Copyright Guide: Home

Copyright.gov - resources and info from the Copyright Office.

A list of legal alternatives to downloading. On this guide for our Peer-to-Peer statement and HEOA Policy.

This will guide you in answering this question if you are unsure. Good for beginners.

Will help you discover, by publication date, if something is now in the public domain, about to enter, etc. It's hard to remember all the dates!

This will walk you through your decision to use content and create a PDF summary you can retain for your records, should you need to justify your use later. This tool is good for beginners wanting to double check their assessment.

This will ask you questions about your use and create a PDF summary you can retain for your records, should you need to justify your use later. It is better for tracking your use. OR you can select "Learn more about Fair Use," but it does not walk you through your choices for your summary. The assessment is still on you and the options are either/or. Not recommended highly.

If you work in a library or archive, you may have special exemptions under copyright and this could help you learn more about them.

Click on a state to learn about its specific laws regarding copyright.

Learn about fair use within specific court cases.

This checklist is provided as a tool to assist you when undertaking a fair use analysis.

Printable tool.

Plagiarism Today

This tool is designed to raise awareness of the termination of transfer provisions, to encourage authors to figure out whether the termination rights of U.S. copyright law may be relevant to their works, and to help people understand how termination of transfer works. It does so with explanatory materials and by explaining how hypothetical scenarios would work under the laws for termination of transfer.

Can be used by scholars to amend publication agreements when submitting an article to a traditional publisher.

Overview and position of ALA

Recorded Webinars or podcasts about copyright collected by ALA

ACRL article from James G. Neal

3 Library Associations advocating for copyright reform for libraries and library users

Great overview of copyright topics and copyright

2010 report from PIJIP, ARL, & Center for Social Media

Forum to ask questions, plus tools.