Library Guides: Copyright Resources at WIU: Copyright Basics

WIU Policy Links

Quick links to WIU policies on copyright and intellectual property rights.

Policy on WIU Computer Use
Responsibilities, rights and restrictions for the use of campus computers including copyright restrictions.
Intellectual Property Policy (Approved June 5, 2009)
This policy applies to all employees of WIU and describes the copyrights and intellectual property rights employees have over their own materials.
Policy on University-Sponsored Educational Materials
This policy supplements the copyright policy contained in Section II.A.17. of the Regulations and Bylaws of the Board of Trustees.
Copyright Guidelines For Reserve
This article has been prepared by library staff to provide faculty with basic information about copyright compliance regarding the use of copies for traditional reserve and ERes, the electronic reserve module.

Questions?

Ultimately, instructors are responsible for obtaining permission to use materials in the classroom.

Please contact the following if you have questions concerning:

E-Reserves or Reserve Materials:

Access Services, Malpass Library (309-298-2759)

Copyright Questions:

Michael Lorenzen (mg-lorenzen @ wiu.edu)

Intellectual Property:

Shannon Sutton (309-298-1191)

Copyright Basics

As students and educators, you are probably faced with questions about how you can legally and ethically use materials created by others in your teaching and coursework. Copyright law is designed to protect the rights of original authors and creators. However, the law was also established to allow for the continued flow of news, information, criticism and education. But making sense of what you CAN and what you CAN'T do can be a challenge. In what cases can you fairly use copyrighted materials? In what cases must you ask for permission?

This guide is designed as a collection of resources to make it easier to answer these questions.

What is copyright?

According to the U.S. Copyright Office, "...copyright is a form of protection provided by the laws of the Unites States to the authors of original works of authorship, including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works." The protection is available to published and unpublished works. Copyright gives the owner the right to make copies, prepare derivatives, record and distribute, and perform or display the works in public.

The following resources provide additional information on copyright and who can claim copyright over original works:

Copyright Basics (PDF)
A circular from the U.S. Copyright Office that puts copyright into layman's terms.
Questions and Answers on Copyright for the Campus Community (PDF)
A primer on copyright as it applies to colleges and universities put together by university press organizations.
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This material has been reprinted from Questions and Answers on Copyright for the
Campus Community, Copyright ©2006, Association of American Publishers Inc., Association
of American University Presses, Copyright Clearance Center Inc., National Association of
College Stores Inc., and the Software & Information Industry Association
Teaching Higher Education Faculty about the TEACH Act: Using Federal Copyright Law to Design Online Courses
The TEACH Act of 2002 was passed into American Federal law to give educators guidance for the use of copyrighted material in online courses. It gives broad leeway to a variety of uses and protects educators from copyright holders who do not want their work used without compensation even if the work is clearly allowed under previous provision of copyright exemption under fair use. This paper will examine the literature surrounding the topic of teaching copyright in higher education to faculty. It will also look at how this topic (in particular the TEACH Act of 2002) was taught to faculty at Western Illinois University and also cover some of the material that was highlighted in the workshop curriculum.

What constitutes a copy?

Copying is the act of creating a physical copy, digital copy or "phonorecord" of the original work. The following are examples of a copy:

A photocopy of a printed work.
A scan of a printed work or image.
Multiple printouts of an online article.
A video recording of a broadcast television show.
A song burned to a CD.
A duplicate or backup of a software program burned to a CD/DVD.
An image or document saved from the Internet and placed on a jump drive.

Is linking to an image or public website the same as copying? In most cases, no. Linking to an online document, image or web page is merely leading the viewer to the available resource. While you should still cite and attribue the owner of the website, it is usually not required to ask permission to link to a publicly available website.

Linking to resources housed in paid subscription databases, however, are governed by the license agreements with the paid service. Questions related to linking to these types of online resources should be addressed to University Libraries.

For additional resources, see the following:

The Unsettled, Unsettling Concept of "Copy"
An October, 2005 entry in the Patry Copyright Blog tackling the definition of what constitutes a "copy" in today's digital age.