Office of General Counsel

Publications, Videos, Web Tutorials

Author Resources

Keep Your Copyrights: A Resource for Creators
KeepYourCopyrights.org was developed by the Kernochan Center for Law, Media, and the Arts and the Program on Law & Technology at Columbia Law School.

Digitization Guidelines

Legal Issues in Mass Digitization: Copyright Office 97 page preliminary report, October 2011.

ARL Resource Packet on Orphan Works, Sept. 2011

This was produced by Prudence Adler, Jonathan Band, and Brandon Butler, to analyze the copyright issues related to Orphan Works, specifically those presented by digitization and sharing of the works by the HathiTrust, which is a partnership of major research universities and libraries. The Hathitrust, along with the University of Michigan, Indiana University, the University of California and Cornell University have been sued by the Authors Guild and several authors groups for copyright infringement.

Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for Digitization for US Libraries, Archives and Museums
by Peter Hirtle, Emily Hudson, and Andrew T. Kenyon published by Cornell University Library October 2009. Click here for details on how to purchase print copies. This document can also be downloaded by clicking the hyperlink above.

Fair Use in General

Visual Resources Association Statement on The Fair Use of Images For Teaching, Research and Study, December 2011
This document addresses six situations that fall within the fair use guidelines when using images for teaching research and study. See the Executive Summary for a succinct statement of the 6 uses. Note that this document restates and emphasizes the use of images in dissertations as a fair use right that is inherently transformative and as something that frequently benefits the creator of the image. Suggestions for how best to assert fair use are included for all six uses set forth, including publication of disserations with images in digital repositories without having to seek copyright permission.

Copyright on Campus: A brief video tutorial on Copyright Basics for Faculty, created by the Copyright Clearance Center

Code of Best Practices In Fair Use for Poetry, January 2011, American University Center for Social Media

Copying Right and Copying Wrong with Web 2.0, Tools in Teacher Education and Communications Classrooms

Streaming of Films for Educational Purposes: Issue Brief on discussion of permissibility of streaming under 107, 110(2) or 110(1) of the Copyright Act. Posted by Library Copyright Alliance, ALA, ARL and ACRL. Feb. 2010.

Know your Copyrights: Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Web Page on using copyrighted works in the academic setting. This is a great new resource that features questions and answers, a brochure for faculty and teaching assistants, and a section on planning campus outreach. The brochure can be purchased in print form from the ARL, but can also be accessed on the web site, and may be customized for use on your own campus pursuant to a Creative Commons license. See especially, the What you Can Do Chart.

The Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education: Published by American University's Center for Social Media: A new guide to fair use, issued in November 2008. The guide offers free advice to professors who wish to incorporate moving image media; sound media, images, web sites and all other types of media into their lecutures. This guide identifies five principles that represent the media literacy education community's current consensus about acceptable practices for the fair use of copyrighted materials. The guide was created with the assistance of more than 150 educators, and reviewed by a panel of lawyers who are experts in fair use.

Citizen 3.0 Copyright, Creativity and Contemporary Culture
This series of short videos explores the relationship between media, technology, culture and democracy through the lens of copyright law.

Recut, Reframe, Recycle: by the Center for Social Media at American University
A study by Center director Pat Aufderheide and Peter Jaszi, co-director of the law school's Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property, shows that many uses of copyrighted material in today's online videos are eligible for fair use consideration. The study points to a wide variety of practices-satire, parody, negative and positive commentary, discussion-triggers, illustration, diaries, archiving and of course, pastiche or collage (remixes and mashups)-all of which could be legal in some circumstances.

The Cost of Copyright Confusion for Media Literacy: A September 2007 report by the American University Center for Social Media. Based upon interviews with 60 media literacy educators, the report shows that lack of knowledge by educators about copyright law and fair use translates to less effective teaching techniques and failure to take advantage of new digital platforms.

Documentary Film Makers Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use: Includes general principles to guide film makers as they assess risk and decide what uses might qualify as a fair use.

Fine Art Images 

Q and A on Publishing Works of Art

Copyrights and other Rights in Photographic Images by Jeremy Rowe, 2002, Arizona State University.

Google Book Project

NACUANOTES: April 17, 2009 The Google Settlement and Higher Education: Imminent Deadlines
Excellent Memo by Jonathan Band on the implications for Higher Education Institutions.

The Google Library Project: Is Digitization For Purposes of Online Indexing Fair Use Under Copyright Law? By Kate Manuel, Legislative Attorney, Congressional Research Service, Dated May 14, 2009.

Google This (posted October 5, 2005)
A legal analysis of the Google Print Library Project by Georgia Harper of the U.Texas System in which she discusses the state of the fair use doctrine.

Legislative Change Issues

The Digital Learning Challenge: Obstacles to Educational uses of Copyrighted Material in the Digital Age

By William W. Fisher and William McGeveran, of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School. This paper looks at the ways in which innovative use of technology is hampered by copyright restrictions and digital rights management technology.

Library Copyright Issues

August 2010 Council on Library and Information Resources and Library of Congress: The State of Recorded Sound Preservation in the United States: A National Legacy at Risk in the Digital Age

March 2008 Section 108 Study Group Report: An Independent Report sponsored by the United States Copyright Office and the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program of the Library of Congress. Findings include suggestion that Section 108 of copyright law be revised to allow libraries and archives to capture and duplicate online material (if not password protected) for scholars and researchers, and extending the 108 exceptions to museums.

Peer to Peer File Sharing

NACUANOTES: July 22, 2010 Peer to Peer File Sharing Requirements of the HEOA

 BAYU: Be Aware You're Uploading: Using-Peer to-Peer File Sharing Safely and Appropriately: Designed by the University of Michigan with Jack Bernard of the UM OGC. This program is available to other schools as open source software. BAYU (Be Aware You're Uploading) is a service designed by the University of Michigan to notify users of university networks that they might be uploading. BAYU is an automated system that notices when computers on selected university networks appear to be uploading files using peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing technology. BAYU then notifies the person whose computer was being used to upload the material.

What is Wrong with Ripping?

A short video to be used for educating students about copyright law and downloading music off the Internet.The video was produced for CUA by Whatbox Productions. Copyright permission to use the song What Happened by Sublime was received for use in this context.

RIAA Campus Downloading:
August 2006:A video created by RIAA to educate students on the consequences of illegal downloading of music.

Public Domain

Cory Doctorow on the Creative Commons: A November 2007 article from Locus Magazine that summarizes why and how to use the Creative Commons.

Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States Copyright duration chart.

 

Teach Act

NC State TEACH Toolkit This site is intended to assist in implementation of the many aspects and requirements of the Technology, Education, and Copyright Harmonization Act (TEACH) Act of 2002. This online resource for understanding Copyright Law & Distance Education is a joint project of North Carolina State University Libraries, Office of Legal Affairs, DELTA, and ITD.

 Tutorials and Other Training Materials

Web Stewardship/Web Responsiblities: Memo on Web 2.0 issues and copyright, privacy, FERPA, blogging, etc. by Madelyn Wessel, Associate General Counsel at University of Virginia.

Copyright 101 Tutorial Brigham Young University
This comprehensive web page includes movies, modules, case studies and more. The topics are basic copyright, fair use, and scenarios that arise on campus.

 
Campus Copyright Rights and Responsibilities: A Basic Guide to Policy Considerations

This booklet was produced by a joint task force of the America Association of University Presses, The Association of America Publishers, the Association of American Universities, and the Association of Research Libraries. The booklet is intended to provide guidelines to colleges and universities who wish to create (or supplement an existing) policy for the creation, distribution, use and management of copyrighted works on campus.

Videos

updated  by mlo on 1-3-12 to include Executive Summary of VRA Guide on Fair use and to describe contents