copy an entire database or even significant portions of a
database even for personal use. See: The TEACH Act.
through normal trade sources at a fair
price.
10. To what
extent am I personally liable as a faculty member, student or employee
of the University of Pittsburgh for violating copyright law?
11. How much
information can I use from a copyrighted work without getting permission?
Educational
Use
1. Can I scan course
readings and put them up on my Web site for my students to read?
2. What if
I use a system like CourseInfo which uses passwords to restrict access
to students in a particular class? Wouldn't that fall under fair use?
3.
If a work is copyrighted and I want to use it in my class, what do I have
to do?
4.
What do I have to know about putting course readings on reserve in a University
Library System library?
5.
What about course packets?
phone:(412) 624-1468
e-mail:shausman@bc.pitt.edu
6.
What about copying a worksheet or a test for students?
7.
What am I permitted to do if I am involved in a Distance Education project?
8.
Fair use means that if I'm using it for educational purposes, I can do
whatever I want with a copyrighted work, right?
One of the best rules of thumb about fair
use is whether or not you are confident that the use is permitted. If you
are not absolutely certain you are under fair use guidelines, it is always
a good idea to get permission before using a work.
Web
1. Do the same copyright
laws apply to electronic information as print information?
2.
What are some of the changes made by the new Digital Millennium Copyright
Act?
3.
How can I get a copy of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act?
4.
What do I have to consider before placing an image on my web site?
5.
Do I have to get permission to link to another site from my web page?
6.
Can I scan course readings and put them up on my Web site for my students
to read?
7.
What if I use a system like CourseInfo which uses passwords to restrict
access to students in a particular class? Wouldn't that fall under fair
use?
8.
Putting something up on a Web site is not the same as publishing something,
so do I have to worry about copyright?
9.
What kinds of information am I allowed to post on my web pages?
10.
I heard that the new copyright law might make it illegal even to download
copyrighted web pages for viewing without permission. Is that true?
11.
Can I print or download information from a Web site or library database
without violating copyright?
12.
What am I permitted to do if I am involved in a Distance Education project?