Copyright laws
(title 17, U. S. Code) provide protection to the authors of “original works of authorship,” including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works. This protection is available to both published and unpublished works. For complete copyright information, see the United States Copyright Office's web page.
Under copyright law, if you don't own the copyright to a work, you cannot do the following without permission from the copyright holder:
• Reproduce copies of the work
• Create derivitave works based on the work
• Distribute copies of the work
• Perform the work publicly
• Display the work publicly
However, under certain circumstances, using parts of copyrighted works is considered "fair use," and is allowable under the law. Courts consider these four factors in determining whether or not a particular use is fair:
the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
the nature of the copyrighted work;
amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.
Click here for more information on fair use from the U.S. Copyright Office.
Educational uses of copyrighted works, such as class presentations, often fall into the "fair use" category. Find out more about what copyright means to you as a student in UCLA's tutorial on Intellectual Property.
Many authors, musicians, and other creators have begun using Creative Commons licenses, which allow others to use their work in certain ways without asking permission. For more information about Creative Commons, watch this flash movie.
Downloading Music
In this video, Kelly has just copied music from a friend’s collection. Her future self pays a visit and warns her about the legal consequences of copying music.
Video courtesy of the Penn State Copyright Perspectives site.
Plagiarism
When you use information in a paper or presentation for a class, you're following the "fair use" doctrine, and you don't need to get permission from the copyright holder. You do, however, need to properly cite the source for any text, images, or other media you use in a class project in order to avoid plagiarism.
Using someone else's thoughts or ideas as your own without properly giving credit is plagiarism. It is your responsibility to understand what plagiarism is and know how to avoid it. The following resources offer some information and guidance.
Plagiarism & You - University Libraries/Library Learning Services
This interactive tutorial will show you how to use information correctly without plagiarizing. You will learn how to recognize plagiarism, and how to tell the difference between plagiarism and appropriate use of information in research papers.
Citation Styles These citation guides for APA, MLA, Chicago, and other styles will help you correctly cite your sources.
Remix Media
In this video, Ryan gets a visit from his future self and they talk about options for adding music to a class project. Video courtesy of the Penn State Copyright Perspectives site.
Plagiarism
In this video, Jason is reading over a draft of a paper he’s writing. He is visited by a future version of himself, who recognizes part of the paper as being directly copied from another student’s project. Video courtesy of the Penn State Copyright Perspectives site.
Click the Research Log to record
your notes about citing your sources.
