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Copyright Policy

The purpose of the Northwest University (“NU”) Copyright Policy is to provide a summary of U.S. copyright law as it relates to the use of text-based copyright-protected works in the classroom and library at NU, and to provide guidelines and procedures for obtaining copyright permission to use these works.

U.S. copyright law contains many gray areas, and the goal of this policy is to provide NU administrators, faculty, librarians, students, employees, and others with a standard approach for addressing complex copyright issues. This policy covers classroom issues such as photocopying, online and distance education, and coursepacks. It also covers library uses for print and electronic reserves, and Interlibrary Loan. Other NU copyright and intellectual property policies may complement this policy by providing guidance on copyright issues beyond text-based materials used in the classroom and library.

This policy provides practical advice and procedures on copyright-related matters; however, it is not a substitute for legal advice, and proper legal advice should be obtained when necessary. The Library Director (library@northwestu.edu) may be able to assist you with any questions you may have.

What is Copyright?

Copyright is an area of law that provides creators and distributors of creative works with an incentive to share their works by granting them the right to be compensated when others use those works in certain ways. Specific rights are granted to the creators of creative works in the U.S. Copyright Act (title 17, U.S. Code). If you are not a copyright holder for a particular work, as determined by the law, you must ordinarily obtain copyright permission prior to reusing or reproducing that work. However, there are some specific exceptions in the Copyright Act for certain academic uses, and permission is never required for certain other actions, such as reading or borrowing original literary works or photographs from a library collection.

What is Protected by Copyright?

The rights granted by the Copyright Act are intended to benefit “authors” of “original works of authorship”, including literary, dramatic, musical, architectural, cartographic, choreographic, pantomimic, pictorial, graphic, sculptural and audiovisual creations. This means that virtually any creative work that you may come across—including books, magazines, journals, newsletters, maps, charts, photographs, graphic materials, and other printed materials; unpublished materials, such as analysts’ and consultants’ reports; and non-print materials, including electronic content, computer programs and other software, sound recordings, motion pictures, video files, sculptures, and other artistic works—is almost certainly protected by copyright. Among the exclusive rights granted to those “authors” are the rights to reproduce, distribute, publicly perform and publicly display their works.

These rights provide copyright holders control over the use of their creations and an ability to benefit, monetarily and otherwise, from the use of their works. Copyright also protects the right to “make a derivative work,” such as a movie from a book; the right to include a work in a collective work, such as publishing an article in a book or journal; and the rights of attribution and integrity for “authors” of certain works of visual art. Copyright law does not protect ideas, data or facts.

In the U.S., the general rule of copyright duration for a work created on or after January 1, 1978 is the author’s life plus 70 years after the author’s death. This is often referred to as “life-plus-70”. Works created by companies or other types of organizations generally have a copyright term of 95 years. For more information on copyright duration, visit https://copyright.cornell.edu/resources/publicdomain.cfm

Fair Use

A provision for fair use is found in the Copyright Act at Section 107. Under the fair use provision, a reproduction of someone else’s copyright-protected work is likely to be considered fair if it is used for one of the following purposes: criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship and research. If the reproduction is for one of these purposes, a determination as to whether the reproduction is fair use must be made based upon four factors:

Fair use is an ambiguous concept and the law does not state exactly what uses of a copyrighted work will be considered fair uses under the law and may therefore be used without obtaining permission. As such, individuals who are not lawyers may often need to be interpreters of the law in everyday circumstances, and answers as to how much reproduction may be considered fair use often remain unclear. The bottom line is that fair use requires a very circumstance-specific analysis as to whether a particular use or reuse of a work may indeed be considered fair use.

To assist in making fair use decisions, NU provides a Fair Use Checklist located here: http://library.northwestu.edu/fair-use/

Faculty should complete a fair use check list for each use of copyrighted material.

Distance Education and Course Management Systems

In 2002, the Technology, Education and Copyright Harmonization (TEACH) Act became law and expanded the latitude universities, including NU, have for the performance and display of copyright-protected materials in a distance education environment, including through the use of Learning Management Systems (LMS).

The copyright requirements for TEACH and LMS postings are similar to those of classroom handouts, but extend the traditional rules for those handouts to the digital transmission of materials to distance education students. If the use is spontaneous and will not be repeated, copyright permission is not required; however, the content may not remain posted for extended periods of time. If the use is planned, repeated or involves works that have existed long enough that one could reasonably expect to receive a response to a request for copyright permission, you must obtain copyright permission.

Library Use

Reserves

If the NU Library owns a copy of a publication, the library may place that copy on reserve without obtaining copyright permission. If the instructor wishes to reproduce additional copies of a work and place them on reserve for students to review, in either paper or electronic format, the instructor must obtain copyright permission.

Photocopying in the Library

It is permissible to photocopy copyright-protected works in the NU Library without obtaining permission from the copyright owner, under the following circumstances:
Library user requests for articles and short excerpts. At the request of a library user or another library on behalf of a library user, the NU Library may make one reproduction of an article from a periodical or a small part of any other work. The reproduction must become the property of the library user, and the library must have no reason to believe that the reproduction will be used for purposes other than private study, scholarship and research. As recommended by Section 108 of the Copyright Act, the library must display the register’s notice at the place library users make their reproduction requests to the library.

Archival reproductions of unpublished works

Up to three reproductions of any unpublished work may be made for preservation or security or for deposit for research use in another library or archive. This may be a photocopy or digital reproduction. If it is a digital reproduction, the reproduction may not be made available to the public outside the library or archive premises. Prior to receiving any of the three reproductions permitted under this provision from another library or archive, the NU library or archive must make a reasonable effort to purchase a new replacement at a fair price. The reproducing library or archive must also own the work in its collection.

Replacement of lost, damaged or obsolete copies

The NU library may make up to three reproductions, including digital reproductions, of a published work that is lost, stolen, damaged, deteriorating or stored in an obsolete format. Any digital reproductions must be kept within the confines of the library (that is, available on its computer but not placed on a public network.)

Library user requests for entire works

One reproduction of an entire book or periodical may be made by your library at a library user’s request, or by another library on behalf of a library user upon certain conditions being met. These conditions include the library determining after reasonable investigation that an authorized reproduction cannot be obtained at a reasonable price. Once made, the reproduction must become the property of the library user. The library must have no reason to believe that the reproduction will be used by the user for purposes other than private study, scholarship and research, and the library must display the register’s notice at the place library users make their reproduction requests to the library.

Photocopying for Students

The NU Library may make reproductions for library users (students, faculty, etc.), provided the following criteria are met:

Photocopying by Students

Photocopying by students is subject to a fair use analysis as well. A single photocopy of a portion of a copyright-protected work, such as a copy of an article from a scientific journal made for research, may be made without permission. Photocopying all the assignments from a book recommended for purchase by the instructor, making multiple copies of articles or book chapters for distribution to classmates, or copying material from consumable workbooks, all require permission.

Interlibrary Loan

The NU Library may participate in interlibrary loans without obtaining permission provided that the “aggregate quantities” of articles or items received by the patron do not substitute for a periodical subscription or purchase of a work. NU follows the CONTU guidelines for defining “aggregate quantities.” The CONTU guidelines state that requesting and receiving more than five articles from a single periodical within a calendar year or a total of six or more copies of articles published within five years prior to the date of request would be too many under CONTU.

If the articles or items being copied have been obtained through a digital license, you must check the license to see under what terms and conditions, if any, interlibrary loan is permitted.

 Copyright and Foreign Works

The U.S. is a member of the leading international copyright treaty, the Berne Convention. As such, when NU uses a copyright-protected work from another country, the protections provided to works by U.S. copyright law automatically apply to the use of that work as well (assuming the use takes place in the U.S.). Copyright Clearance Center has many reciprocal licenses to allow use of materials from other countries.

Locating Equivalent Works

In some circumstances another work, for which the University has access, may be substituted for the copyrighted work.  Sources for equivalent works include:

How to Obtain Copyright Permission

There are two primary options for obtaining permission to use a work that is not available under Fair Use. You may contact the copyright holder directly or you may purchase rights through the Copyright Clearance Center.  Permission to use copyright-protected materials, when required, should be obtained prior to using those materials. It is best to obtain permission in writing (including e-mail).

The time to obtain permission may vary and, where possible, it is recommended to start the permissions procedure at least six months prior to the time that you wish to use the materials. If you need a quicker permission, let the copyright owner know this and he/she may be able to get back to you more quickly. Often, Copyright Clearance Center is your quickest one-stop resource for obtaining copyright permission.

Contacting the Copyright Holder

Once you have identified the materials you want to use and determined that copyright permission is required, you must locate the copyright holder. If the copyright holder is not listed on the work, locating the appropriate person or entity to grant permission may take some investigative and creative work.

The Copyright Office of the Library of Congress (www.loc.gov) may be of assistance in locating a copyright owner if the work is registered. Note, however, that copyright is automatically granted to all works upon their being written down and that registration with the Copyright Office is not required.

The copyright holder or its agent will require the following information in order to provide you with permission:

Using the Copyright Clearance Center

In circumstances which are not covered by Fair Use and you are unable to obtain permission from the copyright holder, the rights to use copyrighted materials may be purchased from the Copyright Clearance Center.  NU will not pay copyright fees unless it is approved in advance by the dean over the course.

Revised, June, 2015.