LibGuides: Copyright and Plagiarism: Copyright

Welcome

Understanding copyright issues is challenging and often confusing. This guide is intended to help you explore some of the many issues that may arise in the course of your work.

Note that this is a guide to copyright laws and issues generated by librarians at the Malone library. Information found in this guide is not intended to be legal advice.

Please call or email the library with any comments, suggestions, and questions.

330-471-8317
libraryservices@malone.edu

Determining copyright

U.S. Copyright Office
Digital Copyright Slider
Determine if the material is still copyright protected by moving arrow to date on online tool
Duration of Copyright Chart
Chart by Lolly Gasaway to determine when U.S. works pass into public domain
Information Circulars and Factsheets
Circulars and fact sheets that provide basic information about registration, fees, compulsory licenses, and other aspects of the copyright process.
Public Domain Chart
Chart first published by Peter B. Hirtle, includes Lolly Gasaway's chart and similar charts by Marie C. Malaro and Mary Minow

What is copyright

Copyright is a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States (Title 17, U.S. Code) to authors. The owner of copyright has the exclusive right to do and authorize the following:

To reproduce the work;
To prepare derivative works based upon the work;
To distribute copies of the work to the public by sale or transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending;
To prohibit other persons from using the work without permission;
To perform the work publicly.

Facts, ideas, procedures, processes, systems, concepts, principles or discoveries cannot be copyrighted. However, some of these can be protected by patent or trade secret laws.

Copyright protection currently lasts for the life of the author plus 70 years. If there is more than one author copyright protection lasts for the life of the last author's death plus 70 years. Copyright protection for materials created by a business may last for 95 years from publication.

Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17)
Complete version of the U.S. Copyright Law, October 2007, also known as Circular 92
Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) (H.R. 2281, 1998)
Signed into law by President Clinton on October 1998 in response to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO); deals with digital media not covered in Title 17 of the U.S. Code
Digital Millennium Copyright Act: U.S. Copyright Office Summary
Memorandum briefly summarizing each title of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
The Technology, Education, and Copyright Harmonization Act (TEACH Act) (S.487, 2001)
Expands the scope of educator's rights to use copyright protected materials for distance education

Print Resources

Books on copyright at the Malone library

Technology and copyright law : a guidebook for the library, research, and teaching professions by Arlene Bielefield and Lawrence Cheeseman.
Call Number: 346.7304 B47t2
ISBN: 1555705707
2nd edition
The public domain : how to find & use copyright-free writings, music, art & more by Stephen Fishman
Call Number: 346.7304 F53p3
ISBN: 9781413304541
3rd Edition

Bound By Law

The production and distribution of this book were made possible by support from the Rockefeller, MacArthur and Ford Foundations. It is a project of Duke's Center for the Study of the Public Domain, which focuses on the delicate balance between intellectual property and the public domain - the realm of material that is free to use without permission or payment. This book is available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license. CLICK ON IMAGE TO GAIN ACCESS AND READ OR DOWNLOAD A COPY.

Copyright in the Library

Copyright in the library is a set of short articles that explain each of the law's special privileges and the conditions under which libraries enjoy them.

Guide Images

Manyof the images used throughtout this guide were selected from Google images, unless noted otherwise.