VCU Libraries is committed to educating the VCU community about copyright, fair use, intellectual property, and related issues affecting teaching, research and scholarship. These resources can help guide you in the responsible use of copyrighted works and encourage you to exercise your fair use rights.
Disclaimer: this website presents information about copyright law. VCU Libraries makes every effort to assure the accuracy of this information, but does not offer it as counsel or legal advice. For legal advice, please consult the Office of University Counsel.
United States copyright law has its foundation in the Constitution (Article 1, Section 8), where Congress was granted the power to "promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries."
Creators (referred to as "authors" in US copyright law) are granted six exclusive rights:
Creators can also choose to transfer some or all of their rights to others, temporarily or permanently, through the use of a license.
Anyone who wants to use a copyrighted work in one of the ways listed above will need the copyright owner's permission, unless their use falls under one of the exceptions found in copyright law.
The following categories of works are eligible for copyright protection:
Copyright law only protects “original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression.”
Copyright protects expression, not the underlying ideas or facts that are being expressed. Creators can use ideas or facts found in other works, but they cannot copy the exact expression from another work.
Copyright does not protect:
The public domain consists of all works that are not protected by copyright, whether their copyright protection has expired or they were never eligible for copyright protection (which includes most works created by the federal government). All works in the public domain are free to be copied and used without restriction. Works published in the United States prior to 1928 are in the public domain.
Copyright does not last forever, but determining when a work's copyright expires can be complicated.
The basic term of copyright is the life of the author plus 70 years. For works created by employees acting within the scope of their employment (known as "corporate works") copyright protection lasts for 95 years from publication or 120 years from creation, whichever expires first.
However, there are many more rules to consider for works created before 1978 (when the Copyright Act of 1976 went into effect), foreign works, and sound recordings.
The creator of a work is most often also the sole copyright holder. However, there are situations where the creator may not be the copyright holder, or where there are multiple authors and therefore multiple copyright holders.
A work for hire is a work prepared by an employee within the scope of his or her employment. Although the employee created the work, the employer is considered the author of the work and the copyright holder.
However, VCU's Intellectual Property policy explicitly grants certain copyrights to authors: “University Members shall retain all rights relating to publication, preparation of derivative works, distribution, and classroom use of works which they have prepared on their own initiative, including both papers published in scholarly journals or books, theses, and dissertations, provided the University does not possess rights of ownership as described below.” Exceptions to this include works where the author created the work as an assigned duty or when the author makes significant use of university resources in the work's creation. See the full policy for more detail.
Note that under the policy, students retain all copyrights in their works. Faculty do not have ownership over student work and must request permission before making any uses that are beyond traditional curricular uses.
Joint authorship occurs when a work is prepared by two or more individuals with the intention that their separate contributions be merged into a single work. Unless there is an agreement stating otherwise, joint authors own the work jointly and equally. Each author can, without the consent of other authors:
However, joint authors cannot grant exclusive rights to a third party, and each joint author has a duty to account to the other authors for any profits received from licensing or selling the joint work.
As soon as you have fixed your original expression, it receives copyright protection. You do not have to register your work or place a copyright symbol or notice on it, and it does not matter if your work is published or unpublished.
However, placing a copyright symbol or notice on your work can help others recognize that the work is copyrighted and help them identify you as the copyright holder in case they want to request permission to use your work. A copyright notice (such as Ⓒ 2016 Jane Doe) informs the public that a work is protected by copyright, shows the year of first publication, and identifies the copyright owner.
In addition, registering your copyright with the United States Copyright Office creates a public record of your copyright claim and provides additional legal benefits in case you should need to take legal action to protect your work
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