Concerned about copyright issues? Uncertain about how you can use images in your instruction? Want to be sure you’re following the law and doing everything you can to support your patrons? Kevin Smith, Duke’s Director of Copyright and Scholarly Communication and William Cross, NCSU’s Director of the Copyright and Digital Scholarship Center, will lead a discussion about copyright basics, the rules of ownership, and best practices for academic use.

1. OWNING © AND USING
© WORKS
Kevin L. Smith, Duke University
William M. Cross, NC State University

2. Start with ownership.

3. How do you get ©?
• © is automatic
• No need for registration, renewal or even © symbol.
• © vests as soon as original expression is fixed in tangible form.
• Most be original, but standard is very low.
• Text, images, film, software, architecture, choreography & sculpture
all protected.
• Ideas, “useful” articles not protected by ©.

4. Who owns ©?
• It’s good to be an author:
• “Copyright… vests initially in the author or authors of the work”
• Able to transfer or license the rights

5. Joint ownership
• “The authors of a joint work are co-owners of © in the
work.”
• Co-owners have an equal & undivided share in the bundle of rights.
• Lots of opportunity for conflict!

6. Work made for hire
• If a work is “made for hire” the employer is considered the
author.
• Two ways:
• Created by a “regular employee.”
• Created by an independent contractor

7. What do you get?
• Six exclusive rights:
• Reproduction
• Distribution
• Public performance
• Public display
• Right to prepare derivative works
• Right to control digital transmission
of a sound recording.

8. About those rights
• It is a bundle
• Can be divided up to be sold or licensed
• Assignment v. license
• The rights are limited
• By time – copyright ends
• By scope – each right subject to exceptions
• All are subject to fair use.

9. Using ©
“If I have seen further it is by standing on the
shoulders of giants.”
- Robert Merton (1965)
and
- Isaac Newton (1676)
and
- Bernard of Chartres (1159)
and . . .

10. Specific Exceptions: Instruction
17 U.S.C. 110(1): not a violation of copyright . . .
Perform or display
A legal copy
“performance or display of a work by instructors or pupils in
the course of part of classroom*teaching activities of a nonprofit
As face-to-face instruction
educational institution, in a classroom or similar place
devoted to instruction . . . ”

11. Specific Exceptions: Library Copying
Copies for Users and ILL Preservation
Unpublished works
• In the library’s collection
• “Private study and
• For preservation or security
research”
Published works
• Becomes property of • “damaged, deteriorating,
users lost, or stolen or format is
obsolete”
• “reasonable investigation”
• Copyright notice and unused replacement not
available at a “fair price”

12. Fair Use
• A general exception to copyright monopoly
• “Fair use is for everybody”
• “An exception where the value you add to society
outweighs the harm done to the rightsholder.”

13. That Sounds Kind of Vague . . .
Four Factors
(not a checklist or vote)
1. What are you doing?
2. What are you using?
3. How much are you using?
4. Is your work a substitute for the original?

14. Purpose and Character
Educational For/Non-profit
• Does your use serve • Are you making money off
society, or just your own of someone else’s work?
interests?

15. Nature of the Original
Private or Public? Fact or Fiction?
Is it already widely- Can anybody see it (like a
available (like a newspaper tree)
article)
or
or
only the imagination of the
author (like Emily
locked away (like a diary) Dickenson’s “poem lovely
as a tree”)

16. Amount and Substantiality
• Less is better but . . .
• Not just how much but how much do you need for
your good purpose?
• Example: for a book review 1-2 sentences may do, but for
art critique you may need the entire image

17. A Substitute for the Original?
• “Market harm” but more about substitution
vs. new contribution
• Are you just free-riding or moving the
conversation forward?

18. Putting It All Together:
Transformative Use
• The trend in modern judicial analysis
• Synthesizes all four factors
• Does your use recontextualize and add value?
• Examples:
• commentary and critique as with parody
• Thumbnails to organize images and aid in finding

19. Example: E-Res @ GSU
Purpose and Character:
strongly favors nonprofit,
educational use
Nature of Original:
favors use of non-fiction
Amount & Substantiality:
favors use of 10%/one chapter
Market Harm:
favors user unless “readily
available” at a “reasonable” price in
a “convenient” format

20. Tools: Code of Best Practices

21. Questions
?

22. Coming December 5 at 2pm!
“Recent Developments in Library ©”
• New cases!
• New rules!
• More powerpoint!