Copyright, Public Domain,

Fair Use, and Creative

Commons

What is Copyright Law?

Copyright

insures that the people who

create Intellectual Property can own,
control and be paid for their efforts.

Intellectual

property is a tangible form

of expression:
Written work, musical work, works of art,
dramatic work, digitized work, video

Copyright

protection is automatic
when intellectual property is created.

What is the Public

Domain?

A work of authorship is in the

public domain if it is no longer
under copyright protection.

Works

in the public domain may be

used without the permission of the
former copyright owner.

Rules

for when items pass into the

public domain vary considerably.

What is Fair Use?

Fair

Use allows the use of portions of

copyrighted works and materials for
educational purposes.

Copyright
Four

is a law; Fair Use is a guideline

guidelines determine Fair Use:

The
The
The
The

purpose and character of the use.

nature of the copyrighted work.
amount of the portion used.
effect of the use upon its value.

Fair Use: Print Material

Poem

less than 250 words; 250word excerpt of poem greater

than 250 words

Excerpt

from a longer work (10

percent of work or 1,000 words,
whichever is less).

Fair Use: Images

Single

works may be used in

their entirety, but no more than
five images by a single artist or
photographer may be used.

From

a collection, not more than

15 images or 10 percent
(whichever is less) may be used.

Fair Use: Video

Students

may use10 percent or

three minutes (whichever is less)
of motion media.

Copyright

works included in
multimedia projects must give
proper attribution to copyright
holder.

Fair Use: Audio

Students

may use10 percent or

30 seconds (whichever is less) of
a musical composition.

The

multimedia program must

have an educational use.

What is Creative
Commons?

Creative Commons provides free

tools that let authors, scientists,
artists, and educators easily mark
their creative work with the
freedoms they want it to carry.

You

can use CC to change your

copyright terms from "All Rights
Reserved" to "Some Rights
Reserved."

Public Domain Resources

Bartleby.com

Public domain texts online

Books on the Internet. E-texts from UT Austin
Great Books. Ancient classics to 20th century
masterpieces.
Images Listing of public domain images
Internet Public Library Library for the Internet
community
Moving Image Archive Movies, films, and
videos
Online Books Listing over 30,000 free books
on the Web
Project Gutenberg More than 25,000 free ebooks

Additional Resources
General

Purpose

Creative Commons Search

Images

Flickr CC
Flickr Storm
Audio

CC Mixter
Free Sounds
Shambles List

Always Cite Your Sources

Copyrighted

Material: Use the MLA style

as shown on the library bibliography
page
ArtistName. "Title of Image." Date Taken/Created. Online Image.
Name of Image Site. Date you accessed/downloaded the
picture. <http://www.electronicaddress.com>.

Creative

Commons Material: Use the

guidelines found on the CC Marking page
This video features the song Play Your Part (Pt.1) by Girl Talk,
available under a Creative Commons AttributionNoncommercial license. 2008, Greg Gillis.

https://www.copyright.com/Services/copyrightoncampu

s/basics/law.html