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.
Although copyright law has many exceptions for educational purposes, there's a big difference between what you can do in the classroom and what you can do outside of the classroom. When you are in the classroom, you are free to perform or display any copyrighted works that you have legally obtained. Playing videos and music, displaying images in your presentations, reading texts aloud—all of these are examples of things you can do in the classroom You can also include copyrighted content in homework assignments or papers you turn in to your professor, but be sure to attribute your sources properly. However, outside of the classroom, you are more limited in what you can do. This is especially important to keep in mind if you plan to share other people's copyrighted works on the open web (for example, if you want to post a class project online and it includes copyrighted content from other creators).
Not everything you find on the Internet can be copied and reused without restriction. Even if you do not see a copyright notice, it is likely that the work is copyrighted. However, there are many resources you can use to narrow your searching to content in the public domain or content that is available under a Creative Commons license.
If a work appears online with a statement that it is licensed under Creative Commons or in the public domain, you should still consider whether or not these claims are trustworthy. Doing a small amount of research on the work's origins or avoiding using works that are clearly copyrighted (for example, works from recognizable publishers or corporations) in nonpermissable ways will help you avoid infringing copyright.
Video explaining the various aspects of copyright in little different way.
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