Copyright Resources Guide

This guide is intended to provide information and guidance to help you to determine if the uses you'd like to make of copyrighted materials are allowed by law. Nothing on this guide should be construed as legal advice. Questions about copyright not covered in this guide may be directed to Chris Pelchat, Dean of Professional Studies, Library and Workforce Education.

Rachel Bridgewater from Portland Community college presented on the basics of copyright, interpreting fair use, and the TEACH Act.

A recording of the presentation is available through SFCC's Panopto videos.  

These unprecedented times find many of us confronting new copyright situations as we continue to support students and teach classes remotely.  Here are some things to support you, in addition to the information on this guide:

• Public Statement of Library Copyright Specialists: Fair Use & Emergency Remote Teaching & Research

• Basics - describes the rights of copyright, duration, what is covered by copyright
• Fair Use - Fair use is one of the most important parts of the copyright law for education.  This page will help you understand how to do a fair use analysis and provides links to a few checklists and tools to help.
• Teaching with Copyrighted Materials - This page provides you with some general guidelines you can follow for both in-person and online classes for all different types of copyrighted materials.
• TEACH Act - The TEACH Act attempts to bring some of the freedoms allowed in face-to-face classrooms to the online classroom.  Unfortunately, it also comes with a lot of limitations and conditions.  
• Creative Commons and the Public Domain - Information about materials available for use without permission or relying on one of the legal exemptions.
• Note-sharing websites - describes note-sharing website issues and what you can do to address them.
• Students - Guidance on topics that come up for students
• Film Screenings - Provides guidelines to help you to determine whether or not you need to purchase screening rights for a given showing of a film.
• Permissions - It isn't always possible to find a legal way to use material in your classes without permission.  This page gives links to model permissions letters and other information that will be useful when getting permissions (or considering it!).
• More resources - links to tools, websites, and books for further reading

Spokane Falls Community College Library is grateful to Rachel Bridgewater at Portland Community College, who created the original resource that this guide is adapted from.

"Copyright Resources" by Rachel Bridgewater, Portland Community College is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0