Copyright for Educators

Public Domain are works that are not protected by copyright and can be used in any way. 

Items can enter the public domain in several different ways:

• Copyright term has expired. In general:
  • Items published in the US before 1930 are in the public domain
  • Items published in the US between 1930 and 1964 and not renewed are in the public domain
  • Works published without a copyright notice before March 1, 1989 are in the public domain
  • NOTE: There are lots of exceptions to these general guidelines, so make sure you do your research on each item you are interested in.
• The creator(s) failed to comply with copyright requirements at the time of publication or renewal
• Copyright never existed (ex: facts, short phrases, ideas, U.S. federal government documents)
• The copyright owner(s) has dedicated the work to the public domain

It is important not to confuse public availability with public domain. The availability of a document online has nothing to do with its copyright status.

Even though you are not legally required to cite public domain works, you should still cite the works as a best practice. Not citing your sources could be considered plagiarism which can have severe professional and educational consequences.

Fair Use is a doctrine in the U.S. Copyright law that allows limited use of copyrighted material without requiring permission.

Fair use is determined by examining four factors:

• What is the character of the use?
• What is the nature of the work to be used?
• How much of the work will you use?
• What effect would this use have on the market for the original or for permissions if the use were widespread?

Giving credit does not absolve you of copyright violations. While proper citation (credit) should be provided for quoted or paraphrased passages or images, it does not automatically make the use fair. The four factor analysis (above) still must be used.

Password-protected sites or course management systems - Placing materials with potential copyright violations on a password protected web site or password protected course management system (e.g. Blackboard) does not make a use fair or avoid copyright issues. Just because it could be hard for someone to discover that copyright infringement is taking place, does not make infringement okay. You still need to use the Four Factor Fair Use test to determine if permission is necessary. Remember the likelihood of getting caught is NOT the same as the likelihood of infringement!