thesis copyright fair use

Penn State University Libraries

Using Others' Work
Reusing Your Published Work
Your Copyright
Publishing Your Thesis or Dissertation
Frequently Asked Questions and Resources

Using Third-Party Materials in Your Thesis or Dissertation

If you use materials (such as text, images, sound recordings, etc.) created by a third party in your thesis or dissertation, you need to consider whether copyright law allows your use of those materials. Even when copyright permits your use of a work, contract law may prevent it. When you agree to terms of use in order to gain access to a copy of a work (such as a letter in an archive or a newspaper article in an online database), those terms also control what you can do with the work.

In some cases, even reusing your own published articles can raise copyright concerns, if you have transferred your copyright to someone else, like your publisher. For more information, see Reusing Your Published Work .

You can proceed without copyright permission if you are using something that is in the public domain . You also don't need permission if you are using it in a way that is not regulated by one of the copyright owner’s exclusive rights or is permitted by fair use or another user’s right. If none of these circumstances applies, you need a license to use the work. In some cases, an existing license may cover your use. In others, you will need to get a new license from the copyright holder.

In addition to the copyright issues, it is also vital to follow attribution norms within your discipline. For more information about the distinction between plagiarism and copyright infringement, see below.

Contracts at Libraries, Archives, and Museums

Some institutions require you to sign an agreement before accessing their collections. That agreement may limit your ability to use their materials. These agreements can be valid even when the materials are in the public domain or using the materials would qualify as fair use. For instance, if you agree to get permission from the institution before publishing any images of items from its collection, you are bound by that agreement.

To avoid trouble on this issue,

Ask up front what the terms are and whether you can use the materials in your thesis or dissertation;
Carefully read the terms of any agreements you sign; and
Keep a copy of the terms, noting the materials to which they apply.

Fair Use in Theses and Dissertations

Fair use allows certain uses of copyrighted material without permission from the copyright holder. There are four factors to consider when determining whether your use is a fair one. You must consider all the factors, but not all the factors have to favor fair use for the use to be fair. The outline below explains how the fair use factors and their subfactors apply to using third-party material in a Penn State thesis or dissertation.

First Factor: "The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes"

Uses that fall under one of the favored purposes listed in the fair use statute (17 U.S.C. § 107) or have a nonprofit educational purpose will weigh in favor of fair use. Favored purposes include scholarship, research, criticism, and comment. Since uses in theses and dissertations often have these purposes, this subfactor favors fair use.

Uses that are commercial weigh against fair use. Most uses in theses and dissertations are not for commercial purposes. If you are writing a doctoral dissertation at Penn State, you will be required to license it to ProQuest for distribution. Because ProQuest is a commercial entity, you should consider this when evaluating fair use. Although commerciality weighs against fair use, other subfactors can outweigh that — commercial uses can still be fair.

Uses that are transformative weigh in favor of fair use. A use is transformative when the use adds new meaning or message to the original work, giving it a new purpose. For example, using advertisement images from the 1960s to discuss use of race in advertising is a transformative use, because the advertisements were originally created to sell products. Quoting another scholar's analysis of the advertisement would not necessarily be transformative, though it is still often fair use.

Second Factor: "The nature of the copyrighted work"

If the work used is creative, that will weigh against fair use. If the work used is factual, that will weigh in favor of fair use. The outcome of this subfactor varies depending on the work used.

If the work used is unpublished, that will weigh against fair use. However, the fair use statute explicitly states that the unpublished nature of a work will not bar fair use if the use is otherwise fair. The outcome of this subfactor varies depending on the work used.

Third Factor: "The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole"

Using all or much of the original work will weigh against fair use. The outcome of this subfactor varies depending on the use.

Using the most important part of the original work (the "heart") will weigh against fair use, even if it is only a small amount of the work. The outcome of this subfactor varies depending on the use.

The third factor is neutralized if the amount used is necessary for a transformative purpose, even if the entire original work is used. For instance, the third factor would be neutralized in the use of the advertisement described above if all of the advertisement has to be used in order to achieve the transformative use.

Fourth Factor: "The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work"

Uses that decrease demand for the original work by providing a substitute will weigh against fair use. In many cases, using a work in your thesis or dissertation will not provide a substitute for the original work, but the outcome of this subfactor can vary depending on the use.

Uses that decrease demand for the original work by criticizing it (as with a negative film review) have no impact on the fourth factor.

If the licensing market for the use you are making is "traditional, reasonable, or likely to develop," that will weigh against fair use.

Resources on Fair Use

Penn State Fair Use Page From the Office of Scholarly Communications and Copyright, this page explains the four fair use factors and recommends resources on fair use.
Fair Use for Nonfiction Authors This guide, published by the Authors Alliance, explains when fair use applies to the use of sources in nonfiction works such as scholarly articles. It has been endorsed by the American Council of Learned Societies and the Association for Information Science and Technology.
Codes of Best Practices in Fair Use These codes document the shared best practices of communities that rely on fair use, including fair use for online video, fair use of images for teaching, research, and study, fair use for OpenCourseWare, fair use for documentary filmmakers, fair use for the visual arts, and fair use for academic and research libraries.
Summaries of Fair Use Cases This set of case summaries from Stanford is a good resource for learning about fair use law.
US Copyright Office Fair Use Index This index of fair use cases is searchable by media format, case outcome, jurisdiction, and date. It is helpful for learning about legal precedents and judicial interpretation of the fair use doctrine.

Using Material Under an Existing License

A Creative Commons license makes it easy for you to know how you can use a work. Images licensed under Creative Commons licenses can be particularly useful if you need a generic rather than specific image. Because the rights holder has already given everyone permission to use the image under the terms of the license, you do not need to evaluate fair use or seek permission in order to use it.

When you use a work licensed under one of the Creative Commons licenses, you need to comply with the license requirements (unless your use is otherwise permitted, e.g., by fair use). All Creative Commons licenses require attribution. Using the work without giving attribution means you do not meet the legal conditions of the license. However, the licenses are deliberately flexible about the requirements for that attribution. The Best Practices for Attribution are outlined on the Creative Commons wiki. Our page about Creative Commons licenses has more information on this topic.

Searching for Licensed Works

When works are marked with code generated by the Creative Commons License Chooser , that mark is machine readable. A number of search tools allow users to limit their search by license.

CC Search CC Search enables users to search across multiple platforms for content licensed under one of the Creative Commons licenses.
Google: Find Free-to-Use Images This page explains how to use Google's search engines to find images, text, and videos that are licensed under Creative Commons licenses.

Copyright Infringement vs. Plagiarism

Copyright infringement and plagiarism are related but distinct concepts. Plagiarism is using the work of another without attribution. Copyright infringement is any reproduction, distribution, modification, performance, or display of a copyrighted work without the permission of the rights holder that does not fall under fair use or another user's right.

It is possible to plagiarize even when you have cleared permission for all the copyrighted works. Similarly, it is possible to infringe copyright even when you have given careful attribution. In addition to resolving the copyright issues, you must follow attribution norms within your discipline in order to avoid plagiarizing others' work.

U.S. copyright law does not require citation in a particular form. However, following academic citation norms can help improve your fair use analysis. Check with your advisor for help figuring out what citation style you should use in your thesis or dissertation.

The Graduate School's Thesis and Dissertation Guide says:

Source citations are required in the text whenever you use a direct quotation, paraphrase another author’s words, or include specific information that is not common knowledge (and is not the result of your own research reported in the thesis/dissertation).

For further information on citation, check out the PSU Libraries’ Citation Guide .

Attribution

This guide is based in part on Copyright for Dissertations , a guide from the University of Michigan Library Copyright Office, which is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license .

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Last Updated: May 23, 2024 2:44 PM
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/images/cornell/logo35pt_cornell_white.svg" alt="thesis copyright fair use"> Cornell University --> Graduate School

Fair use, copyright, patent, and publishing options.

Is information that you plan to include from others considered “fair use” and are you acknowledging these sources correctly?
Embargo of online copies
Creative Commons license
Has a patent application been filed (or will one be) on the basis of your thesis or dissertation research?
Register for copyright?
Supplementary materials
Make your work discoverable on search engines?
Make your work accessible to people with visual disabilities

1. Is information that you plan to include from others considered “fair use” and are you acknowledging these sources correctly?

You are responsible for acknowledging any facts, ideas, or materials of others that you include in your work. You must follow the guidelines for acknowledging the work of others in the “Code of Academic Integrity and Acknowledging the Work of Others” (published in the Policy Notebook for the Cornell Community ) .

If you use any copyrighted material in the dissertation or thesis, it is your responsibility to give full credit to the author and publisher of work quoted. The acknowledgment should be placed in a footnote at the bottom of the first page of the paper or chapter. Additionally, you must determine whether use of the material can be classified as a “fair use” by performing an analysis of your use of each copyrighted item. The Cornell Copyright Information Center’s Fair Use Checklist ) is a helpful tool for performing this analysis. (See also, Copyright Law and the Doctoral Dissertation: Guidelines to Your Legal Rights and Responsibilities , published by ProQuest, or The Chicago Manual of Style , published by the University of Chicago Press.)

If your use of material is not considered a “fair use,” you must obtain written permission from the copyright owner. Two copies of each permission letter must be submitted with the dissertation or thesis. ProQuest has specific requirements for the content of the permission letter. For these guidelines, consult the ProQuest Doctoral Dissertation Agreement form (published by ProQuest).

If you have already published or had accepted for publication part of your own dissertation or thesis material in a journal, depending on the terms of your publication agreement, it may be necessary to write to that journal and obtain written authorization to use the material in your dissertation.

2. Embargo of online copies

The value of your dissertation extends well beyond your graduation requirements. It’s important that you make an informed decision about providing online access, via ProQuest and eCommons, to your work. This decision can expand the visibility and impact of your work, but it can also shape the options available to you for publishing subsequent works based on your dissertation.

ProQuest’s ProQuest Dissertations and Theses (PQDT) database indexes almost all dissertations published in the U.S. and provides subscription access online to the full text of more recent dissertations. ProQuest also sells print copies of dissertations, paying royalties to authors, when they exceed a minimum threshold. Authors retain copyright in the works they submit to ProQuest.

eCommons is a service of the Cornell University Library that provides long-term, online access to Cornell-related content of enduring value. Electronic theses and dissertations deposited in eCommons, unless subject to embargo, are freely accessible to anyone with an internet connection. When submitting to eCommons, you retain copyright in your work. Ph.D. dissertations and master’s theses submitted to ProQuest are automatically submitted to eCommons, subject to the same embargo you select for ProQuest.

Electronic copies of dissertations in PQDT or eCommons may be made accessible immediately upon submission or after an embargo period of six months, one year, or two years. You may wish to consider an embargo period which helps address publishers’ interests in being the first to publish scholarly books or articles, while also ensuring that scholarship is accessible to the general public within a reasonable period of time. Your decision should be made in consultation with your special committee.

3. Creative Commons license

Creative Commons licenses provide authors with a straightforward and standardized means of prospectively granting certain permissions to potential users of the author’s material. Authors may request proper attribution, permit copying and the creation of derivative works, request that others share derivative works under the same terms, and allow or disallow commercial uses. Authors may even choose to place their works directly into the public domain. You will have the option of selecting a Creative Commons license when you upload your dissertation or thesis to ProQuest, and your choice will automatically be applied to the copy of your work in eCommons.

4. Has a patent application been filed (or will one be) on the basis of your thesis or dissertation research?

Cornell University Policy 1.5 governs inventions and related property rights. Inventions made by faculty, staff, and students must be disclosed to the Center for Technology Licensing at Cornell University (CTL). Theses and dissertations describing patentable research should be withheld from publication, in order to avoid premature public disclosure.

Use the delayed release (embargo) option if a patent application is or will be in process, noting the reason for the delay as “patent pending.” If you have any questions, please contact Cornell’s Center for Technology Licensing at 607-254-4698 or [email protected] .

5. Register for copyright?

Copyright law involves many complex issues that are relevant to you as a graduate student, both in protecting your own work and in referencing the work of others. Discussion of copyright in this publication is not meant to substitute for the legal advice of qualified attorneys. A more detailed discussion of copyright law can be found in the publication from ProQuest entitled Copyright Law and the Doctoral Dissertation: Guidelines to Your Legal Rights and Responsibilities by Kenneth D. Crews.

Copyright protection automatically exists from the time the work is created in fixed form and the copyright immediately becomes the property of the author. Registration with the United States Copyright Office is not required to secure copyright; rather it is a legal formality to place on public record the basic facts of a particular copyright. Although not a condition of copyright protection itself, registering the copyright is ordinarily necessary before any infringement suits can be filed in court.

To register a copyright for your dissertation or thesis, register online or download printable forms . You may also request forms by mail from the Information Section, U.S. Copyright Office, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20559, or contact them by telephone at 202-707-3000.

Doctoral candidates: You may authorize ProQuest to file, on your behalf, an application for copyright registration. This option will be presented to you as part of the submission process.

6. Supplementary materials

If supplementary materials (audio, video, datasets, etc., up to 2GB per file) are part of your thesis or dissertation, you may submit them as supplementary files during the online submission process. For help selecting long-lived file formats, note ProQuest’s guidance in their document, “Preparing Your Manuscript for Submission (Including Supplemental Files).” File formats for which ProQuest does not guarantee migration may still have a high likelihood of preservation in Cornell’s digital repository; please see the eCommons help page for further guidance.

Do not embed media files in the PDF version of your thesis or dissertation, as this can significantly increase the size of the file and make it difficult to download and access. Include a description of each supplementary file in the abstract of your thesis or dissertation. You may include an additional supplementary file containing more detailed information about the supplementary materials as a “readme” file or other form of documentation; this is particularly advisable for data sets or code. The Research Data Management Service Group ( [email protected] ) offers assistance in preparing and documenting data sets for online distribution.

7. Make your work discoverable on search engines?

ProQuest offers authors the option of making their graduate work discoverable through major search engines including Yahoo, Google, Google Scholar, and Google Books. If you chose the Search Engine option on their dissertation “paper” publishing agreement or within ProQuest’s PROQUEST ETD Administrator (electronic submission service), you can expect to have your work appear in the major search engines.

If you change your mind and do not want your work to be made available through search engines, you can contact customer service at [email protected] or 800-521-0600 ext. 77020. In addition, if you did not initially adopt this option but now want your works made available through this service, contact the customer service group to change your selection.

Please note that search engines index content in eCommons, regardless of the choice you make for ProQuest.

8. Make your work accessible to people with visual disabilities

When creating a PDF version of your thesis or dissertation it is important to keep in mind that readers may use assistive technology such as screen readers to access your document. Follow best practices to ensure that your thesis or dissertation is accessible to everyone. These resources may be helpful:

Cornell CIT’s guidance for creating accessible PDFs
Checking accessibility using Acrobat Pro
Embedding alternative text for images in Word
Save a Word doc as an accessible PDF

University of Michigan Library
Research Guides

Copyright for Dissertations

Using Others' Content
Copyright in Your Dissertation
Publishing Your Dissertation

Copyright Questions?

The University of Michigan Library Copyright Office provides help with copyright questions for University of Michigan faculty, staff and students. Please email us with questions or visit our website for more information.

Legal Advice

The information presented here is intended for informational purposes and should not be construed as legal advice. If you have specific legal questions pertaining to the University of Michigan, please contact the Office of the General Counsel .

If you require legal advice in your personal capacity, the lawyer referral services operated by the Washtenaw County Bar Association and the State Bar of Michigan may be helpful to you.

Using Third-Party Materials in Your Dissertation

If you use materials (such as text, images, sound recordings, etc.) created by a third party in your dissertation, you need to consider whether copyright law allows your use of those materials. In some cases, even reusing your own published articles can raise copyright concerns, if you have transferred your copyright to someone else, like your publisher. Even when copyright permits your use of a work, contract law may prevent it. When you agree to terms of use in order to gain access to a copy of a work (such as a letter in an archive or a newspaper article in an online database), those terms also control what you can do with the work.

You can proceed without copyright permission if you are using something that is not copyrightable or is in the public domain . You also don't need permission if you are using it in a way that does not implicate one of the rights of copyright holders or is permitted by a user’s right , such as fair use. If none of these circumstances applies, you need a license to use the work. In some cases, an existing license may cover your use. In others, you will need to get a new license from the copyright holder. For more information on these subjects, please see our Copyright Basics and Obtaining Copyright Permissions guides.

Contracts at Libraries, Archives, and Museums

Some institutions require you to sign an agreement before accessing their collections. That agreement may limit your ability to use their materials. These agreements are valid even when the materials are in the public domain or using the materials would qualify as fair use. For instance, if you agree to get permission from the institution before publishing any images of items from its collection, you are bound by that agreement.

To avoid trouble on this issue,

Ask up front what the terms are and whether you can use the materials in your dissertation;
Carefully read the terms of any agreements you sign; and
Keep a copy of the terms, noting the materials to which they apply.

Fair Use in Dissertations

First Factor: "The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes"

Uses that fall under one of the favored purposes listed in the fair use statute (17 U.S.C. § 107) or have a nonprofit educational purpose will weigh in favor of fair use. Favored purposes include scholarship, research, criticism, and comment. Since uses in dissertations often have these purposes, this subfactor favors fair use.

Uses that are commercial weigh against fair use. Most uses in dissertations are not for commercial purposes, but that may change if you publish your dissertation with ProQuest or another commercial entity.

Uses that are transformative weigh in favor of fair use. A use is transformative when the use adds new meaning or message to the original work, giving it a new purpose. For example, imagine you are writing your dissertation about the impacts of advertising directed to children. You include a toy advertisement and analyze how it reached a child audience. The original purpose of the advertisement was to increase demand for the toy, while your purpose is for scholarship and critique, making your use transformative. Quoting another scholar's analysis of the advertisement would not necessarily be transformative, though it is still often fair use.

Second Factor: "The nature of the copyrighted work"

If the work used is creative, that will weigh against fair use. If the work used is factual, that will weigh in favor of fair use. The outcome of this subfactor varies depending on the work used.

Third Factor: "The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole"

Using all or much of the original work will weigh against fair use. The outcome of this subfactor varies depending on the use.

Using the most important part of the original work (the "heart") will weigh against fair use, even if it is only a small amount of the work. The outcome of this subfactor varies depending on the use.

The third factor is neutralized if the amount used is necessary for a transformative purpose, even if the entire original work is used. For instance, the third factor would be neutralized in the use of the toy advertisement described above — all of the advertisement has to be used in order to achieve the transformative use.

Fourth Factor: "The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work"

Uses that decrease demand for the original work by providing a substitute will weigh against fair use. In many cases, using a work in your dissertation will not provide a substitute for the original work, but the outcome of this subfactor can vary depending on the use.

Uses that decrease demand for the original work by criticizing it (as with a negative film review) have no impact on the fourth factor.

If the licensing market for the use you are making is "traditional, reasonable, or likely to develop," that will weigh against fair use.

Resources on Fair Use

Fair Use Checklist This checklist from the Columbia Copyright Advisory Office helps users consider the factors and subfactors of the fair use analysis.
Codes of Best Practices in Fair Use These codes document the shared best practices of communities that rely on fair use, including fair use for online video, fair use of images for teaching, research, and study, fair use for OpenCourseWare, fair use for documentary filmmakers, fair use for the visual arts, and fair use for academic and research libraries.
Summaries of Fair Use Cases This set of case summaries from Stanford is a good resource for learning about fair use law.
US Copyright Office Fair Use Index This index of fair use cases is searchable by media format, case outcome, jurisdiction, and date. It is helpful for learning about legal precedents and judicial interpretation of the fair use doctrine.
Fair Use for Nonfiction Authors This guide, published by the Authors Alliance, explains when fair use applies to the use of sources in nonfiction works such as scholarly articles. It has been endorsed by the American Council of Learned Societies and the Association for Information Science and Technology.

Using Material Under an Existing License

When you use a work licensed under one of the Creative Commons licenses, you need to comply with the license requirements (unless your use is otherwise permitted, e.g., by fair use). All Creative Commons licenses require attribution. Using the work without giving attribution means you do not meet the legal conditions of the license. However, the licenses are deliberately flexible about the requirements for that attribution. The Best Practices for Attribution are outlined on the Creative Commons wiki. Our guide to Creative Commons licenses has more information on this topic.

Creative Commons Resources

When works are marked with code generated by the Creative Commons License Chooser , that mark is machine readable. A number of search tools allow users to limit their search by license.

CC Search CC Search enables users to search across multiple platforms for content licensed under one of the Creative Commons licenses.
Google: Find Free-to-Use Images This page explains how to use Google's search engines to find images, text, and videos that are licensed under Creative Commons licenses.

Copyright Infringement vs. Plagiarism

U.S. copyright law does not require citation in a particular form. However, following academic citation norms can help improve your fair use analysis. Check with your dissertation advisor for help figuring out what citation style you should use in your dissertation.

The Rackham Dissertation Handbook (PDF) says sources that must be cited include, but are not limited to:

language or wording either taken directly or paraphrased from another source, whether published or not; concepts, interpretations, techniques, methods, test instruments or procedures borrowed or adapted from another work, whether published or not; charts, graphs or figures borrowed or adapted from another source, whether published or not; photographs, films, recordings, digital material or other images from another source; and data, surveys or results of any kind from any other inquiry or investigation.

The Sweetland Center for Writing provides a number of resources on plagiarism and how to avoid it, including Beyond Plagiarism: Best Practices for the Responsible Use of Sources .

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Scholarly Communications - MIT Libraries

Theses & copyright

Fair use and your thesis

There are two key questions to consider when determining whether you can reuse a figure, table, image, or other content in your thesis without obtaining permission from the copyright holder:

Is the figure copyrighted? For the most part the answer to this will be yes (see Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States ). Generally, once the content was put in tangible form, and unless it was created prior to 1923 or is a US government publication, it is copyrighted.
Would your reuse be considered fair use ?

MIT license agreements may allow reuse

You may not need to rely on fair use to use others’ work in your thesis. The MIT Libraries’ has license agreements with Elsevier, Sage, Springer, Taylor & Francis, and Wiley that allow authors to reuse figures without asking permission or paying any fee.

Find more information about using figures and other content from published works.

Obtaining permission for use

If you determine that you should seek permission to reuse someone’s work, here are some places to go:

In general, MIT owns the copyright in MIT theses. If you want to reuse parts of a student’s (or your own) MIT thesis, contact [email protected] .
If you want to reuse a portion of a book or article, an efficient place to begin is the Copyright Clearance Center.
If you are seeking permission to reuse content from formats other than a book or article (e.g. music, plays, images, or film) consult the University of Texas Getting Permission page .

Using your own published articles in your thesis, or publishing articles from it

Journal publishers usually control copyright to scholarly articles. This theses and article publishing page shows publisher policies related to reuse of previously published articles in theses, and policies on accepting journal submissions on work that first appeared in a thesis.

Specifications for Thesis Preparation

This guide includes information on submission dates, fees, formatting, and copyright.

Fair Use Guidelines

Fair use permits educators to make certain uses of others’ works for nonprofit educational purposes.

17 U.S. Code 107

The statute, 17 U.S. Code 107, does not specify a scope of use; rather, it describes a “weighing and balancing” test one applies to a proposed use to determine whether the use is excused or needs permission from the copyright owner.

The test consists of four parts. First, we consider the nature of the use—whether it is nonprofit and educational or commercial and for-profit. Next, we consider the kind of work you want to use—whether it is factual or creative and fanciful. Then we consider how much of the whole work you will use. Finally, we consider the effect of such a use on the market for or value of the work, if the use were widespread.

The first factor weighs in our favor because we consider a dissertation to be very much like any other educational work. Students author dissertations to satisfy degree requirements. They are rarely professionally edited. They mark the beginning of the student’s efforts in a field. And their use of others’ materials generally transforms those materials through the processes of analysis, criticism, illustration and commentary. Thus, dissertations are nonprofit and educational.

The weight of the second, third and fourth factors depends on the proposed use. Use of small portions of a work is better than large portions. And lower-resolution images are better than stunning, reproducible images. Similarly, factual works are easier to justify as fair use than creative and fanciful works, though the study of creative works often requires that they be used and permission for them is often difficult or impossible to obtain. In appropriate proportions and for scholarly transformative purposes, even creative and fanciful works can be used under fair use. But one of the most important considerations is the “market effect” factor, the fourth factor. This factor weighs in favor of getting permission when there is an established permissions market, and in favor of fair use when there is not.

For example, it is easy, cheap and quick to get permission to use text materials for educational purposes because the Copyright Clearance Center has established a permissions market for such uses. As a result, the fourth factor will usually weigh in favor of getting permission for text materials.

Overall, we should use such materials under fair use more judiciously than we might use images, audiovisuals or music, where no such functional market exists and, indeed, getting permission is impossible in many cases. Be sure to document any effort made to obtain permission in order to demonstrate the lack of a functional market for permission for a particular kind of work.

Copyright Crash Course provided by UT Libraries

For more information on how this test works, see “Fair Use of Copyrighted Materials” in the University of Texas Libraries’ Copyright Crash Course at the link above.

Copyright Clearance Center (CCC)

CCC helps organizations integrate, access, and share information through licensing, content, software and professional services.

Code of Best Practices in Fair Use

It is important to understand that no one factor rules all the others. They intersect. For more information, see the Center for Media and Social Impact’s Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Scholarly Research in Communication.

Direct Quotations

Short, direct quotations of modest proportions are usually considered to be fair use. For example, a paragraph or two is probably within the bounds of fair use. For longer quotations, seek the permission of the copyright owner.

Images & Graphics

Our guidance about the use of images and graphics as fair use is affected significantly by the fourth fair use factor. It is often difficult or even impossible to get permission to use images and graphics. This situation is changing in some fields where it is now possible to license databases of quality images at reasonable prices for nonprofit educational uses. For example, Saskia and other art history image vendors offer educational licenses.

If it is easy to license the right to use the images you need, you should do so. But, for images for which a digital source is not readily available or for which permission is difficult or impossible to obtain, use of images without permission in an educational document like a dissertation is probably a fair use. Again, you should document any efforts you make to obtain permission.

Saskia is one of many art history image vendor that offers educational licenses for using their images.

Music & Audiovisuals

The same analysis we apply to images and graphics applies to music and audiovisuals: if you wish to use reasonable portions of such works in your dissertation, document your efforts to obtain permission or license the works. If your efforts show that there is no functional market for permission and no functional licensing opportunities, your use will likely be fair use.

Fair use is not an exact science. But there are good guides out there to help us make decisions about how much of what kinds of works it is appropriate to use when we rely on fair use. Considering the nature of a dissertation as transformative, educational and nonprofit, fair use enables us to use a portion of another’s work that is clearly related to our academic objective of making our points effectively, so long as we are sensitive to when there is and when there is not a functional market for permission.

This document was prepared for the Graduate School by Georgia Harper, and was last modified February 2011. Current questions about copyright can be addressed to Colleen Lyon, Scholarly Communications Librarian.

Copyright and Dissertations, Theses, and Master's Reports

Can I use this in my paper?

Weighing Fair Use

Fair use evaluator.

Licensing Your Work
Should I file for copyright?
Additional Resources

Transformative Use

While no use is always "fair," some uses are looked upon more favorably by the congress and the courts than others. A transformative use of a work - using an existing work for a new purpose or in an unexpected way - has weighed in favor of fair use in many court cases decided in recent decades. Even highly commercial uses have been judged "fair" by the U.S. Supreme Court, demonstrating the "weight" of a transformative use.

Librarians are available to answer your questions. Click on the Ask Us bubble for FAQs and contact options (chat, email, text, phone).

The information presented in this guide is intended for informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice.

Fair use (section 107, U.S.C. Title 17) allows for the use of copyrighted material without permission from the copyright holder for purposes including, but not exclusive to: criticism, parody, news reporting, research, scholarship, and teaching. The "fairness" of a proposed use is determined by the application and consideration of four factors.

The four fair use factors are:

Purpose and character of your use. In what way are you using the work ?
Nature of the copyrighted work. Is the work you are using fiction or nonfiction? Published or unpublished?
Amount or significance of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole. How much of the work are you using? Is it the "heart" of the work?
Effect of your use upon the potential market for the copyrighted work. Is your use eliminating the need for the purchase of the original?

All four factors must be applied on a case-by-case basis. However, all four factors do not necessarily need to lean in favor of fair use in order for a proposed use to be deemed "fair." Some factors may be more significant than others depending on your proposed use.

What about "educational fair use?" While many educational uses favor fair use, you still need to evaluate your use each time you are reproducing, distributing or displaying copyrighted material in your scholarly work.

Because copyright law does not define what is or is not a fair use, there is always a degree of ambiguity in any analysis. While all potential uses must undergo the four factor analysis, judicial decisions concerning fair use can be used to define examples within the four factors that may be considered to generally weigh for or against fair use.



	educational	entertainment
	not-for-profit	profit generating
	transformative	duplicative
	factual	creative
	published	unpublished
	permanency	consumables (workbooks, e.g.)
	proportional to need	unnecessarily substantial amount or entire work
	no rival market for the original	impairs market or potential market for the original

All potential uses must undergo the four-factor analysis because copyright law does not define what is or is not fair use. Though there is always a degree of ambiguity in any analysis, judicial decisions concerning fair use can be used to define examples that may be considered to generally weigh for or against fair use.

Though no tool can equivocally determine fair use, Fair Use Evaluator from the ALA Office for Information Technology Policy can help you weigh the four factors as well as provide documentation of your analysis.

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Last Updated: Oct 13, 2023 4:52 PM
URL: https://libguides.lib.mtu.edu/copyrightTDR

University Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Copyright for Graduate Students: Theses and Dissertations

Public Domain
Creative Commons Licensing
Obtaining Copyright Permission
International Materials
State and Federal Governmental Materials
University Policies on Copyright
Depositing Your Dissertation/Thesis in IDEALS

Copyright Questions?

Should you have further questions, please do not hesitate to ask Sara Benson, the Copyright Librarian, for assistance. Sara can be reached at 217-333-4200 or [email protected]

Scholarly Communication and Publishing

The Fine Print

Copyright law is complicated. This guide is intended to provide you with some guidance on how to refer library users to accurate information. However, this guide is not intended to provide legal advice to you or library users nor should you attempt to provide legal advice to library users.

And, of course, when in doubt, please refer library users to the Copyright Librarian, Sara Benson, at srbenson @illinois.edu

Dual Copyright Aspects of Theses & Dissertations

When writing a thesis or a dissertation, you have two sets of copyrights you should bear in mind.

Your own copyright as author of the thesis or dissertation; and
The copyright owned by others in the material you incorporate into your thesis or dissertation.

This guide will discuss both issues.

Generally, when using others' work, you will either determine that you do not need to obtain written permission to use the work in your thesis or dissertation (either because the work is no longer copyright protected/in the public domain or because you have determined that your use constitutes a fair use) or that you do need to obtain permission from the copyright owner (often the publisher and not the author of the work) to use the work.

You may need to consider copyright agreements concerning your own previously published work as well, as you may have transferred copyright to a journal or publisher. In that instance, you may need to obtain permission to use your own work in your thesis or dissertation.

Finally, you should consider how you want to designate your work here at Illinois. Do you want to make the work as open as possible and deposit it both with the institutional repository (IDEALS) and Proques t? Do you want to embargo your work as you plan to publish it immediately? Do you want to make it available so as to find a publisher? These are decisions you will need to make when you deposit your work with the University and this guide can help you when making those decisions.

Copyright and Your Dissertation or Thesis [pdf] Kenneth D. Crews offers a complete guide on how copyright affects your thesis.

Using Your Own Previously Published Work

For your own previously published works, first read the fine print in the publishing agreement. Do you have the right to re-use your own work or did you transfer your copyright to the publisher? If you transferred your copyright, you may need to ask for permission to use your own previously published work! Sound crazy? Well, that's why many publishing agreements today expressly permit scholars to use their own work (even if published) for research and teaching. But, again, read the fine print.

And, if you are planning to publish parts of your dissertation before you file your paper with the Graduate College, but you have not signed a copyright agreement or publishing agreement just yet, be sure to keep copyright in mind when negotiating with the publisher! Consider asking the publisher to let you add the SPARC Author's Addendum to your agreement.

What if you no longer have a copy of your publishing agreement? Don't worry, your publisher most certainly has a copy. Just send them a friendly e-mail and ask them if they will send you a copy.

SPARC Author Addendum The SPARC Author Addendum is a legal instrument that you can use to modify your copyright transfer agreements with non-open access journal publishers. It allows you to select which individual rights out of the bundle of copyrights you want to keep, such as distributing copies in the course of teaching and research, posting the article on a personal or institutional Web site, or creating derivative works.

Fair Use or Seeking Permission: That is the Question

When using other scholars' work in your dissertation (or even your own work, for that matter) the question arises: do I need to ask for permission to use the work in my writing?

There are generally no truly simple answers to that question, except maybe for quotations. You may generally quote a small portion of another scholar's published work without seeking their permission to do so--this is a classic example of fair use.

When using the work of others, consider the following:

Is it in the public domain ? If so, no permission is needed to use the work.
Is it a work produced by the federal government in the course of their duties as government officials ? If so, no permission is needed.
Is the work licensed with a creative commons license ? If so, no permission is needed to use the work, but you will need to carefully consider the terms of the license and comply with those terms to legally use the work.
Is your use of the work a fair use ? If so, no permission is needed to use the work, but you should conduct a fair use analysis for each and every source you consider to be a fair use.
If you've answered no to all of the above questions, then yes, you should seek written permission to use the work in your thesis or dissertation.

Except where otherwise indicated, original content in this guide is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license . You are free to share, adopt, or adapt the materials. We encourage broad adoption of these materials for teaching and other professional development purposes, and invite you to customize them for your own needs.

Next: Copyright Basics >>
Last Updated: May 8, 2024 3:09 PM
URL: https://guides.library.illinois.edu/copyrightforgradstudents

Theses & Dissertations

Introduction
Before Starting Your Research: IRB Approval and ETD Training
Getting Started
Guidelines and Templates
Contacts and FAQ
Style Guides
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Copyright, Fair Use, and Other Rights
Microsoft Word Help (External Guide)
LaTeX for Math and Science ETDs
Published Theses and Dissertations
ProQuest ETD Admin (External Link)

Reusing Copyrighted Work, Fair Use, Creative Commons, and More

See the ETD Guidelines for a more detailed explanation of copyright and how it might affect your ability to use someone else's work as part of your manuscript. Below are a few tools you can use to help determine a work's copyright status and what you can or can't do with it.

Need to Determine Whether Something is Under Copyright and for How Long?

Copyright Term and the Public Domain (Cornell University Libraries) A regularly-updated chart that will help you determine whether a work you'd like to reuse is under copyright and, if so, for how long.

What About Fair Use?

U.S. Copyright Office Fair Use Index An explanation of the "four factors" that determine whether an intended reuse counts as fair use or not under U.S. copyright law and a searchable index of past cases decided on the topic.

Fair Use Checklist (Columbia University Libraries) A checklist to help authors determine how the four factors apply to the reuse of a work and whether or not that use is, indeed, fair use.

Reusing Something That Is Creative Commons-Licensed (aka CC-BY)?

Creative Commons: About CC Licenses Some creators retain their copyright but openly license their work under Creative Commons (CC) so that anyone else can reuse it free of charge under certain conditions. This explains what each CC license means and what restrictions each may place on potential reuse.

Need More Help?

Copyright Basics at Marshall University A guide that takes a slightly deeper dive into the basics of copyright with an on-campus contact.

Attribution

Attribution vs. citation.

Citation is when an author indicates the source of an idea or quotation that they refer to in their work. Most style guides have detailed rules and guidance for formatting citations both in-text and in one or more reference lists.

An attribution gives credit to the creator of a work reused within your manuscript. For example, the caption underneath a photo often attributes the work to its photographer. Many style guides also have rules on how to format an attribution and whether or not to also cite the work within the attribution and/or the reference list.

Open Attribution Buider (Open Washington) Generates an attribution based on a Creative Commons license. This format may not comply with your style guide. Verify before your final draft.

Should You Register for Copyright?

Should you register your copyright for your thesis or dissertation.

When you submit, your final, publication-ready thesis or dissertation via ProQuest etdadmin.com, you are given the option to pay ProQuest to handle the registration of your manuscript with the U.S. Copyright Office.

This is not mandatory. Your manuscript is copyrighted regardless of whether you pay for copyright registration, but there are some important things to consider before making this choice.

Although your work is automatically copyrighted as soon as it is complete, you will need to have registered your copyright if you ever want to sue for copyright infringement or claim statutory damages and attorney's fees. The time frame in which you register is also important in both of these situations. Registering the copyright before publication is always best. If you wait until after publication, certain time limits come into play.

There are other benefits to registration. In addition to establishing a time frame for court cases regarding your copyright, it creates a public record that will help those wishing to license your work to determine its rights status now or many years in the future. The registration process also usually satisfies Library of Congress deposit requirements.

For more information about copyright registration:

See the section labeled "Benefits of Registration" in the U.S. Copyright Office's Circular 1, Copyright Basics .
Circular 2, Copyright Registration goes into the nuts and bolts of registering for copyright for different types of works.
There is also a U.S. Copyright Office video discussing the benefits of copyright registration at https://youtu.be/mM5fs2TCMKs .
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Last Updated: Jun 6, 2024 10:29 AM
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Copyright and Fair Use: Theses and Dissertations

Public Domain
Theses and Dissertations
Creative Commons
Copyright Claims Board

Copyright for Theses and Dissertations

For many graduate students, the thesis or dissertation is one of their first publications. Having an understanding of basic copyright issues before beginning your thesis or dissertation can help you avoid additional work in the future.

A checklist for authors and some Frequently Asked Questions can be found below.

If you have any questions or need assistance, please email [email protected] .

Copyright Checklist for Theses and Dissertations

Below, is a checklist of activities to conduct before and during the writing of your thesis or dissertation. If you have any questions or need assistance, please contact Fondren Library Publishing Services using this webform or email [email protected] .

Educopia created a useful guide about copyright issues specifically related to theses and dissertations.
Read Rice’s Copyright Policy , which includes information specific to graduate students.
Be sure to acknowledge that the work was published in an earlier form and provide citation information.
Are any materials in the public domain ? Works in the public domain have no copyright restrictions on use (it is, however, best practice to provide attribution/citation).
Do any of the materials have Creative Commons licenses ? Check that your use meets the license terms of use.
Does fair use apply to any of your uses?
Do you have permission from a copyright owner to use material? Columbia University Libraries developed a useful resource for seeking permission.
Are you including any materials created by you, but previously published? Check your publishing agreements to ensure that you have permission to use your work in your thesis or dissertation.

Derived from ProQuest and Kenneth D. Crews’ “ Copyright Information for Dissertation Authors ” licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License .

Frequently Asked Questions

Below, are questions related to copyright and theses/dissertations that Fondren Library staff frequently receive. They are updated as additional questions are received and as policies/guidelines change. Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies also maintains a Candidacy and Defense FAQ .

Q: Who owns the copyright in my thesis or dissertation?

You do! You are the owner of the copyright in your work from the moment it is fixed in a tangible form, including computer memory. You continue to own that copyright until you transfer it to another party. A transfer of copyright must be in writing. [from The Graduate School, Duke University ]

Q: Why are Rice theses and dissertations made available online? Will this hurt my chances for future publication?

For many years, universities have required that dissertations be shared publicly, since the ultimate objective of doctoral training is to produce scholars who can make public contributions to knowledge. In the pre-Web era, dissertations were typically held by the PhD student’s home library as well as microfilmed and made available through UMI. In the Web era, most universities have moved to online systems, which are easier to manage, involve less hassle (you don’t have to worry about binding your dissertation), and allow students to have a deeper impact on knowledge. While the first book in the humanities is typically based on the author’s dissertation, it involves substantial revision, so many publishers regard it as being an entirely different object. Some students have found that having their dissertations available online raises their scholarly profile and even helps them to find a publisher. For more information, see Cirasella, J., & Thistlethwaite, P. (2017). Open access and the graduate author: A dissertation anxiety manual . In K. L. Smith & K. A.Dickson (Eds.), Open access and the future of scholarly communication: Implementation(pp. 203-224). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

Q: Why is my dissertation available in the public domain?

This is a common misconception. You retain copyright over your thesis or dissertation. It is publicly available but not in the public domain .

Q: How do I copyright my thesis?

Copyright protection automatically exists from the time the work is created in fixed form. There is no requirement that the work be published or registered to obtain protection under copyright law.

However, you may wish to register your copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office at the Library of Congress. Copyright registration is not a condition to copyright protection but may be useful if you have a claim of infringement of your copyright. Registration may be made at any time within the life of the copyright, but there are advantages to filing for registration within three months of publication. For more information on registration, see the U.S. Copyright Office . [from The Graduate School, UNC ]

Q: Can I use copyrighted images or graphs in my dissertation?

A number of factors should be considered when determining if copyrighted material like images and graphs can be used in your work. Please see this guide’s fair use section or contact [email protected] . For additional information about using images in publications, please see the library’s guide to Finding and Using Images in Publications .

Q: What if I want to patent the research in my thesis?

You may need to request that publication of your work be delayed until after patent review. If you require a delay on the publishing of your thesis, you may make this request directly through thesis.rice.edu when submitting your documents.

Q: Who should I contact with questions about depositing theses and dissertations?

Contact Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies: [email protected]

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Last Updated: May 9, 2024 3:14 PM
URL: https://libguides.rice.edu/copyright

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1. Can I include music in my thesis or dissertation?

Copyright protects many different types of works, including musical works, sound recordings, textual works, and images. If you are using copyright protected works in your thesis or dissertation, you will need to determine if your use is permissible under the law. This means receiving permission from the copyright owner or relying on the statutory exception of fair use.

The fair use of a work is determined based on the balancing of four factors: the purpose and character of the use, the nature of the copyrighted work, the amount and substantiality of the portion used, and the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work. Fair use is determined on a case-by-case basis and will require you to evaluate how and why you are including copyrighted works in your thesis or dissertation; using only the amount of the work needed to support your scholarship will help to strengthen your fair use defense.

Works in the public domain are free of copyright protections and may be used without restriction. Works available under an open license may be used according to the terms of the license.

2. What rights do I have as an author?

As a student, you own the copyright in your thesis or dissertation and may control how your work is reproduced, adapted, distributed, displayed, or performed. You may choose to retain all of these rights or transfer your rights to another person or entity, such as a publisher. Only sign a publishing agreement after you have read and understand the terms of the agreement.

By including a copyright notice, you let others know your ownership in the work. If you would like others to be able to use your work, clearly and publicly communicate your terms of use.

3. Who can access my thesis or dissertation?

Master’s theses, dissertations, and DMA documents must be electronically submitted to OhioLINK to meet graduation requirements as well as for storage and online access. In addition, PhD and DMA documents are archived through ProQuest/UMI. The full text of your thesis or dissertation will be openly available to the public now and in the future.

4. How do I remove content from my thesis or dissertation?

You may not be permitted to change documents that have been accepted to complete degree requirements, so carefully consider the materials you wish to include in your work prior to submission. OhioLINK considers material in the ETD Center to be a record of completed work and removal may only be permitted under certain circumstances.

OSU policy is to disseminate all dissertations as soon as possible. In certain situations, electronic distribution of your dissertation may be delayed through an embargo request for a period of one to five years. A petition to delay publication will be reviewed and granted by the Graduate School.

Have questions? Contact the OSU Copyright Resources Center: [email protected] , 614-688-5849.

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Theses, Dissertations, and Creative Components: Rights and Responsibilities

Fair use and your work
Doing research
Publishing new work based on your thesis
Reusing your own work in your thesis
Copyright infringement vs plagiarism
Getting permission for reuse

What is Fair Use?

Fair use is a provision in US Copyright law that allows the use of copyrighted materials on a limited basis for specific purposes without the permission of the copyright holder.

Four Factors of Fair Use

Purpose of use : Best if materials are nonprofit, educational, scholarly, or for research use; Alternatively, the use of the work may be transformative: repurposing, recontextualizing, creating a new purpose or meaning for the material.
Nature or type of work : The use of published, fact-based content is more likely to be considered fair use than unpublished or artistic content.
Amount used : Authors should only use the amount needed for a given purpose; Using small or less significant amounts is considered preferable.
Market effect : Reuse should consider if there would be an effect on the market or value of the original work when the reused content is shared. Fair use favors uses that do not affect the original works.

It is necessary to weigh all four factors to decide whether a fair use exemption seems to apply to a proposed reuse. Courts take a holistic approach -- they do not simply "add up" a positive or negative for each factor.

Judges have tended to focus on two questions that collapse the four factors:

Does the use transform the material, by using it for a different purpose?
Was the amount taken appropriate to the new purpose?

To support a fair use case for an image:

Use lower resolution or thumbnail versions where possible;
Place the image in a new context or use it for a new purpose; and
Use only the parts of the image needed for the purpose

Useful links

Fair Use Overview A clear overview of fair use: what it is and how to measure it, provided by Columbia University.
Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Scholarly Research in Communication From the Center for Social Media, American University

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The library's collections and services are available to all ISU students, faculty, and staff and Parks Library is open to the public .

Last Updated: Dec 19, 2023 2:12 PM
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Copyright Help for Theses and Other Projects

Introduction
Permissions: General
Permissions: Images
Permissions: Data
Frequently Asked Questions

Director of Research Services

What is Fair Use?

Fair Use is a powerful legal doctrine that promotes freedom of expression by permitting the unlicensed use of copyright-protected works in certain circumstances.There is no clear-cut test or formulas you can use to figure out if something is Fair Use. This can be frustrating when you have bigger things to worry about - like your thesis! It can be helpful to remember that Fair Use is, essentially, the part of the copyright law that protects our First Amendment speech rights and that its strength lies in that very lack of specificity.

Is Your Use Fair?

Ultimately, you are responsible for getting copyright permissions and determining Fair Use. So, how do you figure out if your use is fair? You look at:

how you're using the work;
how much of the work you're using;
what kind of work it is;
and how your use will affect the market for that work.

These are called the "four factors" of fair use. See Columbia University's copyright website for more detailed information.

A fair use checklist is a tool you can use to help you decide if your use is fair.

A fair use checklist is a decision-making tool; in the end, you still have to make your own determination. What the checklist can do is let you know what kinds of things favor fair use and what kinds of things oppose it, giving you a framework for thinking about your use of a work. And, if you print it out and save it, it can provide documentation of your analysis (which can be helpful if anyone questions your decision).

Need help figuring out if your use is fair? Contact a librarian . We can't give you legal advice, but we are happy to talk it through with you and share our thoughts!

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Last Updated: Feb 1, 2024 12:19 PM
URL: https://libguides.reed.edu/copyright

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Graduate Thesis Submission Guide

Thesis Guide
Formatting Requirements
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What is Fair Use?

"Fair use" refers to the specific uses of copyrighted material that are allowed under copyright protection without requiring permission from the copyright owner ( 17 U.S.C. §107 ). These uses include criticism, parody, commentary, journalism, education and research.

The ability to claim use of something under "fair use" relies on the following factors:

The purpose and character of the use , including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
The nature of the copyrighted work;
The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
The effect of the use upon the potential market for, or value of, the copyrighted work.

( U.S. Copyright Office: Fair Use )

Repurposing Images

Sometimes, an image or other copyrighted material is simply not available in open access form. How can you include these materials in your thesis? The following answer is excerpted from Crews' Copyright and Your Dissertation or Thesis article:

"Especially for photographs, drawings, paintings, and other images, consider using small size “thumbnail” images and low-resolution reproductions. Use black-and-white versions of color images if they will suffice for your scholarly purposes . . .That option is hardly ideal, but it is more likely to be within fair use."

Citing Images

Even when you're confident that your use of an image is "fair," it is essential that you properly cite and attribute it.

Citations can be formatted according to the citation style you are using (e.g. MLA, APA, Chicago Manual of Style).

Include as much of the following in your citation as can be easily determined from the source:

Creator’s name (e.g. the photographer)
Title of the work
Location of the work (museum, library or owning institution if known)
Date work was created
Copyright owner, if known (please note, this may not be the original creator)
Source (where you found the image)

(From the web page "Scholarly Publishing — MIT Libraries." See more at: https://libraries.mit.edu/scholarly/publishing/using-copyrighted-content )

Unique Images

No citation is needed for personal photographs when using APA style. The Chicago style citation for personal photographs is adapted from the citation for published photographs.

APA: Title of meme/image or your own description of the image [Digital image]. (Year Published). Retrieved from URL.

MLA: Title of meme (or your own description if title isn't available). Title of the Website where it was published, Publisher, Date of publication (if known). URL.

Chicago: Title or description. Digital image. Website Title. Date published. Date accessed (only include if there is no publication date). URL.

Personal photograph:

MLA : Your last name, first name. Short description as title of work. Date the photo was taken. Author's personal collection.

Chicago: Your last name, first name, photographer. "Title/short description." Photograph. Date the photo was taken. Author's personal collection.

See meme examples See MLA personal photograph examples

Fair Use Resources

Stanford Fair Use and Copyright Guide Very thorough guide on copyright and fair use in law and policy, including case law. Special focus on fair use in academia. Includes the Fairly Used Blog which follows copyright in the news.
Fair Use Evaluator Produced by the Office for Information Technology Policy of the American Library Association, this interactive site guides you through the process of determining fair use.
Fair Use Policies from the Society for Cinema and Media Studies Has a great page of resources on copyright and fair use pertaining to film stills.
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Last Updated: Apr 9, 2024 10:43 AM
URL: https://libguides.pratt.edu/thesisguide

The Very, Very Basics of Fair Use in Scholarly Publishing

by Neal Swain, subsidiary rights & licensing manager, University of California Press

Copyright and fair use are not subjects that rivet a lot of people, but it’s necessary that an author planning to publish their work understands the fundamentals of both, particularly if their work relies on engagement with the writing or art of others. While I can’t promise to make the subject thrilling, I can promise you a cat picture if you keep reading.

From your experience researching or teaching, you are probably already familiar with the four factors of fair use , which are meant to help establish whether copyrighted material can be reused without seeking permission from the rightsholder. The four factors are taken into account when evaluating for potential fair use are addressed in section 107 of the US Copyright Act , and reproduced here*:

Purpose and character of the use, including whether the use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes
Nature of the copyrighted work
Amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole
Effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work

*NB: in the US, government documents, publications, legal codes, and case filings publications are public domain with some very rare exceptions.

What fair use isn’t is codified law. Instead, it is a set of criteria that you can use to evaluate whether reusing a selection from someone else’s original material in a certain way is an allowable instance of copyright infringement. That is to say, a limited use that doesn’t undermine the copyright holder’s control over, or ability to profit from, their own work.

If your work is available for sale in any format, even if your goals are not financial, your book is a commercial product. That means the risk of impermissible copyright infringement is higher than it would be if you used the same material in a classroom lecture or quoted it in a paper that was not intended for publication. As a result, the litmus test for deciding whether quoting material or reproducing an image qualifies as “fair use” is more rigorous when you’re publishing.

The strongest argument you can make is that the excerpted material is necessary for your successful critical analysis or argument. In other words, you need to prove that your writing relies on the image or text in order for your analysis of that material to be understood, and further prove that you are only using the minimum amount of material necessary to make your intentions understood.

For example, if you were dissecting a poem, under fair use you would only quote a few lines, or part of a line, reflective of the theme under discussion. And if you were analyzing a painter’s brush stroke technique, you might select a close-up image rather than reproduce the entire painting. If you are analyzing the complete work at great length, there may be a persuasive argument to include the entire text (if short) or the entire image, but you would need to be cautious and make certain that you are genuinely addressing all aspects of the complete work.

While putting together your image program and citations, you’ll want to evaluate each piece for how necessary it is to your forthcoming book or journal article; how integral its inclusion is for reader understanding; and whether you want to reproduce more of the material than is strictly necessary for understanding your analysis—and if the answer is yes, you might need to license permission to use the material.

So, what does this triage process look like in practice? Well, let’s start with the cat picture I promised.

This is Calliope. She is a creature of charisma, strong opinions, and a surprising fixation with strawberries. For the purposes of this exercise, not only do you agree that she is an amazing cat (of course you do; you certainly couldn’t imply otherwise to me), but you have decided that you MUST include this picture in your book.

So, which of the uses below might constitute fair use?

Using her picture as a frontispiece, without caption or credit
As part of your regular image program, reproduced in black and white at ¼ page size, with credit but without a caption or textual analysis
In full color, with credit and a caption that says, “This cat is amazing.” There is no discussion of the photo in your draft manuscript about riverine ecology
You’re writing a monograph on the amateur photography people take of their pets and you include this image at half-page size with credit, caption, and detailed in-text discussion about the particular characteristics of the photo and similarities to other photos people take of their pets
The image is included in full, with a credit and caption, but the only text in your book alluding to the image is a line saying “Internet cat photos are the only way I make it through modern life.”

The answers are in the following paragraph, but I’m sure you’ve already made an intuitive assessment. The image or text you want to cite in your book doesn’t have to overlap 100% with the topic of your main thesis, but it must be relevant to what you’re writing about, and you must engage with it in a substantial way. If you don’t, your case for fair use will be weaker and may not stand up against a copyright infringement challenge. Having a strong argument for fair use and retaining those records will help protect your scholarship (and you) from legal liabilities.

Answers: 1)You would need permission from me and should credit the photograph elsewhere in the manuscript, for example, on the copyright page; 2)You would need permission; 3)I completely understand this, but you still need to receive permission; 4)Congratulations! You have a strong case for fair use because your critical analysis of the photo relies on having the visual reference image available for readers and substantively addresses the qualities of the photo; 5) See 3.

Read more from Neal Swain: Creative Commons: Selecting, and Understanding, Your Creative Commons License Subsidiary Rights: A Brief Introduction

Learn more about the UC Press FirstGen Program

TAGS: #FirstGen , author resources , copyright , Fair Use , FirstGen Program

CATEGORIES: Author Resources , FirstGen

Copyright and Fair Use: Copyright Concerns of Students

Showing Movies in Class and On Campus
Copyright & Online Teaching
Copyright Concerns of Students
Plagiarism and Academic Integrity
Rights of Authors
The Public Domain
Creative Commons
Copyright Claims Board

RIM - Research in Ministry

Using Copyright Works of Others in Thesis/Dissertation

You should assume that anything produced by someone other than yourself is protected by copyright unless you determine otherwise (e.g. determine that the term of copyright protection has expired and the work is in the public domain). The types of works protected by copyright include books, articles, newspapers, photographs, music, movies, software, and even things you find on the internet.

Use of works protected by copyright in your dissertation or thesis will need either permission or a fair use justification. Fair use is an exception to the copyright holder's exclusive rights. In order to use copyrighted works under a claim of fair use, the following factors must be weighed: (1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for non-profit educational purposes; (2) the nature of the copyrighted work; (3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and (4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work. For more on fair use, click on the Fair Use tab above.

Fair use provides an indispensable opportunity for scholarship, since so much of research involves building upon the insights of others. Quotations from other writers are a regular part of most scholarship and are generally consider a classic example of fair use. There is no exact rule about how much one may quote and remain within the boundaries of fair use. Various guidelines that offer specific numbers of words or lines are advisory and do not have the force of law. In general, quotations from the work of others should be no longer than is necessary to support the scholarly point you wish to make. When you are subjecting the quoted material to scholarly criticism or comment, you have more leeway for fair use than in many other situations, but you should be sure that you do not use more of someone else's work than is necessary for the argument that you are making in your own thesis/dissertation.

In the case of images, you should be sure that the pictures you reproduce are closely tied to your research goals and are each made the subject of specific scholarly comment. If you use a large number of copyright-protected images by a single artist, or in some other way threaten to supersede the market for the original works, it is wise to seek permission. If you have flexibility in the final selection of your images, search for images that are 1) in the public domain, or 2) made available for reuse via a Creative Commons license. Such images can be incorporated into your dissertation without permission or concern for fair use.

If you determine that permission is necessary, the first step is to locate the copyright holder. This may not always be the author; sometimes copyright ownership is transferred to a publisher or to an author's estate if he or she is deceased. Once you determine who to request permission from, it is best to send a written letter of request. An email letter is sufficient. It is best to get written documentation of permissions. You should retain copies of all permissions in your files.

Finally, remember to always provide proper attribution to the sources of the works you incorporate into your thesis or dissertation. Proper attribution is absolutely required; that’s a part of academic integrity and good scholarship. Copyright permission, if necessary, is an entirely separate matter and does not obviate the need for attribution.

From Dissertation to Publication - FAQ on Student Author Rights

Who owns the copyright of a thesis or dissertation?

You do! The copyright of a thesis or dissertation belongs to you as the author. Under the U.S. Copyright Act, works are automatically copyrighted at the moment they are fixed in a tangible form, including residing on your computer's hard drive. You continue to own that copyright until you transfer it to another party. A transfer of copyright must be in writing. If parts of a work have already been published and copyright in those other works was transferred to someone else (e.g. a publisher), copyright of those parts remains with whom it was transferred to.

Do I need to register my copyright?

You do not need to register with the Copyright Office in order to enjoy copyright protection. Such protection is automatic, coming into effect at the moment a work is fixed in a tangible form. However, registration has certain advantages. First, if your work is registered you have strong evidence that you are the author of the work and the owner of its copyright. Also, registration is necessary to enforce a copyright against an infringer or plagiarist. For full detail, read t he U.S. Copyright Office circular "Copyright Basics" .

Can I use previously published articles of my own in my work?

It depends. You will need to review the agreement you signed with the publisher of our previously published article. Most agreements require you to transfer your copyright to the publisher. If this is the case, you must request permission from the publisher to "reprint" the article as a chapter in your dissertation. However, some agreements specify that you retain the right to reprint the article in your dissertation. The chart below details several publishers' policies with respect to reusing your own previously published work in a thesis or dissertation; however, you should always review the terms of any agreement you signed.

What is open access, and how does it apply to my thesis or dissertation?

Articles, books, theses and dissertations are said to be "open access" when they are "digital, online, free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions." By making publications open access, the widest sharing of ideas and research results is made possible, which is generally done either by publishing in open access journals or depositing them in open access repositories such as an institutional repository.

Will journal or book publishers consider publishing my work if it is based on an open access thesis or dissertation?

Recent surveys show that a majority of journal editors and university presses would accept submissions of articles and book manuscripts that were based upon theses or dissertations, even if they are available in an open access repository. This is in part because most publishers consider theses and dissertations to be "student work" that will require substantial editing and revision before being published in article or book form. The chart below summarizes the policies of some publishers regarding the publication of new works from a thesis or dissertation.

Publisher Policies - Publishing a Dissertation or Reusing One's Published Work in a Dissertation

Publisher	Student Reuse of Own Previously Published Articles	Publication of Thesis/Dissertation Content
Brill	. Each Brill publication has a different policy on reuse of published content. Student authors must complete a rights/permission request through Copyright Clearance Center to reuse their entire article in their dissertation. See for more information.	Consult the for guidance on submitting a dissertation as a manuscript. There is no specific guidance on whether deposit of a dissertation or thesis in an open access repository is considered prior publication.
Cambridge University Press	, Must acknowledge the original publication, and include a copyright notice and the phrase “reprinted with permission.”	Each journal has own policy and must be contacted prior to submission to determine whether will be treated as a prior publication.
DeGruyter	VARIES. Each DeGruyter publication has a different policy on reuse of published content. Student authors must complete a rights/permission request through Copyright Clearance Center to reuse their entire article in their dissertation. See for more information.	In the field of theology and religion, DeGruyter does accept dissertations as manuscripts (see for more information). Check with the publisher, however, to verify whether deposit in an open access repository is considered prior publication.
Eisenbrauns	Permission must still be requested but will generally be granted without charge.	Proposals must be submitted before any work is accepted. Be sure to include details regarding your dissertation, including whether it is currently available in an open access repository, and what, if any, modifications you intend to make to it.
Fortress Press	Permissions for reprint must be processed through Copyright Clearance Center. Fortress does not provide any guidance on whether students may include their own previously published works in their thesis or dissertation.	Fortress imprint; however, they do not provide any guidance whether deposit in an open access repository would be considered prior publication.
Mohr Siebeck	But only if it has been one year since publication if a journal article or two years after publication if a chapter in a book. See the for more information.	No specific guidance is given as to treatment of a thesis or dissertation as a prior publication. Contact the individual journal or book editor for further guidance.
Oxford University Press	But only if the thesis or dissertation will not be commercially published.	Does not have a policy on acceptance of thesis or dissertation. Contact individual journal prior to submission.
Peeters Publishers	No guidance is available online. Contact the individual publication or review your publication agreement to determine policy on reuse of published article in a thesis or dissertation.	Contact the individual publication you wish to submit a manuscript to for policy regarding treatment of a thesis or dissertation as prior publication if it has been deposited in an open access repository.
SAGE	Per , the published version may be included in a thesis or dissertation.	Per , "excerpts or material from your dissertation that have not been through peer review will generally be eligible for publication. However, if the excerpt from the dissertation included in your manuscript is the same or substantially the same as any previously published work, the editor may determine that it is not suitable for publication in the journal."
Taylor & Francis	However, you ; you cannot use the version of record/published version in your thesis or dissertation.	Taylor and Francis to student authors on how to publish from their dissertation or thesis. Treatment as prior publication is not discussed; therefore, prospective authors should contact the journal they seek to submit to for policy.
Wiley	However, must be taken to prevent further open sharing online (e.g., deposit in an open access repository of a dissertation containing the full text of a Wiley article authored by the student would be prohibited)	Wiley's states that it does not have concern with publishing content included in a thesis or dissertation that has been included in an institution's archives. If your thesis or dissertation has been deposited in an open access repository, there may be a concern on the part of the publisher, so this should be disclosed.
Wipf & Stock	Permissions for reprint must be processed through Copyright Clearance Center. Wipf and Stock does not provide any guidance on whether students may include their own previously published works in their thesis or dissertation.	Contact the publisher for assistance with determining whether your thesis or dissertation has been shared or published in a way that would be considered prior publication and thus ineligible for commercial publication.

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Next: Plagiarism and Academic Integrity >>
Last Updated: Mar 20, 2024 1:15 PM
URL: https://atla.libguides.com/copyright

Copyright & Your Scholarship

Using Copyrighted Sources
Your Rights as an Author
Sharing & Preserving Your Work
Copyrighted Materials in Your Thesis or Dissertation
Access Options When Submitting

Using Quotations and Text

In general, you are fine to quote from copyrighted texts with proper attribution. Keep in mind that you should use only the amount of text necessary to support your argument or conduct your own analysis; this is good scholarship and best practice in adhering to copyright law. If you are conducting research in an archive or have access to unpublished texts, a good resource is the Society of American Archivists "Copyright and Unpublished Material" guide.

Using Images and Video

Using images & video.

As you incorporate images or video clips into your work, ask the following questions to decide whether or not you need to get permission:

Is the work in copyright? If you're using a video or recent image created within the past 40 years, it is very likely protected by copyright. If you're using older material, it may or may not be protected. This chart is a great starting point when deciding whether or not the image is copyrighted.

If it is protected, can you make the case for fair use? Fair use is a part of U.S. Copyright Law that supports limited uses of copyrighted materials for education and scholarship. In the context of theses and dissertations, you may be able to rely on fair use rather than obtaining specific permission from the copyright holder. As one way to assess this, ask yourself whether or not the image or video is necessary to your argument? For instance, are you analyzing the work in your writing or does it directly support a particular point you are trying to make? If yes, your use is more likely to be fair . If the image or video is mainly there to make your work more visually appealing, but without really adding anything crucial to your argument, that use is less likely to be fair .

Can you use an image that is in the public domain or royalty free? If you don't think your use of a specific image falls within fair use, consider using a free-to-use alternative. Most images created before the 20th century and many images created after that are in the public domain, meaning their copyright protections have expired or they were never protected in the first place. Many websites also post images labeled as "royalty free" or "openly licensed." For links to websites containing images and audio or video files that may be in the public domain or openly licensed, please visit our research guide: Finding and Using Public Domain and Openly Licensed Media .

Do you need permission? If you want to use a specific image or video, have determined your use isn't fair, and can't find a suitable alternative, you may be able to seek permission from the copyright holder or pay a licensing fee. If you know the name of the photographer, you may be able to find their contact information online. On YouTube, you can typically send a message by going to a user's "about" page (though keep in mind that many people upload videos without owning the copyright). Note that most archives and special collections do not own copyright to many of the materials that they own; staff at such institutions may be able to give you information about the creator but often cannot give you permission to use the item.

Using Data, Charts, and Graphs

Using data, charts, & graphs.

U.S. Copyright Law excludes ideas or facts from copyright protection. This means that research data may receive little or no protection on its own; to hold copyright, a researcher would need to creatively organize, compile, or otherwise add value to the underlying factual data. So in many cases, you are fine from a copyright perspective to analyze or republish research data. You should still consider the privacy and ethical norms of your field, any terms of use or contracts you agree to with data providers, and the implications of patent or trade secret laws, since these might limit what you can do with the data.

Similarly, you may typically republish a chart or graph that conveys factual information in a straightforward, uncreative way (e.g. a simple bar graph, pie chart, etc.). If the chart or graph involves more creative design or infographic elements, annotation, etc., you will need to consider fair use, get permission from the publisher or author, or create your own illustration based on the underlying facts.

<< Previous: Theses, Dissertations, & Creative Projects
Next: Access Options When Submitting >>
Last Updated: Oct 25, 2022 10:21 AM
URL: https://bsu.libguides.com/copyrightscholarship

Copyright & Fair Use

Duquesne Policy
Copyright Basics
Open Access
Public Domain
Getting Permission
Images & Art
Music & Audio This link opens in a new window
Showing Movies in Class and on Campus

Getting Started

Using copyrighted content.

When using copyrighted material in your own work, determine whether you need permission.

In some cases your use may qualify as a fair use under the guidelines in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Code. Duquesne provides a fair use checklist you can use to document your fair use analysis.

Check for rights restrictions— Creative Commons licenses that specify allowable uses are becoming more common, especially for online resources and images.

Dissertation Research

Generally the author of a work owns the copyright, but there are special considerations for a dissertation. For example, the dissertation research may have been carried out in a lab with grant funding obtained by the faculty member advising the dissertation. Or, chapters within the dissertation may have been accepted or published as journal articles.

If your thesis or dissertation contains material that you have submitted to a publisher, make sure you follow the permission guidelines of the publisher. You may find a blanket permission for use in a dissertation on the publisher's website. See Gumberg Library's ETD Preparation Guidelines for more information.

Tips for getting permission

Write to the copyright holder to request permission.
Use a permissions service to save time. Start with the Copyright Clearance Center . You can often fill out a form online and receive an immediate answer.
Check the publisher website for permissions information.
Be prepared to pay—copyright holders may not charge for certain uses, as including a limited amount of content in a dissertation, but you may have to pay a fee. To keep the cost affordable, describe the intended use carefully and limit your use to only what is needed.
Allow sufficient time — if you need to write directly to the copyright holder you can expect the process to take several weeks at least. Write for permission as soon as you determine your need.
Don’t use the material until you receive permission—lack of response from the copyright holder does not give you the right to use the material. Keep documentation of your requests and payments.

Permission Guides

These sites provide in-depth information on requesting permission.

Permission Requests

Information to include in permission request:

Title of the material
Creator/author of the material
Publisher of the material
Description of material
ISBN or ISSN, if applicable
Date of publication, if applicable
Purpose for which you wish to reproduce the item (research, commercial, educational, etc.)
How the material is to be reproduced (e.g., photocopied, digitized)
Where the reproduced material will be used or will appear and for how long
<< Previous: Public Domain
Next: Images & Art >>
Last Updated: May 20, 2024 10:14 AM
URL: https://guides.library.duq.edu/copyright

U.S. Copyright Office Fair Use Index

Index last updated November 2023

Welcome to the U.S. Copyright Office Fair Use Index. This Fair Use Index is a project undertaken by the Office of the Register in support of the 2013 Joint Strategic Plan on Intellectual Property Enforcement of the Office of the Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator ( IPEC ). Fair use is a longstanding and vital aspect of American copyright law. The goal of the Index is to make the principles and application of fair use more accessible and understandable to the public by presenting a searchable database of court opinions, including by category and type of use (e.g., music, internet/digitization, parody).

The Fair Use Index tracks a variety of judicial decisions to help both lawyers and non-lawyers better understand the types of uses courts have previously determined to be fair—or not fair. The decisions span multiple federal jurisdictions, including the U.S. Supreme Court, circuit courts of appeal, and district courts. Please note that while the Index incorporates a broad selection of cases, it does not include all judicial opinions on fair use. The Copyright Office will update and expand the Index periodically.

The Fair Use Index is designed to be user-friendly. For each decision, we have provided a brief summary of the facts, the relevant question(s) presented, and the court’s determination as to whether the contested use was fair. You may browse all of the cases, search for cases involving specific subject matter or categories of work, or review cases from specific courts. The Index ordinarily will reflect only the highest court decision issued in a case. It does not include the court opinions themselves. We have provided the full legal citation, however, allowing those who wish to read the actual decisions to access them through free online resources (such as Google Scholar and Justia), commercial databases (such as Westlaw and LEXIS), or the federal courts’ PACER electronic filing system, available at www.pacer.gov .

Although the Fair Use Index should prove helpful in understanding what courts have to date considered to be fair or not fair, it is not a substitute for legal advice. Fair use is a judge-created doctrine dating back to the nineteenth century and codified in the 1976 Copyright Act. Both the fact patterns and the legal application have evolved over time, and you should seek legal assistance as necessary and appropriate.

We hope you find the Fair Use Index a helpful resource. If you are concerned as to whether a particular use is fair, however, or believe that someone has made an unauthorized use of a copyrighted work in a manner that is not fair, it is best to consult an attorney.

Please note that the Copyright Office is unable to provide specific legal advice to individual members of the public about questions of fair use. See 37 C.F.R. 201.2(a)(3) .

About Fair Use

Fair use is a legal doctrine that promotes freedom of expression by permitting the unlicensed use of copyright-protected works in certain circumstances. Section 107 of the Copyright Act provides the statutory framework for determining whether something is a fair use and identifies certain types of uses—such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research—as examples of activities that may qualify as fair use. Section 107 calls for consideration of the following four factors in evaluating a question of fair use:

Purpose and character of the use, including whether the use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes: Courts look at how the party claiming fair use is using the copyrighted work, and are more likely to find that nonprofit educational and noncommercial uses are fair. This does not mean, however, that all nonprofit education and noncommercial uses are fair and all commercial uses are not fair; instead, courts will balance the purpose and character of the use against the other factors below. Additionally, “transformative” uses are more likely to be considered fair. Transformative uses are those that add something new, with a further purpose or different character, and do not substitute for the original use of the work.
Nature of the copyrighted work: This factor analyzes the degree to which the work that was used relates to copyright’s purpose of encouraging creative expression. Thus, using a more creative or imaginative work (such as a novel, movie, or song) is less likely to support a claim of a fair use than using a factual work (such as a technical article or news item). In addition, use of an unpublished work is less likely to be considered fair.
Amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole: Under this factor, courts look at both the quantity and quality of the copyrighted material that was used. If the use includes a large portion of the copyrighted work, fair use is less likely to be found; if the use employs only a small amount of copyrighted material, fair use is more likely. That said, some courts have found use of an entire work to be fair under certain circumstances. And in other contexts, using even a small amount of a copyrighted work was determined not to be fair because the selection was an important part—or the “heart”—of the work.
Effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work: Here, courts review whether, and to what extent, the unlicensed use harms the existing or future market for the copyright owner’s original work. In assessing this factor, courts consider whether the use is hurting the current market for the original work (for example, by displacing sales of the original) and/or whether the use could cause substantial harm if it were to become widespread.

In addition to the above, other factors may also be considered by a court in weighing a fair use question, depending upon the circumstances. Courts evaluate fair use claims on a case-bycase basis, and the outcome of any given case depends on a fact-specific inquiry. This means that there is no formula to ensure that a predetermined percentage or amount of a work—or specific number of words, lines, pages, copies—may be used without permission.

Design: 51-705/51-805: Thesis Prep / Progress: Copyright & Fair Use

Topic Research
Demographics & Data
Copyright & Fair Use
Thesis & Dissertation Deposit

Copyright Basics
Copyright FAQ
Fair Use Index

Other Guides

Copyright and Fair Use Guides from Stanford University Libraries
Copyright Quick Guide from Columbia University Libraries
U.S. Copyright Records Search the Copyright Public Records Catalog online. 1978 to present.
Fair Use Checklist A helpful tool from Columbia University Libraries
Stanford Copyright Renewal Database A searchable index of the copyright renewal records for books published in the US between 1923 and 1963.

Information on Visual Resources and Digital Image Use

Statement on the Fair Use of Images for Teaching, Research, and Study (Visual Resources Association)
Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for the Visual Arts (College Art Association)
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Next: Thesis & Dissertation Deposit >>
Last Updated: May 23, 2024 2:18 PM
URL: https://guides.library.cmu.edu/design_thesis

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Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.

The Online Writing Lab at Purdue University houses writing resources and instructional material, and we provide these as a free service of the Writing Lab at Purdue. Students, members of the community, and users worldwide will find information to assist with many writing projects. Teachers and trainers may use this material for in-class and out-of-class instruction.

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Published By Stanford Copyright and Fair Use Center

Griner v. king for congress.

The case revolves around a copyright infringement claim brought by Laney Griner, the owner of the copyright to a popular internet meme template known as “Success Kid.” The meme was used by the King for Congress Committee, a political campaign committee, to solicit donations. Griner sued the Congressman and the Committee for copyright infringement. The jury found the Committee, but not the Congressman, liable for copyright infringement and awarded Griner $750, the statutory minimum. Both parties moved for costs and attorney’s fees, which the district court partially granted and denied to both parties, but denied all attorney’s fees.

The Committee appealed the decision, arguing that it had an implied license to use the meme and that its use constituted fair use. The Committee also contested the district court’s evidentiary rulings and the jury’s instruction regarding damages. The Defendants appealed the denial of attorney’s fees and some costs.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit affirmed the district court’s decision. The court found that the Committee had waived its implied license defense and that the jury correctly concluded that the Committee’s use of the meme did not constitute fair use. The court also found no abuse of discretion in the district court’s evidentiary rulings and held that the Committee’s challenge to the jury instruction regarding damages was waived. The court affirmed the district court’s decision not to award attorney’s fees and its denial of additional costs. View “Griner v. King for Congress” on Justia Law

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COMMENTS

Using Others' Work
If the work used is factual, that will weigh in favor of fair use. The outcome of this subfactor varies depending on the work used. If the work used is unpublished, that will weigh against fair use. However, the fair use statute explicitly states that the unpublished nature of a work will not bar fair use if the use is otherwise fair.
Fair Use, Copyright, Patent, and Publishing Options
Use the delayed release (embargo) option if a patent application is or will be in process, noting the reason for the delay as "patent pending.". If you have any questions, please contact Cornell's Center for Technology Licensing at 607-254-4698 or [email protected]. 5.
Fair Use
Fair use is an affirmative defense (in other words, a person can still be sued for copyright violations even if the use is almost certainly a fair one--since fair use is an affirmative defense, the burden is on the person making the copy (the user of the work) to justify the use as a fair use.
PDF Copyright and Your Dissertation or Thesis: Ownership, Fair Use, and
may be fair use or need permission. o If you are in the middle of your graduate study and plan to publish some of your research, choose a publisher that will accommodate your dissertation plans, and study closely the terms of the publication agreement. o If you are completing your dissertation, evaluate and select the options about Creative
Using Others' Content
If the work used is factual, that will weigh in favor of fair use. The outcome of this subfactor varies depending on the work used. If the work used is unpublished, that will weigh against fair use. However, the fair use statute explicitly states that the unpublished nature of a work will not bar fair use if the use is otherwise fair.
Theses & copyright
Obtaining permission for use. If you determine that you should seek permission to reuse someone's work, here are some places to go: In general, MIT owns the copyright in MIT theses. If you want to reuse parts of a student's (or your own) MIT thesis, contact [email protected]. If you want to reuse a portion of a book or article, an ...
Fair Use Guidelines
Images & Graphics. Our guidance about the use of images and graphics as fair use is affected significantly by the fourth fair use factor. It is often difficult or even impossible to get permission to use images and graphics. This situation is changing in some fields where it is now possible to license databases of quality images at reasonable ...
Fair Use
While no use is always "fair," some uses are looked upon more favorably by the congress and the courts than others. A transformative use of a work - using an existing work for a new purpose or in an unexpected way - has weighed in favor of fair use in many court cases decided in recent decades. Even highly commercial uses have been judged "fair" by the U.S. Supreme Court, demonstrating the ...
Copyright and Your Thesis
However, attention to copyright can help avoid pitfalls and reveal opportunities to further your scholarly goals. Given the way that the law operates, copyright law most certainly protects your dissertation as well as the quotations, photographs, music, diagrams, and many other works that you have included in your doctoral study.
Copyright for Graduate Students: Theses and Dissertations
When writing a thesis or a dissertation, you have two sets of copyrights you should bear in mind. Your own copyright as author of the thesis or dissertation; and; The copyright owned by others in the material you incorporate into your thesis or dissertation. This guide will discuss both issues.
Copyright, Fair Use, and Other Rights
An explanation of the "four factors" that determine whether an intended reuse counts as fair use or not under U.S. copyright law and a searchable index of past cases decided on the topic. A checklist to help authors determine how the four factors apply to the reuse of a work and whether or not that use is, indeed, fair use.
LibGuides: Copyright and Fair Use: Theses and Dissertations
Below, is a checklist of activities to conduct before and during the writing of your thesis or dissertation. If you have any questions or need assistance, please contact Fondren Library Publishing Services using this webform or email [email protected]. Familiarize yourself with the basics of U.S. copyright law, including the public domain and fair use.
Copyright in Your Thesis or Dissertation
Fair use is determined on a case-by-case basis and will require you to evaluate how and why you are including copyrighted works in your thesis or dissertation; using only the amount of the work needed to support your scholarship will help to strengthen your fair use defense.
Fair use and your work
Fair use favors uses that do not affect the original works. It is necessary to weigh all four factors to decide whether a fair use exemption seems to apply to a proposed reuse. Courts take a holistic approach -- they do not simply "add up" a positive or negative for each factor.
LibGuides: Copyright Help for Theses and Other Projects: Fair Use
A fair use checklist is a tool you can use to help you decide if your use is fair. A fair use checklist is a decision-making tool; in the end, you still have to make your own determination. What the checklist can do is let you know what kinds of things favor fair use and what kinds of things oppose it, giving you a framework for thinking about ...
LibGuides: Graduate Thesis Submission Guide: Fair Use
What is Fair Use? "Fair use" refers to the specific uses of copyrighted material that are allowed under copyright protection without requiring permission from the copyright owner ( 17 U.S.C. §107 ). These uses include criticism, parody, commentary, journalism, education and research. The ability to claim use of something under "fair use ...
The Very, Very Basics of Fair Use in Scholarly Publishing
Answers: 1)You would need permission from me and should credit the photograph elsewhere in the manuscript, for example, on the copyright page; 2)You would need permission; 3)I completely understand this, but you still need to receive permission; 4)Congratulations! You have a strong case for fair use because your critical analysis of the photo ...
Copyright and Fair Use: Copyright Concerns of Students
Use of works protected by copyright in your dissertation or thesis will need either permission or a fair use justification. Fair use is an exception to the copyright holder's exclusive rights. In order to use copyrighted works under a claim of fair use, the following factors must be weighed: (1) the purpose and character of the use, including ...
Copyrighted Materials in Your Thesis or Dissertation
Using Quotations and Text. In general, you are fine to quote from copyrighted texts with proper attribution. Keep in mind that you should use only the amount of text necessary to support your argument or conduct your own analysis; this is good scholarship and best practice in adhering to copyright law. If you are conducting research in an ...
LibGuides: Copyright & Fair Use: Getting Permission
Duquesne provides a fair use checklist you can use to document your fair use analysis. Check for rights restrictions—Creative Commons licenses that specify allowable uses are becoming more common, especially for online resources and images. Dissertation Research. Generally the author of a work owns the copyright, but there are special ...
PDF Copyright and Your Dissertation or Thesis
Legal use, without permission, of copyrighted work is limited to "fair use" of the work. Educational and research use is not necessarily "fair use", especially if the work is published, as your dissertation or thesis will be with ProQuest and as (hopefully) many of your future journal articles or books will be. You may be better off acquiring
U.S. Copyright Office Fair Use Index
The Fair Use Index tracks a variety of judicial decisions to help both lawyers and non-lawyers better understand the types of uses courts have previously determined to be fair—or not fair. The decisions span multiple federal jurisdictions, including the U.S. Supreme Court, circuit courts of appeal, and district courts.
LibGuides: Art: MFA Thesis: Copyright & Fair Use
A searchable index of the copyright renewal records for books published in the US between 1923 and 1963. Information on Visual Resources and Digital Image Use Statement on the Fair Use of Images for Teaching, Research, and Study (Visual Resources Association)
Copyright & Fair Use
A searchable index of the copyright renewal records for books published in the US between 1923 and 1963. Information on Visual Resources and Digital Image Use Statement on the Fair Use of Images for Teaching, Research, and Study (Visual Resources Association)
Welcome to the Purdue Online Writing Lab
Mission. The Purdue On-Campus Writing Lab and Purdue Online Writing Lab assist clients in their development as writers—no matter what their skill level—with on-campus consultations, online participation, and community engagement. The Purdue Writing Lab serves the Purdue, West Lafayette, campus and coordinates with local literacy initiatives.
Griner v. King for Congress
King for Congress. Judge: Benton. Opinion Date: June 7, 2024. The case revolves around a copyright infringement claim brought by Laney Griner, the owner of the copyright to a popular internet meme template known as "Success Kid.". The meme was used by the King for Congress Committee, a political campaign committee, to solicit donations.
AI copyright lawsuit hinges on the legal concept of 'fair use'
A lawsuit accuses OpenAI and Microsoft of violating the New York Times's copyright. But the law is anything but clear. By Will Oremus. and. Elahe Izadi. January 4, 2024 at 7:00 a.m. EST. (Dado ...
Met Gala 2024 Red Carpet Looks: See Every Celebrity Outfit and Dress
By Vogue. May 8, 2024. Photo: Getty Images. The 2024 Met Gala red carpet has officially closed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and fashion's biggest night has come to an end. This year's ...

Penn State University Libraries

Using Third-Party Materials in Your Thesis or Dissertation

Contracts at Libraries, Archives, and Museums

Fair Use in Theses and Dissertations

First Factor: "The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes"

Second Factor: "The nature of the copyrighted work"

Third Factor: "The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole"

Fourth Factor: "The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work"

Resources on Fair Use

Using Material Under an Existing License

Searching for Licensed Works

Copyright Infringement vs. Plagiarism

Attribution

/images/cornell/logo35pt_cornell_white.svg" alt="thesis copyright fair use"> Cornell University --> Graduate School

1. Is information that you plan to include from others considered “fair use” and are you acknowledging these sources correctly?

2. Embargo of online copies

3. Creative Commons license

4. Has a patent application been filed (or will one be) on the basis of your thesis or dissertation research?

5. Register for copyright?

6. Supplementary materials

7. Make your work discoverable on search engines?

8. Make your work accessible to people with visual disabilities

Copyright for Dissertations

Copyright Questions?

Legal Advice

Using Third-Party Materials in Your Dissertation

Contracts at Libraries, Archives, and Museums

Fair Use in Dissertations

First Factor: "The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes"

Second Factor: "The nature of the copyrighted work"

Third Factor: "The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole"

Fourth Factor: "The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work"

Resources on Fair Use

Using Material Under an Existing License

Creative Commons Resources

Copyright Infringement vs. Plagiarism

MIT Libraries logo MIT Libraries

Theses & copyright

Fair Use Guidelines

17 U.S. Code 107

Copyright Crash Course provided by UT Libraries

Copyright Clearance Center (CCC)

Code of Best Practices in Fair Use

Direct Quotations

Images & Graphics

Music & Audiovisuals

Copyright and Dissertations, Theses, and Master's Reports

Weighing Fair Use

Transformative Use

University Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Copyright for Graduate Students: Theses and Dissertations

Copyright Questions?

Scholarly Communication and Publishing

The Fine Print

Dual Copyright Aspects of Theses & Dissertations

Using Your Own Previously Published Work

Fair Use or Seeking Permission: That is the Question

Theses & Dissertations

Reusing Copyrighted Work, Fair Use, Creative Commons, and More

Need to Determine Whether Something is Under Copyright and for How Long?

What About Fair Use?

Reusing Something That Is Creative Commons-Licensed (aka CC-BY)?

Need More Help?

Attribution

Should You Register for Copyright?

Copyright and Fair Use: Theses and Dissertations

Copyright for Theses and Dissertations

Copyright Checklist for Theses and Dissertations

Frequently Asked Questions

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Searching Effectively

Useful Links

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Theses, Dissertations, and Creative Components: Rights and Responsibilities

What is Fair Use?

Four Factors of Fair Use

To support a fair use case for an image:

Useful links

Copyright Help for Theses and Other Projects

Director of Research Services