Copyright Guidelines
Before reproducing any material, you should be aware of the Copyright Law - and should be certain that you have permission of the copyright holders for its use. Copyright is a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States (title 17, U.S. Code) to the authors of "original works of authorship" including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works. This protection is available to both published and unpublished works.
The way in which copyright protection is secured under the present law is frequently misunderstood. Copyright is secured automatically upon creation. No publication or registration or other action in the U.S. Copyright Office is required to secure copyright.
Below, we've summarized a few key points regarding copyright law. A detailed discussion of copyright law can be found on the United States Copyright Office web site.
BASIS FOR COPYRIGHT LAW
"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. Constitution, Article I, Section 8)
WHO CAN CLAIM COPYRIGHT
Copyright protection subsists from the time the work is created in fixed form; that is, it is an incident of the process of authorship. The copyright in the work of authorship immediately becomes the property of the author who created it. Only the author or those deriving their rights through the author can rightfully claim copyright.
In the case of works made for hire, the employer and not the employee is considered to be the author. Section 101 of the copyright statute defines a "work made for hire" as:
(1) a work prepared by an employee within the scope of his or her employment; or
(2) a work specially ordered or commissioned for use as a contribution to a collective work, as a part of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, as a translation, as a supplementary work, as a compilation, as an instructional text, as a test, as answer material for a test, or as an atlas, if the parties expressly agree in a written instrument signed by them that the work shall be considered a work made for hire....
The authors of a joint work are co-owners of the copyright in the work, unless there is an agreement to the contrary.
Copyright in each separate contribution to a periodical or other collective work is distinct from copyright in the collective work as a whole and vests initially with the author of the contribution.
HOW LONG COPYRIGHT PROTECTION ENDURES
A work that is created (fixed in tangible form for the first time) on or after January 1, 1978, is automatically protected from the moment of its creation, and is ordinarily given a term enduring for the author's life, plus an additional 50 years after the author's death. In the case of "a joint work prepared by two or more authors who did not work for hire," the term lasts for 50 years after the last surviving author's death. For works made for hire, and for anonymous and pseudonymous works (unless the author's identity is revealed in Copyright Office records), the duration of copyright will be 75 years from publication or 100 years from creation, whichever is shorter.
CONDITION UNDER WHICH NO COPYRIGHT APPROVAL IS REQUIRED
The Copyright Law is very stringent about the need to have the approval of copyright owners before reproducing their work. However, there are a few exceptions where copyright permission is not required.
Government Documents
If you are copying from a US Government document, then copies can be freely made. However, if the work is funded by the Government but is independently published, then it could be copyright protected.
Copyright Holder's Permission
If you have written permission from the copyright holder, then copies can be made under the conditions stated in their letter.
You Are The Author
If you created it, and if you retained the right of copyright holder, then you can freely reproduce your own work even if it is published in a book or journal.
Special Conditions
You can usually make a few, limited copies of a work if you meet ALL of the following conditions:
- You spontaneously decide to copy something on the spur-of-the-moment.
- You are using only a very tiny portion of a book or journal, which is usually less than 2,500 words (about 5 pages).
- The copied material is for one-time use.
- No more than one item is copied from the same author.
- The original copyright notice appears on all copies of the work.
- You cannot charge anyone for the material more than the cost of copying.
Fair Use Copy
The Copyright Act of 1976 provides a condition called "Fair Use," which sometimes allows an individual to make a single copy of a copyrighted work for personal use. However, "Fair Use" means that you are limited to, for intance, one chapter from a book; one article from a periodical; one short story, essay or poem from a collection; a single graph, chart, diagram, drawing, cartoon or picture from a book, periodical or newspaper.
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