Resources

University Library Copyright Office - Informational Guides

©Guide | Teaching, Scholarship, Copyright, and Movies (PDF)

This ©Guide provides an overview of key parts of the US Copyright Act - including relevant limitations to a copyright holder’s rights – regarding copying of movies for teaching. These elements of the law interrelate, and several aspects are likely to apply simultaneously to the same situation.

©Guide| A Graduate Student's Guide to Copyright:Open Access, Fair Use and Permissions (PDF)

Jessie Mannisto (MLS candidate, U-M School of Information), Intern, Summer 2010.

©Guide| Using the Knowledge Navigation Center and the Digital Media Commons (PDF)

A handout of basic copyright considerations when using these Library facilities.

TEXTBOOKS IN AMERICA: A study of the increased scrutiny and debate surrounding the cost of college textbooks in America (PDF)

Kathryn Ann Vickers (MLS candidate, U-M School of Information), Intern, Winter 2010.

Notice for Unsupervised Copying Equipment (PDF)

US copyright law requires that libraries post notices on unsupervised copying equipment reminding patrons of copyright law and serious penalties for infringement.  The law also provides for fair use - our notice reminds our patrons of both their responsibilities and their rights. 

Campus Resources for the University of Michigan

Office of the General Counsel: For specific legal questions or concerns, contact the Office of the General Counsel.

Information Technology Services, Safe Computing, Digital Copyright Compliance: Important University policies and resources about complying with copyright law.

Technology Transfer Office: The U-M Tech Transfer handles transfer of University technology to the marketplace. Questions about patents, trademarks, and commercially exploitable copyrights should be directed to Tech Transfer.

University of Michigan Logo and Identity Guidelines: Information about the use of University of Michigan trademarks, including the "Block M."

Resources at Other Universities

Copyright Tutorials and Presentations: EDUCAUSE, a nonprofit association whose mission is to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology, has a collection of copyright tutorials and presentations written by EDUCAUSE and its members.

Stanford Copyright and Fair Use Center: The Stanford University Libraries offer a comprehensive site that includes links to the U.S. Constitution and copyright legislation, a detailed overview of fair use, and articles from prominent copyright scholars.

Stanford Copyright Renewal Database: This database searches Library of Congress copyright renewal records for books published from 1923 to 1963. If their copyrights were not renewed, many books published in that time period have since entered the public domain.

University of California Office of Scholarly Communication: The UC system's Office of Scholarly Communication offers extensive information on issues affecting academic authors. It includes an overview of the current trends in scholarly communication, a section on negotiating publishing agreements, an interesting database tracking the vital statistics of over 3,000 major journals.

Cornell University Copyright Information Center: Cornell's copyright website includes a handy chart to figure out when a work enters the public domain.

More about Copyright and Scholarly Communication

United States Copyright Office: This is the site where you can register your copyrights, renew copyrights, search copyright records, and learn more about copyright law. http://www.copyright.gov

NIH Public Access Policy: This website from the NIH explains the new Public Access Policy, tells researchers how to comply with the policy, and provides a detailed FAQ. http://publicaccess.nih.gov/

Create Change: This website is aimed at the academic community and explores scholarly communication issues in the digital realm. It was developed by the Association of Research Libraries and the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition. http://www.createchange.org/

SHERPA/RoMEO: The RoMEO project tracks the copyright permission policies of over 300 hundred academic journal publishers. You can use this site to identify publishers with good copyright policies, and to find a summary of permissions that are normally given as part of each publisher's copyright transfer agreement. http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo.php

Tales from the Public Domain: Bound by Law: This comic book from the Center for the Study of the Public Domain is an engaging and entertaining journey through the copyright-related obstacles that face the heroine, a documentary filmmaker named Akiko. You can read the book for free online. http://www.law.duke.edu/cspd/comics/

Report of the Ad Hoc Committee of the Society For Cinema Studies, "Fair Usage Publication of Film Stills"
Society for Cinema and Media Studies
http://www.cmstudies.org/

Documentary Filmmakers Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use
http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/fair-use

Reel Classics – commercial site listing contacts for licensing clips and stills
http://www.reelclassics.com/Buy/licensing.htm

Copyright Matters - Digitization and Public Access: A Library of Congress blog for information on plans and progress of the Copyright Digitization and Public Access project   http://blogs.loc.gov/copyrightdigitization/

Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Academic and Research Libraries, ARL (Association of Research Libraries: "The Code is a set of 8 high level principles that are a synthesis of behavioral norms based on reasonable, responsible decision-making by librarians nationwide." http://www.arl.org/pp/ppcopyright/codefairuse/index.shtml

Fair Use in the US Economy: Economic Contribution of Industries Relying on Fair Use, Prepared for the Computer & Communications Industry Association, 2010. http://www.ccianet.org/CCIA/files/ccLibraryFiles/Filename/000000000354/fair-use-study-final.pdf

Resources Providing Guidance on Academic Use of Images: An intensive listing of resources put together by the Visual Resources Association, Intellectual Property Rights Committee.  http://www.vraweb.org/organization/committees/ipr/ipr_resources.html. In particular please note the VRA statement on Fair Use http://www.vraweb.org/organization/pdf/VRAFairUseGuidelinesFinal.pdf and the Executive Statement http://www.vraweb.org/organization/pdf/VRA-Exec-Summary-Final.pdf which describe cases in which the VRA believes the use of images in research, teaching, and study fall under Fair Use.