Link To It

Linking is not copying!  It is generally acceptable to point others to material posted on the Internet by providing a link to the website.  The link itself is not a copy of the content--it is merely a direction to content.  Because the link provider is not making copies, linking is generally outside the boundaries of copyright law.  The exception is that it could be contributory infringement to provide a link to a website knowingly hosting copyrighted material unlawfully. So, link to publishing sources directly, such as journals or newspapers.

In most cases, you can provide direct links to licensed material such as journal articles to others who have access to material under the same license.  This is particularly useful in CourseWork and other course management systems, where most participants in the class will have access to the full suite of material licensed by the library.  Faculty can provide links to readings, and won’t have to worry about the license fees that would be required if those readings were uploaded to the system. 

Understand What Copyrights You Hold

The University's copyright policy establishes that all rights in copyright, regardless of their form of expression, remain with the creator, except in specified cases where law or University policy require otherwise.  See Stanford University Research Policy Handbook Section 5.2 which states:

“Copyright is the ownership and control of the intellectual property in original works of authorship which are subject to copyright law.  It is the policy of the University that all rights in copyright shall remain with the creator unless the work is a work-for-hire (and copyright vests in the University under copyright law), is supported by a direct allocation of funds through the University for the pursuit of a specific project, is commissioned by the University, makes significant use of University resources or personnel, or is otherwise subject to contractual obligations.”

You can review the entire policy here: http://rph.stanford.edu/5-2.html

Request Permission When You Need It

If an exception such as fair use or face-to-face is not clearly available, you must get permission to use a copyrighted work from the owner of the copyright holder.  A request to use copyrighted material usually can be sent to the permission department of the work's publisher.  Allow four to six weeks for a request to be processed.  Permission requests should contain:

• Title, author and/or editor, and edition
• Exact material to be used
• Number of copies you plan to make
• Intended use of the material (e.g., educational)
• Form of distribution (e.g., hard copy to classroom, posted on Internet with password protection)
• Whether material will be sold (e.g., as part of a course reader)

In addition, the CCC can give you permission to use many materials for a fee.  Contact CCC at www.copyright.com or (978) 750-8400 to see if the materials you wish to use can be licensed. 

Exercise Caution When Downloading and Uploading

Be mindful of copyright when downloading material from the Internet. Just because a work is posted on the Internet does not mean that the owner of the copyright in it has given you permission to make copies or distribute the work to others.  Note, too, that material may have been placed on the Internet without the author’s permission.  Fair use principles (see below) may apply, but you need to go through a fair use assessment to decide that. 

Similar concerns apply when uploading material to the Internet. It might be perfectly acceptable under the fair use doctrine to include graphs from various articles in a paper written for class; it is probably not a fair use, however, to publish those graphs to the world by posting the same paper on the Internet.