Student Affairs in Higher Education: Copyright Basics

Copyright protection is extended to original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression, whether published or unpublished, including:

1. literary works;
2. musical works, including any accompanying words;
3. dramatic works, including any accompanying music;
4. pantomimes and choreographic works;
5. pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works;
6. motion pictures and other audiovisual works;
7. sound recordings; and
8. architectural works.

Image created by Johanna Blakley and the Norman Lear Center. CC BY-SA 2.0

Watch Joanna Blakely's TED talk on Lessons from Fashion's Free Culture

Copyright protects the creators of original literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works (Title 17, U.S. Code). The protection extends to both published and unpublished material. "Section 106 of the 1976 Copyright Act generally gives the owner of copyright the exclusive right to do and to authorize others to do the following" (Copyright Basics , US Copyright Office):

• To reproduce the work
• To prepare derivative works
• To distribute copies of the work
• To perform the work publicly
• To display the work publicly

Further explore your rights as a copyright holder in the following categories:

Faculty: "...the University transfers to the Creators any copyrights that it may own in a traditional scholarly Work created by University faculty members that result from teaching, research, scholarly or artistic endeavors, regardless of the medium in which the Work is expressed, unless the Work was developed with substantial use of university resources and commercial use is made of the Work."

Students: "...students are the Owners of the copyright of Works for which academic credit is received, including theses, dissertations, scholarly publications, texts, pedagogical materials or other materials."

For more practice with Copyright, view this tutorial.

The powerpoint listed below provides additional information.