Copyright at Denison

Check our our new copyright podcasts here: Copyright podcasts

We have put this website together to provide the Denison community with information, policies and procedures on copyright compliance.  This site is designed for instructional purposes and offers a variety of methods by which you can educate yourself about copyright law.  The information contained on this site is not meant as legal advice.  The content was prepared to inform those in the academic community about copyright.  If you are seeking legal or expert assistance, please seek the services of a competent legal professional.

We hope you find this site helpful and informative.  By working together, we can strive to insure that we all remain copyright compliant here at Denison.  For more information on course reserve policies, please see Reserves: Information and Guidelines. For additional information, visit Duke University's informative and "illustrative" comic on copyright & fair use or this video using Disney characters.

+ Copyright, Limitations, and Fair Use Guidelines
Copyright Notice:

The Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. Under certain conditions specified by law, libraries and archives are authorized to furnish a photocopy or other reproduction.

One of these specified conditions is that the photocopy or reproduction is not to be "used for any purpose other than private study, scholarship, or research." If a user makes a request for, or later uses, a photocopy or reproduction for purposes in excess of "fair use," that user may be liable for copyright infringement.

This institution reserves the right to refuse service if, in its judgment, providing that service would involve violation of copyright law. For further information, please go to the U.S. Copyright Office's Web Site.

General Limitations:
  1. Copying may not be used to create or to replace or substitute for anthologies, compilations or collective works, whether copies of various works or excerpts therefrom are accumulated or reproduced and used separately.
  2. There may be no copying of or from works intended to be "consumable" in the course of studying or teaching, such as workbooks and exercise books.
  3.  Copying may not substitute for the purchase of books, publishers' reprints, or periodicals.
  4.  Only an individual professor of a course (NOT a department head, dean, etc.) may direct copying.
  5. An individual professor may NOT repeatedly copy an item from term to term.
  6. No charge may be made beyond the actual cost of photocopying.
Fair Use Guidelines:

In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include:

  1. The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
  2. The nature of the copyrighted work;
  3. The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
  4. The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.


The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors.

Medium Individual Guidelines Classroom Guidelines
Books & Periodicals A single photocopy may be made of:
* A single chapter from a book;
* One article from a periodical, journal, or newspaper issue;
* One short story, short essay or short poem from a collective work; or
* One chart, graph, diagram, drawing, cartoon or picture from a periodical, journal, or newspaper issue. * Any copyright notice on the original must be included in the copy, along with source information.		 * A photocopy may be distributed to each student in a face-to-face classroom setting for the purposes of instruction, provided that the use is spontaneous (such as a recently reported finding) and meets the fair use criteria (Copyright, Limitations and Fair Use above).
* Any copyright notice on the original must be included in the copy, along with source information.
Video Recordings * Copying or converting video recordings is prohibited.
* May NOT be used for lectures/programs outside the classroom (public performance) unless appropriate rights are acquired. For library owned recordings, ask whether public performance rights were obtained with the video prior to scheduling an event.		 * May be used by faculty or students in a face-to-face classroom setting for teaching purposes including using clips of the works within your own work, provided that the original was legally obtained.
Musical Sound Recordings * Creating anthologies or compilations is prohibited. * A single copy MAY be made if the original recording (tape, disc, or cassette) is owned by the college or professor provided that the copy is used for the sole purpose of aural instruction, exercises, or examinations.
Non-Musical Sound Recordings * Recording brief excerpts is considered fair use. A replacement copy may be made within the library if all the following criteria are met:
1. The Library currently has the item in its collection;
2. The Library's copy is lost, damaged, deteriorating, stolen, or in a format that is obsolete;
3. A replacement recording from a commercial source cannot be obtained at a fair price.
Music Scores * Entire works may only be photocopied for performances, and only in emergency situations.
* Emergency copies must be replaced with purchased originals, if available.
* Performable units (arias, sections, movements, etc.) may only be photocopied if there is no item available for purchase.
* Any copyright notice on the original must be included in the copy, along with source information.		 * Same rules apply.
Incorporating Others' Works * May incorporate a small amount of the original and appropriately cite it to make a point. * Students, faculty, and staff may create unique works by incorporating others' works into a multimedia work, and may display or perform this work in connection with a class or instructional situation.
* Creators of these works should use only small amounts of others' work.
* Unique works may not be distributed by producing multiple copies or handouts.