Summary

All members of the Centre College community who create or use original works have a responsibility to know and understand the following features of copyright law.

• Copyright protects original works and cannot apply to the following: facts, ideas, recipes, dedicated works, federal government works, expired works, concepts, principles, systems or methods of operation, or discoveries (not in tangible form or expression).
  
• Copyright gives authors the right to control the creation of not only copies but also derivative works, among other things.
  
• The term “public domain” refers to works no longer protected by copyright or not eligible for copyright protection.  Public domain works can be used freely.  (Is it Public Domain?)
  
• U.S. copyright law provides faculty with rights to use portions of copyrighted works in the classroom, but those rights do not necessary extend beyond the real or virtual classroom.
  
• U.S. copyright law gives libraries extra rights to make copies if they follow certain rules.

• The principle of fair use permits certain uses of copyrighted works without the permission of the copyright holder.

o   Some, but not all, educational uses qualify as fair use.

o   Four principles govern whether or not a use is fair:

1. the purpose and character of the use,
   
2. the nature of the work,
   
3. the amount used, and
   
4. the effect on the market for the work.

• It is the responsibility of anyone making or requesting copies (or derivatives) to verify that use is fair use.

• The first sale doctrine indicates that the owner of a physical copy of a work has particular rights, including the right to loan that physical copy to others.
• The 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) places additional restrictions on the copyright of resources in electronic format.
• The 2002 Technology, Education, and Copyright Harmonization (TEACH) Act restores some rights for the distribution of materials in electronic format for online education.  
• The principle of work for hire indicates that some copyrightable work belongs to the College that contracted the work, rather than to the author of the work.