Copyright Guidelines

Copyright “fair use” in higher education is often misinterpreted, especially in the ways the Internet is used today.

Care should be taken to understand how—and to what extent—copyrighted materials may be properly used in an academic setting.

The fair use of a copyrighted work, in general, is limited to the purposes of criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, and/or research. If none of the above purposes can be lawfully justified, it is advised to obtain copyright permission to use the content.

Texas A&M has several resources available for distributing fair-use, copyright-protected content. You can securely store or link content within eLearning and make print and electronic reserves at the TAMU Libraries. You can also request multimedia reserves through Educational Media Services in the Evans Library Annex and upload audiovisual media yourself to MediaMatrix (for both private and public viewing) and iTunes U (for public viewing only). Please remember that each of these components relies on users to follow copyright laws and respect the intellectual property of others.

Copyright Resources

Copyright, Fair Use, and Electronic Reserves information from TAMU Libraries
Overview for placing copyright materials on course reserves at the TAMU Libraries

Audiovisual Copyright Information for distributing audiovisual media on MediaMatrix
Guidelines for fair-use copyright laws and checklists for following the federal TEACH Act

Digital Millenium Copyright Act information from TAMU Information Technology Issues Management
Contact information for reporting copyright infringements at Texas A&M

EDUCAUSE Digital Millenium Copyright Act Website
Frequently updated academic resource about EDUCAUSE policies regarding copyright compliance

Know Your Copy Rights from the Association of Research Libraries
Academic perspectives for broadly enhancing copyright best practices on campus

Crash Course in Copyright from the University of Texas System
Copyright guidelines for academia and a "crash course" tutorial to test your knowledge of copyright issues

TEACH Act Toolkit from North Carolina State University
Guidelines, implementations, and best practices for following the federal TEACH Act, especially for distributing copyrighted materials online

U.S. Copyright Office
Official U.S. government website that features copyright basics, FAQs, registration forms, and national laws and regulations