Copyright
The majority of resources (e.g. books, journal articles, web sites, images, music, etc.) are owned by someone. As such, that resource is copyrighted, which gives the owner of the information legal rights over its use. Copyright is protected by federal law, which allows use of copyrighted material by others only under certain circumstances. If the intended use can be considered "fair use" under the copyright law, then the materials may be used without obtaining permission or paying royalties to the copyright holder.
Fair use is a special set of circumstances that permits someone to use portions of a resource without permission. Use this Fair Use Analysis to check to see if you can use a resource without permission. If your use of materials falls outside the acceptable limits, then you must ask the copyright owner for permission to use their work.
Educational uses that are generally acceptable include:
- Quoting a small amount from a creative work
- Incorporating portions of a video into a presentation as long as it is directly related to the curriculum.
Uses that are generally not acceptable include:
- Using or copying entire works
- Posting copyrighted material to web sites that do not have restricted access
For further information about copyright and fair use, check out the University Copyright Office web site at http://www.lib.purdue.edu/uco.