Traversing copyright waters is tricky. If you’re on the run, these quick facts can help.
Fair Use
How you use a work often determines whether or not you are committing copyright infringement. Consult the Copyright Reference LibGuide to learn more about fair use.
Public Domain
Double check the copyright term of the work you are using. Learn about what works are in the public domain using the Copyright LibGuide.
I Want To…
- …create a coursepack: Depending on the amount of a work you are including in a coursepack, you could be violating copyright. For example, including an entire book is violating copyright, but in some instances a single chapter may fall under fair use. The Course Materials and Copyright for Professors guide is a good place to start if you are looking to incorporate material into a course but are unsure of its copyright. For additional help with coursepacks, please contact Ketty Duvall at the University Bookstore at kaduvall@illinois.edu.
- …use an image in my presentation: If the image is protected, you may be infringing if used without permission. If the image doesn’t have a rights section that explicitly says that reuse is okay, you will likely need permission, unless your use would be considered fair use or fit another exception to copyright. Try searching for images through the Creative Commons. Rights holders may license their images allowing reuse of their images for any purpose or certain specified purposes using a creative commons license (see below).
Creative Commons
What do all those symbols mean, and what’s Creative Commons?
Attribution: The creator wants credit for the work. Make it clear who the original creator was and where the work came from.
ShareAlike: Remixing and tweaking are allowed, so long as original is credited and same licensing applies to new version.
No derivatives: Allows for redistribution, commercial or non-commercial, so long as the original work is unchanged.
Non-Commercial: Remixing, redistribution, etc, all allowed, but not for commercial use.
Any and all combinations are possible, so something that looks like 
(Attribution, Non-Commercial, No derivatives) means the creator wants attribution, only non-commercial use is allowed, and there are no changes to original work.
Copyright Myths
“This item doesn’t explicitly say “copyrighted” or have the © symbol. That means it’s not copyrighted and free to use how I want and as much as I want.” — Nope. An item is copyrighted once it is “fixed” in a tangible medium of expression, like paper.
There are plenty of myths about copyright, check out the links below for more.
Copyright Myths from Plagiarism Today.
Author Rights
If you are publishing your work, adding a copyright addendum like this one from SPARC can help you negotiate your rights with your publisher.
Additionally, the Author’s Rights online guide has plenty of material to help you understand how copyright affects you in relation to any work.
