About
Course Reserves

Faculty – Copyright Compliance Guidelines

This policy is based on the Lee College Copyright Use Policy.

The Reserve Book Room and the Electronic Course Reserves service of the Lee College Library operates in accordance with the fair use exclusions of United States Copyright Law.

Materials that do not need to meet copyright compliance guidelines

Materials in the public domain

Most federal government documents

Materials with expired or lost copyright protection

A faculty / librarian’s own lecture notes / course notes who decide to waive their copyright protection.

Materials that are not copyrightable by their nature i.e. titles, facts, etc.

Below you will find various guidelines that may assist you in determining whether your intended use for copying/reserves is in line with Copyright law and fair use guidelines.

Things to Consider:

• The purpose and character of use
• The nature of the copyrighted work
• The amount and sustainability of the portion used in relation to the work as a whole
• The effect of the use on the potential market

Three additional factors to consider:

Brevity –

1. Poetry – a poem if less than 250 words and if printed on not more than two pages or, from a longer poem, an excerpt of not more than 250 words.
2. Prose – either a complete article, story or essay of less than 2500 words or an excerpt from any prose work of not more than 1000 words or 10% of work, whichever is less
• Limits can be expanded for the completion of an unfinished line of a poem or of an unfinished prose paragraph.
3. Illustration – one chart, graph, diagram, drawing, cartoon, or picture per picture book or periodical issue.
4. Special works – certain works in poetry prose or poetic prose which often combine language with illustrations and which are intended sometimes for children and at other times for a more general audience fall short of 2500 words in their entirety. Such special works many not be reproduced in their entirety, an excerpt not more than two of the published pages of the special work and containing not more than 10% of the words found in the text, may be reproduced.

Spontaneity –

1. The copying is at the instance and inspiration of the individual teacher, and
2. The inspiration and decision to use the work and the moment of its use for maximum teaching effectiveness are so close in time that it would be unreasonable to expect timely reply to a request for permission.

Cumulative Effect –

1. The copying of the material is only for one course in the school in which copies are being made.
2. Not more than one short poem, article, story, essay, or two excerpts may be copied from the same author, nor more than three from the same collective work or periodical volume during one class term.
3. There shall not be more than nine instances of such multiple copying for one course during one class term.
   • the limitations in 1 and 2 shall not apply to current news periodicals and newspapers and current news sections of other periodicals.

The following uses are prohibited

1. Copying shall not be used to create or to replace or substitute for anthologies, compilations or collective works.
2. There shall be no copying of or from works intended to be “consumable” in the course of study or of teaching. These include workbooks, exercises, standardized tests and test booklets, answer sheets and like consumable material.
3. Copying shall not
   • Substitute for the purchase of books, publishers’ reprints or periodicals;
   • Be directed by higher authority;
   • Be repeated with respect to the same item by the same teacher from term to term.
4. No charge shall be made to student beyond the actual cost of the photocopying.

Additional Copyright and Fair Use resources:

Copyright Clearance Center

Copyright & Fair Use, Stanford University Libraries

Crash Course in Copyright – UT System

Sample Copyright Permission Request (Adobe .pdf)