Skip to Main Content

RESEARCH GUIDES

Copyright

Provides a general overview of copyright issues for University of Maryland faculty and students.

Copyright Websites

U.S. Copyright Office
Web page of the United States Copyright Office at the Library of Congress.
Copyright Registration
File a copyright registration for your work through the Copyright Office online system.
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
USPTO is the Federal agency for granting U.S. patents and registering trademarks.
Creative Commons
Offers a variety of licenses that allow authors to grant copyright permissions to their work.
The Campus Guide to Copyright Compliance
Developed by the Copyright Clearance Center, this guide helps answer questions ranging from basic copyright law to ILL and e-reserves.
Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)
Provides information for students and educators on music copyright and peer-to-peer file sharing.
Copyright and Your Dissertation or Thesis
Manual by Kenneth D. Crews developed to guide graduate students through the copyright maze when writing their thesis or dissertation.
Copyright Law & Public Domain
A series of short essays from NOLO on rules for registration, fair use, stopping infringers and much more.

Tools

Digital Copyright Slider
Excellent tool for determining the duration of copyright for a document.
Copyright Term & the Public Domain
Detailed chart developed by Peter Hirtle at Cornell for determining whether or not a document is in the public domain.
Exceptions for Instructors eTool
Guides instructors through the educational exceptions in U.S. copyright law, helping to explain and clarify rights and responsibilities for the performance and display of copyrighted content in traditional, distance and blended educational models.
Fair Use Evaluator
A tool that organizes the information needed to support a fair use evaluation and helps instructors how to better understand "fairness" of a use under U. S. Copyright Law.

UMD Information

University of Maryland Policy on Intellectual Property
Sets forth the terms, conditions, and procedures for the ownership of materials created by the university's faculty, students, and staff.
UMD Libraries Course Reserves
Instructor guidelines for making materials available through electronic course reserves, including general reserve policies and copyright guidelines.
UMD Office of Information Technology Project NEThics
Provides information about copyright compliance and filesharing, legal options for downloading music and movies, and policy for acceptable use of IT resources.
Commercial Use of Course Materials
Information provided by the Office of General Counsel to help protect faculty from illegal reproduction and distribution of their course materials.

Further Reading

Bonner, Kimberely M., editor. The Center for Intellectual Property Handbook. New York: Neal-Schumann Publishers, Inc., 2006.

Crews, Kenneth D., Copyright Law for Librarians and Educators. Chicago: American Library Association, 2012.

Hirtle, Peter B., Emily Hudson, and Andrew T. Kenyon. Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for Digitization for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums. New York: Cornell University Library, 2009

Hoon, Peggy. Using Copyrighted Works in Your Teaching - FAQ. Washington, DC: Association of Research Libraries, 2007.

Campus Copyright Rights and Responsibilities: A Basic Guide to Policy Considerations
Prepared by the Association of American Publishers, the Association of American Universities, the Association of American University Presses, and the Association of Research Libraries, this guide presents a basic explanation of copyright law with an emphasis on its application to colleges and universities.
Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Academic and Research Libraries
Developed by the Association of Research Libraries in partnership with the Center for Social Media and the Washington College of Law at American University, the Code draws from actual experiences of the library community for acceptable practices of fair use.