Breadcrumb Navigation:
For Faculty
As a faculty member, you know that the quality of the courses you teach depends directly upon the quality of the content and the works you employ in those courses. Although you may be the original author of a good deal of your course material, it is very likely that you have also included the works of others, such as written materials, graphs, photographs, images, drawings, illustrations, music, sound recordings, and audiovisual works, including movies.
Can you use these works in your courses without having to obtain permission from the copyright holder?
That's the critical question and the answer is rarely easy or uncomplicated, because:
• Everything is automatically protected by copyright as soon as it is 'fixed' in a tangible medium;
• Publication, registration, and a copyright notice are not necessary for copyright to attach;
• An educational use does not automatically mean it is a fair use and permission is unnecessary; neither does password-protecting a site or giving proper attribution (though these are good ideas).
Distance education and digital technologies continue to dramatically expand options for delivering content. Copyright issues, questions concerning use, and potential for infringement and institutional risk expand along with those options. Providing reliable copyright educational resources and guidance is the only way to help faculty accomplish their teaching goals and manage institutional risk.
Copyright "use" questions and fair use analyses are quite fact dependent. While there are a number of sites delivering overviews of general copyright information (including in the tutorials section), the most valuable response is to obtain a review of your specific situation.
In the meantime, the good news is that there are many ways you can lawfully use copyrighted works in your teaching activities without having to obtain permission from the copyright holder. Indeed, it is the focus of the "Know Your Copy Rights" educational initiative from the Association of Research Libraries (ARL). This educational initiative offers a number of tools - in particular a very useful brochure "Know Your Copy Rights - What You CAN do" that you may wish to download.
For basic copyright information, see:
• UNC System Fair Use Checklist
• Using Copyrighted Works Tutorial
• UNC System Fair Use Checklist
• Using Copyrighted Works Tutorial including fair use
If you have a copyright question, please contact William Cross at william_cross@ncsu.edu.