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Not necessarily. If it was created before 1978, it may or may not be copyrighted. You should Ask a Librarian. If it was created in 1978 or later, you should assume that it is copyrighted, whether or not it has a copyright notice.
Not necessarily. Unpublished works are automatically copyrighted. For works created after 1978, the copyright will expire 70 years after the death of the author, or 120 years after the work's creation (if the author is anonymous or unidentifiable). Many unpublished works created before 1978 are now in the public domain. You should Ask a Librarian. If the work was created in the United States before 1923 1926, as of 2023, and never subsequently published, it is now in the public domain.
No. In the United States, works are protected for the duration of the creator's life plus 70 years.
Works published in the United States before 1923 are automatically in the public domain. Works published outside the United States are subject to different and, usually, stricter rules. You should Ask a Librarian.
Not necessarily. Copyright will expire 70 years after the death of the author. (For anonymously or corporate-authored works, copyright will expire 120 years after the publication date.)
No. You need explicit, written permission for your specific use.
No. You have the right of first sale, which is limited to selling, lending, or giving away your copy, and displaying your copy in a private setting (for instance, to guests in your home). Under the doctrine of fair use, you are also entitled to make a single copy for personal use (for instance, ripping your CD so you can listen to the songs on your MP3 player).
Yes. When you make copyrighted material available to your students, you must include the copyright notice. For books, you should copy the copyright information on the back of the title page and attach it. Articles usually have it in the header and/or footer; if they don't, attach it. For multimedia or images, just put the copyright information (for example © ContentCorp 2011) in a caption. What's important, above all, is that you make it obvious and unmistakable that the content is copyrighted, and not to you.
Sometimes you can't find the copyright date or content owner's name in the original work. Don't guess. © Unknown 2011, or © Milla Steinmetz (date unknown) is better than misinforming your audience, and it shows a good-faith effort.
Yes. If you are using content from the SUNY Empire Library, you should link to it, so that users have to log in with their SUNY Empire login and password. In some cases, you may be able to embed that content, but you should only do so within the learning management system, so that users have to log in. If you have gotten permission from the copyright owner to put the content online, follow the terms set out in the license.
Yes. Only students currently enrolled in your course may have access to the copyrighted materials you are using for your course.
No. If you can, it is best to link to the content. Database content is subject to copyright law and to license restrictions specified in the contract between the college and the database provider. If your use of database content is not permitted by the license with the database provider, you should simply link to the content. If you wish to embed some content from one of the databases, Ask a Librarian.
No, with very few exceptions. If you are trying to make a piece of media accessible to someone with disabilities, or if you are a faculty member who wants to create DVD clips for face-to-face classroom use, Ask a Librarian.
Yes. These all count as tangible media of expression.
If you are just linking to it, you won't be prosecuted or sued, but it is a bad idea because:
If you are showing the material in a face-to-face classroom, that is infringing and you can get in trouble.
Yes. It is legal to link to something. Make sure you are linking to a legal copy; otherwise it is likely to disappear and leave you with broken links.
If you are talking about "embed codes" provided by YouTube, Films On Demand, or the like, that's fine. That kind of "embedding" is actually a special kind of linking.
But if you are talking about uploading the content to your webpage or course, you will need to have permission or be sure that it's fair use, public domain, etc.
If you're not sure, Ask a Librarian.
Not necessarily. Noncommercial, socially useful purposes such as education and commentary are favorable, but that is only one of the four factors considered in determining fair use. You also have to take into account the nature of the original work, how much of it you used and the effect your work will have on the market for the original work.
Not necessarily. "Amount and substantiality" is only one of the four factors considered in determining fair use. There is no exact amount specified by law. The "De Minimis" defense says that if you take a tiny fragment of a work accidentally or incidentally, it's Fair Use, but doesn't specify how tiny. You have to consider the amount you are using alongside the other four factors.
Probably not. Fair use is more favorable toward academic, scientific and journalistic uses than toward artistic or creative ones. Artistic and creative reuse of copyrighted materials is called a "derivative work" and the copyright holder has the exclusive right to control the creation of derivative works.
No. Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but it's also copyright infringement.
Probably. Parodies are derivative works, but they are generally allowable under fair use.
It's important to consider the difference between a parody and a satire. Parody uses the copyrighted material to comment on that same material. Satire uses the copyrighted material to comment on something else.
Copying facts or ideas does not violate copyright. It may, however, be plagiarism. Also, copying a creator's unique arrangement of facts and ideas (for example, facts arranged in a chart, or an idea phrased in a certain way) may infringe on copyright. In addition, while fictional themes and basic plots (boy meets girl, girl hates boy, boy joins circus) cannot be copyrighted, settings and characters are more than mere ideas; they are protected by copyright.
No. You should always cite and give credit, but that's completely irrelevant to whether you're infringing on somebody's copyright.
Not unless you can find a way to use the material under the doctrine of fair use.
Unlike the TEACH Act, Fair Use doesn't specify that you have to use a legally created, legally obtained copy, but you should if you can. There are also quality, format, and accessibility issues to consider.
SUNY Empire is TEACH Act compliant.
The TEACH Act applies only to multimedia posted in the learning management system (Moodle.) It does not apply to any textual materials and it does not apply on the open web or in face-to-face situations.
TEACH Act applies to online course situations that are parallel to showing something in class. They are not for research, assigned readings, supplemental readings, homework, or extracurricular activities.
If it's from a textbook, supplemental materials for a textbook, workbook, question bank, animations, simulations, lectures, study guide, or anything that was published for the educational market, you cannot use the TEACH Act. You must upload a legal copy that was legally obtained -- no bootlegs. If there is a digital copy on the market, you must use that - you can only digitize your physical materials if there is no digital copy available. Here is a list of textbook/educational market publishers from GlobalEdge, so you can be sure never to put up any of their content under the TEACH Act.
You can post any amount of nonfictional, nondramatic multimedia, or brief clips of fictional or dramatic multimedia.
You have to include the citation and copyright information with the materials, preferably in a caption.
You must not maintain any sort of library or repository of TEACH Act materials. They must be kept only inside the course, and access to them must be as limited in duration as possible. That means that, if possible, you will put them up at the beginning of a module and take them down when that module is done with. If that would interfere with how your module is organized, you can leave them up for the duration of the course, but no longer.
This is a "work for hire" question. In general, works created by employees as part of their employment are the copyright of their employers, unless their contract otherwise specifies.
"Generally the members of the staff of the University shall retain all rights to copyright and publish written works produced by them. However, in cases where persons are employed or directed within the scope of their employment to produce specific works subject to copyright the University shall have the right to publish such work without copyright or to copyright it in its own name. The copyright will also be subject to any contractual arrangements by the University for work in the course of which the writing was done." - SUNY Board of Trustees Regulations Title J - Patents, Inventions, and Copyright Policy
When you want to give your learners access to an article that is available through the library, you should always link to it using a PURL or permalink. You should not upload the PDF.
Uploading the PDF constitutes making a copy, so copyright comes into play. The TEACH act does not apply to text materials in online courses, so unless you have a license, you will need to follow the Fair Use rules. Uploading significant portions of a book or multiple articles from a journal would not be Fair Use. There are no such limitations on linking.
It's a good idea to have your students test that their login works with library databases early in the course, before they actually have an assignment riding on it. Students who are newly enrolled or newly re-enrolled sometimes have to get ITS to adjust their settings so that they have library access.
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