Whenever you produce a new creative work – whether that’s a new song or story, a picture or a painting, a slideshow or study guide – you are automatically granted a copyright where all your rights are reserved. You don’t need to do anything to be granted a copyright, and it’s intended to protect your work from being used in ways you don’t want, without your express permission.
As stated in Article 1, Section 8, Clause 8, of the US Constitution, the purpose of Copyright is "To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries."
When an idea is expressed in a fixed medium, whether it be a painting, a story, a dance choreography, or a poem on the back of a napkin (though certainly not limited to those categories), it has legal copyright protections for a set period of time, allowing the creator to use or exploit the fruit of their work as they see fit, or not at all. In the past, this copyright required some formality in the way of registration or notice, but that is no longer the case for new works (Cornell University Library, 2022).
The circular, Copyright Basics makes clear what works are covered by Copyright Law.
Right now, in the USA, Copyright is automatic for content in a fixed form. If you write a book or draw a picture, those things are under copyright, and you are entitled to six exclusive rights about them:
You are not required to register your copyright with the Copyright Office. You are not required to include a copyright statement. If you anticipate that your work will be a high-value project, or that there may be a copyright dispute in the future, you can register with the Copyright Office.
There are some expressions, including facts, local laws, or works of the US Government (to name a few), which are excluded from copyright protections. These are born directly into the public domain, free to copy, reuse, adapt or distribute (Cornell University Library, 2022).
There are limitations on these exclusive rights, the most common of which are Fair Use and Reproduction by Libraries and Archives (to learn more, see: US Code, Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 107-112.
Facts cannot be copyrighted, which means that things like basic math, recipes, alphabets, grammatical tropes (e.g.: “I before e, except after c”) and recipes (the list of ingredients and steps themselves) cannot be copyrighted.
On the other side, ideas cannot be copyrighted either. Only creative media in a fixed form is eligible for copyright.
Attribution: "Copyright Services: Copyright 101" by Cornell University Library is licensed under CC BY 4.0
Use the link below to learn about requesting permission and how to seek copyright for your own work.
There are a lot of different issues involved in figuring out if U.S. copyright law requires you to seek permission (and often, pay a fee) to use others' materials in your teaching.
There are many tools available to help you determine if your intended use of others' materials is allowed under U.S. copyright law. Below are two tools you can use to determine if your use is allowed and/or if you need to seek permission to use material:
When you want to use others' copyrighted materials in your teaching, you need to ask yourself three important questions:
1. Is the material in the public domain? If so, you are free to use it without seeking permission.
2. Does my proposed use fall under exemptions to the copyright law?
You can use the Fair Use Checklist, created by Kenneth D. Crews (formerly of Columbia University) and Dwayne K. Buttler (University of Louisville), as a guide to help you consider whether or not your intended use falls under the fair use exemption. Note: This checklist is not about simply checking and counting boxes. Instead, it is a guide to help you weigh the factors of fair use against your intended use.
3. Do I need to seek permission to use the material?
Check out what Stanford Libraries has to say about Academic Coursepacks. Even in light of the case, Cambridge University v. Patton, 769 F.3d 1232 (11th Cir. 2014), you should follow the rule that you need to obtain permission before reproducing copyrighted materials for a coursepack.
The Technology, Education, and Copyright Harmonization (TEACH) Act was signed into law on November 2, 2002 in an effort to balance the needs of distance learners and educators with the rights of copyright holders. The TEACH Act applies to distance education that includes the participation of any enrolled student, on or off campus.
Unlike Copyright, open licenses (a.k.a. Creative Commons licenses) enable collaboration, development, access, and inspiration from your creative works without requiring you to give up the rights (copyright) automatically granted to you for your creation.
An open license lets you retain ownership of your work, while allowing others to use, share, and remix it, without requesting your permission. For most open licenses, all that is required of the users is to attribute you for your work.
Open Educational Resources are open because they have Creative Commons (CC) licenses. To find more information about using and finding OER, check out our research guide entitled, Open Educational Resources @MJC.
"What is Open Education?" by BC Campus OpenEd is licensed under CC BY 4.0
Image Attribution: "Creative Commons Kiwi" by Creative Commons Aotearoa New Zealand is licensed under CC BY 3.0
Creative Commons licensing is at the heart of the Open and OER movements. Creative Commons licenses give everyone from individual creators to large institutions a standardized way to grant the public permission to use their creative work under copyright law. From the reuser’s perspective, the presence of a Creative Commons license on a copyrighted work answers the question, “What can I do with this work?”
There are six different licenses. These are:
The six licenses and the public domain dedication tool give creators a range of options. The best way to decide which is appropriate for you is to think about why you want to share your work, and how you hope others will use that work.
For help, try the Creative Commons License Chooser.
"About CC Licenses" by Creative Commons, Creative Commons is licensed under CC BY 4.0
"Open Educational Resources at CCAC" by Community College of Allegheny County Libraries is licensed under CC BY 4.0.