Copyright law applies when completing an assignment, preparing projects, papers, or copying materials from other sources of works.  Student research is intended to be original to them. Often however, the educational process relies upon refencing works completed by others. This can include using established data, quoting ideas or authors, including diagrams, drawings, photos, or audiovisual works into your research. The responsibility to ensure that it complies with copyright law, and the VSC Copyright Policy.

What is not protected by copyright?

• Facts or ideas
• Titles, names, short phrases, or slogans (although these items may be protected under trademark law)
• Commonly known information
• Procedures, methods, systems or processes
• Works of the United States Government
• Works that have passed into the public domain

Fair Use

Fair Use is a part of copyright law (section 107 of U.S. Code Title 17) that allows exceptions to copyright law for the needs of students and teachers. Generally, "a fair use is any copying of copyrighted material done for a limited and "transformative" purpose, such as to comment upon, criticize, or parody a copyrighted work" (Richard Stim, Stanford University Libraries). Such uses can be done without permission from the copyright owner. "Fair Use" is based on a combination of 4 factors:

1. The purpose of the use - Used for educational vs commercial or financial purposes.
2. The nature of the copyrighted work - Avoid taking substantial excerpts from creative and consumable works that are meant to be purchased.
3. The amount of the material used - Less is best when taking excerpts.
4. The effect of use on the potential market for, or value of, the work - Is your use having an impact on possible profits/income of work?

Open Access

Open access (OA) works are "digital, online, free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions" (Peter Suber's OA Overview). Most traditionally published resources cost money to read and/or limit a reader's ability to copy and share the work. OA aims to remove those barriers.

Open access publications often use Creative Commons licenses to indicate their open status and set clear terms for use of the material.

Public Domain

Public domain works are "creative materials that are not protected by intellectual property laws" (Rich Stim, "Welcome to the Public Domain"). Copyright expires after a certain period of time, copyright owners can dedicate their work to the public domain, and some works are not copyrightable. You can use and share public domain works without having to get permission. However, you still have to provide attributions for any information you get from public domain works.