Are you stealing information? Or, just exercising your rights to fair use?

Determine Fair Use of Copyrighted Material

• Fair Use Law (Section 107 Copyright Law): https://www.copyright.gov/fair-use/more-info.html
  • Provides details on the four factors that must be considered to determine fair use.
• Fair Use Evaluator: http://librarycopyright.net/resources/fairuse/index.php
  • A website created by Michael Brewer and the American Library Association Office for Information Technology Policy that walks you through the process of understanding what constitutes “fairness” of a use.
• Fair Use Checklist: https://copyright.columbia.edu/basics/fair-use/fair-use-checklist.html
  • Resource originally created by Kenneth D. Crews (formerly of Columbia University) and Dwayne K. Buttler (University of Louisville) to help faculty determine whether their activities are within the limits of fair use under U.S. copyright law.
• Summaries of Fair Use Cases: https://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/fair-use/cases/
  • Summaries of fair use court cases involving different kinds of intellectual property, which help illustrate the complex legal interpretations. Website from Stanford University Libraries, which used content “from NOLO, with much of it taken from the book Getting Permission (October 2010) by Richard Stim.”

Determine Copyright Status

• Copyright Law:  https://www.copyright.gov/title17/
  • Contains full text of Title 17
• Copyright Genie:  http://librarycopyright.net/resources/genie/index.php?restart
  • A website created by Michael Brewer and the American Library Association Office for Information Technology Policy. This site asks several questions, and walks you through a decision-making process to determine if something is copyrighted.
• The Library Copyright Digital Slider: http://librarycopyright.net/resources/digitalslider/index.html
  • A website created by Michael Brewer and the American Library Association Office for Information Technology Policy. This site is handy for determining at a quick glance if something is in the public domain or not.

Obtain Permission to Use Copyrighted Material

• Asking for Permission: https://copyright.columbia.edu/basics/permissions-and-licensing.html
  • A website created by Dr. Kenneth D. Crews (formerly of Columbia University) that lists and describes the steps for obtaining permission to use copyrighted material.
• Copyright Clearance Center (CCC): http://www.copyright.com/get-permissions/
  • A fee-based service to obtain permission to use and share copyrighted content (text only, i.e., journal articles, books, etc.; cannot secure permissions for non-textual media)