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Copyright Law

Instructional Use

File Sharing

Research/Publishing

Student Use

Conditions of Use

Classroom Use

Multiple photocopies for classroom use may be made by or for the teacher for classroom use or discussion provided the copying is brief and spontaneous. These copies can be distributed to students in a class without the publisher's prior permission, under the following conditions:

  • the distribution of the same photocopied material does not occur every semester;
  • only one copy is distributed for each student which must become the student's property;
  • the material includes a copyright notice on the first page of the portion of material photocopied;
  • the students are not assessed any fee beyond the actual cost of the photocopying.

Online Instruction and Blackboard use

You should perform a fair use analysis when deciding whether to post materials to Blackboard without permission. There is no specific number of chapters, paragraphs, or lines that is certainly fair (or unfair), nor are there specific percentages. Copying a single chapter from a book may be fine, while copying the entire book most likely is not. Consider the four factors for fair use and try to determine objectively whether your use is fair.

A useful and legal alternative is to link directly to an Internet resource. If you want to use an article that is available in one of the Library’s electronic databases for instructional purposes, we recommend creating a persistent link and inserting the link into Blackboard.

Note regarding use of the Library’s electronic resources: The majority of the Library’s databases contain materials that are licensed for specific uses and/or users. If you are unable to create a persistent link as suggested above and you wish to use an electronic resource in your course please contact:

Carl Merat
Dean, ILRC
434.592.7062

Also see Multimedia Use and the TEACH Act for information on using other forms of media in your courses.

Resources

Crash Course in Copyright, University of Texas System.

Copyright Primer, University of Maryland University College.

Know Your Copy Rights, Association of Research Libraries.