Fair Use and Copyright

This guide is intended only to be used to gain general copyright and fair use knowledge. This guide, and the library in general, are not lawyers and are not able or qualified to give legal copyright advice (that's what copyright lawyers are for!). 

Copyright is a form of legal protection that provides authors of original creative works with limited control over the reproduction and distribution of their work. Under the current law, copyright protection is automatic and begins the moment any “original work of authorship is fixed in a tangible medium of expression. 

The Copyright Act gives copyright holders a set of exclusive rights to:

• reproduce their work, in whole or in part,
• distribute copies of their work,
• publicly perform their work,
• publicly display their work, and
• prepare derivative works based on the original, such as translations or adaptations.

These exclusive rights, however, are subject to exceptions and limitations, such as fair use, which allow limited uses of copyrighted works without the permission of the copyright holder.  Please visit the other sections of this Guide to learn more about fair use and other copyright issues.

What is protected?
Works that are original (not copies of others), display a minimum degree of creativity (unlike a simple A-Z list), and are recorded or "fixed in a tangible medium" (e.g. saved in a computer, painted on a canvas, written on a napkin in the cafeteria) are automatically protected under copyright.

Copyright is frequently associated with literary, pictorial, motion picture, and musical works. However, research papers, computer code, and some figures used in the STEM disciplines meet the criteria for copyright and are therefore protected.

What is not protected?
Facts, ideas, concepts, principles, or discoveries are not own-able under U.S. intellectual property law.  Processes, procedures, methods, and systems are not protected under copyright but may be protected under U.S. patent law. Works that are in the public domain which includes works by the U.S. government and works for which copyright has expired are not protected.