Understanding Copyright and Fair Use: Home

We throw around the term "copyright" a lot, but what does it really mean?  Copyright impacts both your schoolwork as well as your regular life--reading, downloading, reusing, and sharing information of all kinds.

What is Copyright?

Copyright is the law that gives the owner of a work the exclusive legal right to reproduce, publish, sell, distribute, or perform the work.  It protects original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression. For example, written work, music, images, pieces of art, films, and plays can all be copyrighted.  On the other hand, a conversation between two people cannot be copyrighted because the medium is neither fixed nor tangible.  You would not be able to copyright your conversation with your roommate unless you recorded it.

Does copyright affect my life?

Almost certainly yes!  Most people read news articles or books, watch movies and TV shows, listen to music, borrow a book from the library, play games, or view or share pictures on social media.  They create their own content -- take a picture, write a paper, work on a group presentation, make a video for work, write a short story.  They may even reuse or remix an existing piece of work, such as a song or a piece of art.  All of those things are copyrighted, and what you're allowed to do with them is where copyright law comes in.

So copyright means that no one can reuse a work, ever?

Not necessarily.  Currently, in the United States, copyright covers the life of the author plus 70 years.  After that, the work passes into the public domain, meaning that people can reuse, reprint, and remix the work without needing to get permission.  Have you ever wondered why you can find so many different versions of classic books, like Great Expectations or Jane Eyre?  That's because those authors have been dead for more than 70 years, so any publishing house can take the text of Great Expectations and publish a new version of it.

Does copyright affect my schoolwork?

Absolutely!  Because the author of a work holds the exclusive right to it, you can't reuse, reprint, or sell someone else's entire work without permission.  However, you can use small parts as sources in your schoolwork, as long as you cite them properly.

My professor showed part of a Disney movie in class and we discussed it.  Is he in trouble?

Probably not.  Copyright law includes a unique exception, called fair use.  Under the fair use doctrine, part of a work can be reproduced, shown, shared, and distributed for certain uses without breaking the law.  If your professor got sued by the copyright holder, the court would consider four things, called statutory factors:

1. The purpose and character of the proposed use
2. The nature of the work being used
3. The amount of the work being used
4. The effect of the use upon the market for the copyrighted work

In this case:

1. Use of a copyrighted work for educational purposes is generally permitted, as long as it is used ethically (properly cited, not uploaded to the college website for anyone to watch, etc.).
2. The movie was shown in class as part of an academic discussion.
3. Only part of the movie was shown, not the whole thing.
4. Watching a movie in a college class is completely different from going to the movie theater and seeing it for entertainment.  Disney is unlikely to have lost any revenue from your professor showing part of the movie in class.  (If he were showing the whole movie to a classroom of first-graders, it might be different.)

For more details, check out our Copyright Guide for Students or view this explanation of copyright and fair use from Purdue University.



What if I want to reuse a work and it's not for school?

You can always contact the copyright holder to ask for their permission to reuse their work.  Explain what you're planning to do, which work you're interested in, and how much of the work you want to use.  The copyright holder may ask questions, such as the content of your project or its philosophical or political stance.  (A vegan songwriter, for example, may decide not to grant permission for her work to be used in a commercial for fur coats.)  They may allow you to use the work, but only a small part of it.  They will almost always ask to be credited as the author of the original work.

For material that you find online, such as photos and videos, you can usually contact the copyright holder electronically.  Check to see if the person who posted it online is also the creator, and if they have an account, email address, etc.  For published works such as books and films, you can try to reach the creator through the company that produced the item.

So I have to ask every single person whose work I want to use?

Not necessarily!  Many creators choose to publish their work under a Creative Commons license.  These licenses allow consumers and students to do some things with the work without having to contact the creator.  It's a plus for both parties -- you, because you don't have to contact the creator individually; and the creator, because s/he doesn't have to respond to a bunch of individual emails all asking the same question.

There are seven Creative Commons licenses, and each allows you to do different things with the work if you fulfill certain requirements.  In order from least to most restrictive, they are:

For more explanation, watch this video from the University of Guelph McLaughlin Library: