Who does the license apply to?
- It applies to all employees, contractors, and students of University of Texas System schools. This includes people at institutions, studying abroad, or taking official university classes online.
What uses does the license cover?
- Sharing materials via Blackboard, course packs, classroom handouts, email, research collaborations, and administrative communications. Uses must be among UTMB employees, contractors, and students.
What uses are NOT covered under the license?
- Interlibrary loan, commercial document delivery, promotional and advertising uses, cover-to-cover copying are all NOT covered in the annual license.
- Copying entire books, journals, or other similar works (or large parts of them).
What kinds of copyrighted materials are included in the license?
- The annual license covers text-based copyrighted materials like journal articles and book chapters. Both print and digital works are included. Illustrations, photos, or other images are only covered if they are part of an article or chapter. They are NOT covered on their own. It may be technically possible to save or snip an image from an article or chapter, but the use of this image is NOT allowable under this license. Audio and visual works are also NOT covered by this license.
What should I do if the annual license does not apply to my use of copyrighted material?
- There are options for copyrighted materials beyond the annual license.
- Determine if Fair Use covers your use. See the Fair Use information on this guide to learn more.
- Request permission from the copyright holder.
- Check to see if your use is covered by the terms of use or license for one of our subscription databases. Your library liaison can help you investigate. The terms of use may also appear on the database site, too.
What if I am collaborating outside of UTMB or UT System?
- In some instances, it may be allowable to share portions of copyrighted works under the annual license. The use must be related to academic research, sharing must be without charge, and the sharing cannot be systematic or bulk distribution of copies.
"With the annual copyright license, faculty and staff can focus on the business of teaching, while demonstrating the importance of respecting the intellectual and creative property of others." - Georgia Harper, former Scholarly Communications Advisor with UT Austin Libraries.
