This guide is intended to answer common questions about copyright in the classroom and for publication. If you have a question that is not answered here, please contact your subject librarian.
Disclaimer: This guide is for educational and informational purposes only. It does not reflect legal advice.
With the campus community adopting a HyFlex model for delivering instruction, it is best to follow the copyright guidelines for online instruction.
General rule of thumb: When in doubt, link out to the work rather than upload or embed the work in your CMS. Doing so will avoid the restrictions of the TEACH Act. If you are unsure how to do this with materials from the Libraries' databases, contact your subject librarian.
In 2002, in recognition of the increased role of distance education, copyright laws as they pertain to the educational setting were modified for the online environment through the TEACH Act.
Here is a short list of key allowances/restrictions of what you can share in an online class (synchronously or asynchronously) including streaming media:
NDSU Libraries has access to select streaming videos from Academic Video Online and Kanopy, which can be linked to from BlackBoard. If you are interested in streaming video content, please contact your subject librarian to discuss access options.
You can also link out to content on YouTube and Vimeo, however, not all content on these platforms is free of copyright restrictions. Please do your due diligence. For movies and documentaries, the cost of acquiring streaming subscriptions through the Libraries is usually around $300 per movie and may be cost prohibitive. You may consider requiring students to pay-per-view (usually $2-4) on services like Amazon Prime, Vudo, and others.
The following materials may NOT be uploaded to a course management system under the TEACH exception:
What CAN I upload to BlackBoard?
The TEACH Act allows using copyrighted materials for distance learning when:
However, there are strict limitations on student use of copyrighted materials in the online learning environment:
For more information, see the University of California’s Teach Act Details and the Copyright Clearance Center’s Brief Guide to the TEACH ACT.
Copyright includes a specific exemption for instructors and students to use legally acquired works in face-to-face classroom spaces for instructional, not entertainment, purposes. These works can include the printed word as well as images, music, and videos.
You can make multiple copies of the following for classroom use:
However, copies for the classroom:
‘Consumable’ works, such as workbooks, exercises, and test booklets are NOT covered under fair use guidelines for education.You need to seek permission from the copyright holder before making copies of them.
NDSU Policy Manual Section 340.1 stipulates that faculty should obtain copyright permission for any coursepack materials. Faculty can obtain permission directly from copyright holders or work with the NDSU Bookstore.
Special note about student work: Students' original work is covered by copyright and permissions must be sought for posting student work online, for publishing, and other purposes. Anonymized student work can be used for programmatic assessment.
Instructors can place both physical and electronic items on course reserve for educational and non-commercial use by students officially enrolled in their courses. Electronic reserves allow multiple simultaneous users and requires the use of a password to comply with copyright guidelines.
Please contact the circulation desk at 701-231-8888 with questions or review Course Reserve Information for Faculty.
Can I includes text/images/charts that I found online or in another publication in my disquisition?
Copyright law requires you to have the permission of the owner to reproduce content in your disquisition unless specific exemptions are met. You may use the content without specific permission if:
If your work does not meet one or both of these requirements you will need to request permission.
For more information, see Copyright and Your Dissertation or Thesis: Ownership, Fair Use, and Your Rights and Responsibilities
Can I include my own published articles (or excerpts of) in my disquisition?
Whether you are allowed to include a version of your papers will depend on the contract you signed with the publishers. Publisher contracts vary widely in the range of permissions they give their authors. See the Academic Publishing and Author's Rights guide for more information.
Permission will need to be requested from each publisher. To facilitate this, many publishers use a service from the Copyright Clearance Center. Many publishers include their permissions requirements on their websites. For items like measurement instruments, and charts that you may have seen at conferences etc...try emailing the researcher directly to request permission to re-use and publisher their content with attribution.
When publishing a journal article, conference paper, or book chapter you will typically need to obtain written permission from the copyright owner, usually the publisher. If the text or images come with a Creative Commons license, you will need to check the permissions associated with the type of license to determine how you may use it and how it needs to be cited.
Permission will need to be requested from each publisher. To facilitate this, many publishers use a service from the Copyright Clearance Center. Many publishers include their permissions requirements on their websites. For items like measurement instruments, and charts that you may have seen at conferences etc...try emailing the researcher directly to request permission to re-use and publisher their content with attribution.
Copyright law (17 U.S.C. [2016]) gives certain exclusive rights to the copyright holder of a creative work for a limited period of time. Copyright protects authors, publishers and producers, and the public. Copyright holders have the exclusive right to:
Copyright protects eight categories of works, regardless of format:
Copyright does NOT protect things like ideas, names, facts, public domain works, or works not fixed in a tangible medium of expression.
To use a copyrighted work, you must either seek permission from the copyright holder or utilize an exception, such as fair use (17 U.S.C. § 107 [2016]) or educational use (17 U.S.C. § 110 [2016]). To seek permission:
Failure to seek permission or an exception could expose you to claims of copyright infringement.
The Fair Use Doctrine (17 U.S.C. § 107 [2016]) allows others to reproduce copyrighted works in certain circumstances without seeking permission from the copyright holder. Circumstances may include teaching, research, and criticism. Determining fair use can be complicated.
Copyright law applies four factors to determine if use of a copyrighted work is ‘fair’:
Educational uses are NOT automatically ‘fair use’. For more information check out the American Library Association’s Fair Use Evaluator.
Public Domain Works
Anyone can use public domain works without seeking copyright permission. Works enter the public domain when the:
Unpublished Works
Copyright law protects works that are unpublished or not registered for copyright. At NDSU, the majority of materials held by the NDSU Archives and Germans from Russia Heritage Collection are unpublished works. Students, faculty, staff, and community members can use unpublished materials at the NDSU Archives and Germans from Russia Heritage Collection for research or personal use. It is the responsibility of the user to obtain permission from the copyright holder of an unpublished work or follow fair use guidelines for publication purposes.
The NDSU Libraries’ Interlibrary Loan Office adheres to the CONTU Guidelines for lawful use of copyrighted materials. These guidelines only pertain to copies of works made to share via interlibrary loan. These guidelines do NOT pertain to items like whole physical books and dvds. When requesting copies of articles, we cannot request more than:
When requesting copies of non-periodical items (like books), we cannot request more than:
The NDSU Libraries’ Interlibrary Loan staff will notify you if there is a copyright issue with your request, and will provide options to obtain the requested material. Please contact the NDSU Libraries’ Interlibrary Loan Office at 701-231-8885 if you have questions.
Disclaimer: This guide is for educational and informational purposes only. It does not reflect legal advice.
Copyright Tutorial by North Dakota State University Libraries is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.