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Policy Statement | Classroom "Fair Use" | Courses Using Course-Management Software | Duplication & Course Packs | Library Reserves | Additional Resources | Attachments

Policy Statement

It is the policy of the University of Illinois at Springfield that faculty, staff and students shall comply with federal copyright law. The following guidelines concerning the copying of copyrighted material for classroom use and scholarly research are provided to assist faculty, staff, and students in their efforts to comply with federal law.

Classroom "Fair Use"

The Copyright Act of 1976 (Title 17 of the United States Code), which became effective on January 1,1978, specifies the exclusive rights of the copyright owner in copyrighted works. The law also addresses some limitations to such exclusive rights which allow for "fair use" of copyrighted material and permit copying to some extent for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research which is not an infringement of copyright. It is the responsibility of individual faculty members to comply with the copyright law when copying copyrighted material for classroom use or scholarly research.

The concept of "fair use" embodied in the Copyright Act is stated in a set of judicially evolved criteria which provide some guidance in determining whether or not a particular use qualifies as fair. However, these criteria leave considerable room for interpretation (see Attachment I). Realizing this, Congress invited a committee of representatives from educational organizations, publishers and authors to try to agree on a set of guidelines. The result was the Agreement on Guidelines for Classroom Copying in Not-For-Profit Educational Institutions with Respect to Books and Periodicals (see Attachment II). These Guidelines are not part of the Copyright Act itself and do not have the status of legislation, but were included in the Congressional Committee Reports which accompanied the new law. It is believed that these Guidelines will be carefully considered by judges in interpreting the meaning of "fair use" in lawsuits involving alleged violations of the Copyright Law. Faculty should comply with the Fair Use Guidelines when using copyrighted materials in class.

Guidelines for educational fair use of music are also included as part of this document (see Attachment III).

Courses Using Course-Management Software

The Technology, Education, and Copyright Harmonization Act of 2002 [TEACH Act] provides safe harbors for distance learning (see Attachment IV). Faculty should comply with the TEACH Act when teaching distance learning courses; general guidance is found in Teach Act Guidelines for Distance Education (Attachment V). Further gFebruary 12, 2008 provided by the Academic Technology Committee in TFebruary 12, 2008href="courseware.html">Attachment VI).

Duplication & Course Packs

The Office of Printing and Duplicating has procedures and forms for obtaining copyright permission for the creation of course packs or similar materials (see Attachment VII). In addition, for the convenience of the faculty members who wish to obtain copyright permission themselves, University Counsel's Office has prepared a sample form letter to request permission to copy copyrighted material for class purposes (see Attachment VIII).

Library Reserves

The Library has prepared policies and procedures for placing materials on reserve, including electronic reserve (see Attachment IX with forms A, B, & C). Upon request, the Library will obtain copyright permission for materials to be placed on reserve.

Additional Resources

If necessary, for further advice, please contact the Access Services Manager in the Library (206-6605), or the Campus Services Office (206-6776).

Additionally, useful links to materials explaining copyright may be found at Selected Copyright Web Sites (see Attachment X).

Attachments

Please see the following Attachments:

1. Text of the Copyright Act
2. Fair Use Guidelines
3. Music Fair Use Guidelines
4. Text of the TEACH Act
5. TEACH Act Guidelines for Distance Education
6. TEACH Act Guidelines for Courseware
7. Duplicating Procedures
8. Form Letter for Copyright Permission
9. Library Reserve Policies
10. Selected Copyright Web Sites
    

Date Issued: September 19, 2003
Approved by: Provost, Michael Cheney