Copyright and fair use

Copyright for Academics in the Digital Age

When faculty members consider copyright in the digital age, it is often in relation to things we can’t (or shouldn’t) do. For example, we can’t have too much material placed in online reserve, we can’t scan journal articles to create digital versions of what used to be called “course packs,” and we can’t post an excerpt from a work of scholarship on our blogs without appropriate permissions.

Information Technology Wants to Be Free

Sometimes I hear through the grapevine, in the cohesive community where my regional comprehensive university is located, of a recent graduate who is using calculus in an unauthorized way. Perhaps this person is an engineer optimizing a process in one of our remaining local industries, an executive maximizing profit in a new venture, or even a soccer mom or dad doodling on a fast-food wrapper, trying to figure out the best location for defensive players in terms of how much of the field they can control.

Resources on Copyright, Distance Education, and Intellectual Property

AAUP Policy Statements, Reports, & Analysis 

Statement on Copyright. 1999.

Statement on Distance Education. 1999.

Intellectual Property Issues for Faculty

Intellectual Property Legal Issues For Faculty
By Ann Springer, Associate Counsel
November 2004

"Only one thing is impossible for God: to find any sense in any copyright law on the planet."
—Mark Twain's Notebook, 1902-1903

I. Introduction

A. Copyright law is a complicated, somewhat circular and amorphous mixture of fact and law.

B. Copyright law applies to many more aspects of daily life as an academic than most recognize.

Statement on Copyright

Statement explaining faculty members’ basic rights of ownership of their intellectual property, prevailing academic practice, and exceptions in which colleges and universities may fairly claim full or partial ownership of works created by faculty members.

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