Copyright Research Guide

The following is a guest post by Jeannie Castro, electronic resources coordinator at the University of Houston Libraries. This week, we’ll feature posts by members of the UH Libraries Copyright Team highlighting Fair Use/Fair Dealing Week 2016.

The University of Houston Libraries Copyright Team has put together a Copyright Research Guide to consolidate some fantastic resources available to help you determine if your use of material is “fair.”

We have broken down our Research Guide to anticipate the needs of librarians, researchers, graduate students and instructors. The Copyright Research Guide is available so you can try to make your own determination and to learn more about copyright. However, if you are not sure where to start, the Copyright Team will use these tools to help guide your discovery process.

Thanks for celebrating Fair Use Week with the UH Libraries Copyright Team!

Fair Use vs. Public Domain

The following is a guest post by Nora Dethloff, assistant head of Information and Access Services, and Stephanie Lewin-Lane, coordinator of the Music Library, at the University of Houston Libraries. This week, we’ll feature posts by members of the UH Libraries Copyright Team highlighting Fair Use/Fair Dealing Week 2016.

What’s the difference between fair use and the public domain? Put simply, works in the public domain are those works not protected by copyright. This includes works that have aged out of copyright protection or those that never qualified for it. You can check to see if a work has entered the public domain using the Public Domain Slider.

In contrast, fair use allows us to use material still protected by copyright, but in limited ways. Fair use helps to safeguard our first amendment rights by allowing parody, reporting, criticism, scholarship, and other uses that involve limited portions of a copyrighted work.

Find more about fair use and the public domain at our Copyright Research Guide.

Electronic Frontier Foundation

The following is a guest post by Ashley Lierman, instructional design librarian at the University of Houston Libraries. This week, we’ll feature posts by members of the UH Libraries Copyright Team highlighting Fair Use/Fair Dealing Week 2016.

Ideally, copyright law exists to protect the rights of both copyright-holders and users of materials. In recent years, however, the balance of power seems to have shifted more towards wealthy corporate rights-holders, and away from individual users.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to defending civil liberties around software and the internet, is one organization that has been pushing back. Among other activities, the EFF tracks current fair use legal cases and their outcomes, and makes brief overviews available to the public on their blog.

Welcome to Fair Use Week 2016!

The following is a guest post by Nora Dethloff, assistant head of Information and Access Services at the University of Houston Libraries. This week, we’ll feature posts by members of the UH Libraries Copyright Team highlighting Fair Use/Fair Dealing Week 2016.

Fair Use Week is an annual celebration of the fair use doctrine – part of the US Copyright Law that provides limitations on a copyright owner’s exclusive rights, and by far the most flexible and empowering part of copyright law. It may also be the most misunderstood.

As a librarian and a copyright geek, I often get asked whether using something in a particular way falls under “fair use.” Most of the time, the questioner comes to me with hope in their eyes and ends their short explanation with “that’s fair use, right?” Here’s where I almost always disappoint – not by telling them no (or, at least, not usually), but rather by launching into an overly long and detailed discussion of the four factors and transformative uses. (Never, ever, expect a short answer from a librarian and copyright geek.) With fair use, there’s almost never a quick answer.

And we wouldn’t want it any other way. If the rules for using copyrighted material were totally clear-cut and proscriptive, they would become much less flexible, and would never take into account changes in technology or culture. With fair use, a little investment in time and analysis can allow us to find a way to use material to meet our needs while still respecting the creator’s rights. (Like this, for example.) Fair use allows us to be creative, analyze works, create commentary, share knowledge, and use new technologies. It’s not clear cut, it’s not quick and easy, but it’s flexible, and it’s very powerful.

So, where to go for some help in getting a good answer to the “is it fair” question? My favorite tool is the Fair Use Evaluator from the Copyright Advisory Network. This tool walks you through an analysis of the factors of fair use, and at the end creates a printable record for you. Other great tools can be found on our Copyright Research Guide. And, watch for a new post every day this week from a member of the UH Libraries Copyright Team. Happy Fair Use Week!