Copyright Issues and Resources

What is copyright? 

In the United States, copyright law grants authors--or copyright owners--six exclusive rights over the use of their original creative works. This means that only the copyright owner may do the following with their work:

1. Copy the work.
2. Create derivative works (e.g. movies based on books).
3. Distribute their work via sale, lease, or lending.
4. Publicly perform their work.
5. Publicly display their work, or,
6. Digitally transmit their work if it's a sound recording. (17 U.S.C. §106).

For more information on copyright, please consult Stanford University Libraries' Copyright and Fair Use pages.

Guidance provided by the Mansfield Library should not be considered legal counsel.

Any original work, created by an author, fixed in a tangible medium of expression, is very likely to be protected by copyright. This includes books, articles, photographs, music, movies, sound and video recordings, websites, software, architecture, choreography, and even letters, doodles and graffiti. No copyright symbol ( © ) or statement is required to protect a work, and educational use doesn't automatically grant permission. Unless the proposed use of copyrighted materials falls into one of the exemptions described below, such use must have explicit and specific permission from the copyright holder.

The process for determining copyright ownership and use restrictions, as well as for seeking use permission, can take considerable time. UM instructors, staff and students desiring to use copyrighted materials should carefully determine intended use(s) of these materials and then undertake a copyright use and permission analysis as early as possible before such use proceeds.

Please remember that any use of copyrighted works is at user discretion subject to the restrictions and other considerations above. Guidance provided by the Mansfield Library, including the contents of this site, should not be considered legal advice.