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Copyright & Fair Use

The preamble for U.S. copyright law states the goal of copyright to  "promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries." U.S. Const., art. I, § 8, cl. 8.

With some exceptions, copyright protection applies to "original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression" (17 U.S. Code §102a). Note the words "original" and "fixed" - it needs to be both things. For example, if you have an original idea for a poem but have not expressed it in a tangible medium, that poem is not protected by copyright.   

Section 106 of the 1976 Copyright Act gives the owner of the copyright the exclusive right to do and authorize others to

  • reproduce the work in copies or phonorecords
  • prepare derivative works based upon the work
  • distribute copies or phonorecords of the work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending
  • perform the work publicly, in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and motion pictures and other audiovisual works
  • display the work publicly, in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and pictorial, graphic, or sculptural works, including the individual images of a motion picture or other audiovisual work
  • perform the work publicly (in the case of sound recordings*) by means of a digital audio transmission 

This list is from Copyright Basics (2012) available at: https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ01.pdf 

This work, "Copyright & Fair Use", is a derivative of "Copyright at the University of San Francisco" by Charlotte Roh licensed under CC-BY. "Copyright at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology", is licensed under CC-BY, by David Sibley.

Using Copyrighted Works in the Classroom

You may have questions about what can be used in the classroom. If you are unsure, there are four factors to consider when you try to determine whether you are using copyrighted works appropriately.

Fair Use is addressed in US Copyright: 17 U.S. Code 107 - Limitations on Exclusive Rights: Fair Use

There are many tools available to help you as you decide whether or not to use specific materials in your face-to-face class or online using a tool such as ScholarRX.

All four factors need to be addressed when making a decision, you cannot pick and choose which one to use:

  1. The purpose and character of the used, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes (note: OCOM is not a nonprofit educational institution);
  2. The nature of the copyrighted work;
  3. The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and,
  4. The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

If a resource is under copyright law, then you should check to see how it is licensed. When something is licensed, we are contracted to use (not own) it, whether through a Creative Commons license or through library subscriptions. If you accessed the resource through the library, you can check with our librarian to make sure you understand the licensing terms.

If there are no licensing terms but it is under copyright protections, you can also check to see if your use of the work falls under fair use. We recommend that you use the ALA Fair Use Checklist tool.

If you don't think your use is fair, then you might need to ask permission. But please note that linking is legal in the United States, and you don't need to ask permission! 

Finally...   

Don't panic! You should know that copyright law supports education, and the library is here to support you. There are, in fact, not just one, not two, but three pieces of legislation that educators depend on to do things like show videos in a class, hand out copies of articles to students, and use screenshots of websites in order to teach a point.

Please refer to Creative Commons and Tools You Can Use below to help navigate copyright.

Know Your Copy Rights

Tools to Help Understand Copyright & Fair Use

Fair Use Evaluator

This tool is designed to help you better understand how to determine the "fairness" of a use under the U.S. Copyright Code. The tool will help you collect, organize & archive the information you might need to support a fair use evaluation by providing you with a time-stamped, PDF document for your records, which could prove valuable, should you ever be asked by a copyright holder to provide your fair use evaluation and the data you used to support it.

Exceptions for Instructors eTool

The U.S. Copyright Code provides for the educational use of copyrighted material without the permission of the copyright holder under certain conditions. Use this free online tool to find out if your intended use meets the requirements set out in the law. This tool can also help you collect information detailing your educational use and provide you with a summary in PDF format.

The Copyright Genie

OK, so the Copyright Genie can't grant copyright wishes, but it can take the magic out of copyright by:

  • Helping you find out if a work is covered by U.S. copyright;
  • Calculating its terms of protection; and,
  • Collecting and publishing the results (as a PDF) to save for your records or further vet with a copyright specialist

Public Domain Slider

Not sure if something is in the Public Domain? This handy tool helps understand when a work qualifies and if you need to worry about violating copyright.

Section 108 Spinner

Section 108 of the U.S. Copyright Code allows libraries and archives, under certain circumstances, to make reproductions of copyrighted materials without the permission of the copyright holder. This simple tool can

  • Help you determine if your reproduction is covered by Section 108; and,
  • Collect information to support your use of the exception.

Creative Commons Licensing & Open Education

Creative Commons

What is a license?

A license is official permission for authorized use. For example, you may have a license to play music from iTunes, or to stream movies from Netflix. Similarly, you can have a license to read articles from library databases. This doesn't mean that you own the movies from Netflix or the articles from the library. It means you have a license to use these works.

What is Creative Commons licensing?

Creative Commons is an organization that has created a set of international licenses that allow creators to give permission to people to use their work. Here's a guide to the Creative Commons licenses and symbols.

 

Creative Commons Creative Commons (CC): This is the basic symbol that says you are using a Creatives Commons license, and you can use the work without asking for permission. 

Attribution Attribution (BY): This symbol means the owner wants to be attributed, or credited, for the original work.

No Derivatives No Derivatives (ND): This symbol means you cannot change the work in any way. No derivatives allowed.

Non Commercial Non-Commercial (NC): This symbol means that you cannot use the work for commercial purposes. If you'd like to use the work for commercial purposes, you must ask the owner for permission.

Share Alike Share Alike (SA): This symbol means that, if you share the work, you must do so under the same terms as the original license. For example, if I use a work that has a CC-BY-NC license, I might be able to make derivative works, but I must share my version under a CC-BY-NC license as well.

You can find CC-licensed materials, plug into the open access community, and choose CC licenses for your own works at: https://creativecommons.org/. 

 

Open Education

The open education movement uses open and freely available educational materials, known as open educational resources (OERs) in order to alleviate the high cost of textbooks.

Open education resources operate on a 5R permissions framework that goes beyond being able to simply read items to:

  • Retain
  • Reuse
  • Revise
  • Remix
  • Redistribute 

This is often accomplished using Creative Commons licenses, which you might have seen on photos, videos, and articles available online.

Plagiarism is "an act or instance of using or closely imitating the language and thoughts of another author without authorization and the representation of that author's work as one's own, as by not crediting the original author." (Dictionary.com)

The Orlando College of Osteopathic Medicine's Professionalism Policy & Procedure, lists plagiarism as a violation of our Code of Professional Conduct.

How is plagiarism different from copyright violation?

The difference is cultural ethical practice versus law. In U.S. copyright law, it does not matter if you cite the original author/creator. Plagiarism involves, not just copying other people's work, but not giving them appropriate credit.

In short, it is not Western academic practice to copy other people's work without giving them credit. You can use other people's work, but you should quote and cite appropriately in order to be behaving, not just within accordance with the OCOM Code of Professional Conduct, but the ethical practices of the Western world.

On the other hand, if someone, for example, prints 30 copies of the current bestseller and sell them for $1 each because they're a huge fan of the author?? Well, that's not plagiarism, because the author is clear. That's copyright violation! 

Need more concrete examples on how to determine whether you are plagiarizing or not? Harvard has some great examples under "What Constitutes Plagiarism?" 

Code of Professional Conduct

It is not possible to enumerate all forms of inappropriate behavior. The following, however, are examples of behavior that could constitute a violation of Orlando College of Osteopathic Medicine (OCOM) policy. Accordingly, OCOM has established the following Code of Professional Conduct, indicating behavior that is subject to disciplinary action:

  1. Dishonesty

  2. Abusive behavior and harassment

  3. Disruptive behavior

  4. Behaviors that are illegal

  5. Failure to disclose arrests or unlawful conduct within 48 hours

  6. Willful patient harm or neglect

  7. Violation of confidentiality

  8. Disrespectful behavior

  9. Malfeasance 

  10. Racism

  11. Gender discrimination

  12. Complacency with unprofessional behavior

  13. Reporting to school or duty under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs

  14. Trespassing

  15. Stealing

  16. Inappropriate sexual behaviors

  17. Sexual harassment

What are your rights? Copyright for academic authors and creators.

​In the "What is copyright?" section, there is a brief explanation of

  1. What is copyrightable; and,
  2. What are the rights for each copyright owner.

You'll note that there's actually a long list of rights. The word "copyright" is misleading because it implies one right. In fact you own many rights - not just to copy or sell, but also to make derivatives, such as translations. This is how novelists can sell their movie rights; they are selling the right to a derivative work (the movie) independent of the sale of their novel (the original work). 

Traditionally, academic journals and book publishers ask authors to sign away all their rights when they publish. This is called a copyright transfer or an exclusive license. Recently there has been push back against this practice, since digital rights now mean that books are never "out of print" and therefore rights never revert back to the author. Tools that authors can use include: