General Resources
U.S. Copyright Office
Visit this site for information about copyright, for searching copyright records, and for other information pertaining to copyright law and policy.
U.S. Copyright Office Circulars & Factsheets
Go to this page for obtaining text or PDF versions of documents published by the agency. Topics include
Circular 21: Reproductions of Copyrighted Works by Educators and Librarians
Circular 22: How to Investigate the Copyright Status of a Work
Factsheet 102: Fair Use
Stanford University Libraries
Copyright & Fair Use
Stanford's comprehensive site provides information pertaining to Fair Use, Public Domain, Website Permissions, Academic and Educational Permissions, and more.
Coursepacks
Coursepacks generally consist of a compilation of materials put together for use in a particular class. Sometimes they are bound but are often just distributed as handouts. Visit this page to find out how coursepacks are affected by copyright and what steps you can take to obtain permissions for materials you use. The site also has a sample Coursepack Permission Request Form.
Know Your Copy Rights
What You Can Do
Visit this page for a free downloadable copyright brochure and chart by the Association of Research Libraries. These documents may be printed and distributed through a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License.
TEACH Act Toolkit (NC State University)
The Technology, Education and Copyright Harmonization Act was passed in 2002 and is designed to specifically address online learning situations. (This applies to Blackboard and other online learning tools.)
Creative Commons
If you are interested in licensing your own work in a way that provides more options that the standard copyright model, have a look at Creative Commons.
Creative Commons is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to making it easier for people to share and build upon the work of others, consistent with the rules of copyright.We provide free licenses and other legal tools to mark creative work with the freedom the creator wants it to carry, so others can share, remix, use commercially, or any combination thereof.
Science Commons is CC’s sister organization and seeks to “identify unnecessary barriers to research, craft policy guidelines and legal agreements to lower those barriers, and develop technology to make research, data and materials easier to find and use.”