Open Access, Open Education, and Copyright

UNA's Copyright Policy is included in the Employee Policy Manual and is accessible at this link. The policy states the General Principle is as follows:

"The University will not claim copyright ownership of Traditional Works of Scholarship except as otherwise provided in this Article III, and persons covered by this Policy may claim copyright to such works under their name. “Traditional Works of Scholarship” shall be defined to include: syllabi and other original materials created for use in a University course, books (including textbooks), other forms of textual material (whether in printed form or electronic media), software, works of art and other creative works including music, lyrics, photographs, poetry, choreography, architectural works, sculpture, pictorial and graphic works, motion pictures, and sound recordings, which in each case are created as part of the regular academic and scholarly activities of a person covered by this Policy. Under applicable law, multiple creators who intend to create a joint work will be viewed as joint holders of copyright. Under this Policy, works created by more than one person involved in a common project shall be considered to be created by all such persons unless otherwise agreed in writing by each person. Copyrightable materials which appear on Web pages will be considered to fall within the various categories described in this Policy, including Web pages which may be hosted by or on behalf of the University."

If you have questions about Copyright, Open Access, Open Educational Resources, or Fair Use contact your subject librarian. 

The copyright information presented in this LibGuide should not be construed as legal advice. 

Copyright is a form of intellectual property law and protects works of authorship, including literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works. This encompasses items like poetry, novels, songs, movies, computer software, and more.

Copyright does not protect facts, ideas, systems, or methods of operation. Nor does it protect names, titles, works lacking originality, or works created from public domain information.

The copyright holder of a work has the exclusive right to:

• Reproduce (make copies of) the work; and
• Modify or prepare derivative works based on the work. (Examples of derivative works include translations, transforming printed works into musicals or films, rearrangements of scores, and any other recast, transformation, or adaptation of a work); and
• Distribute the work in any format by sale, publication, license, rental, or for free; and
• Publicly perform or display the work; and
• Authorize others to exercise some or all of those rights

Trademark Law

Helps producers of goods and services protect their reputation and allows the public to understand who is providing their goods and services.

Patent Law

Allows inventors to have a time-limited monopoly on their inventions, giving them exclusive right to make, have made, use, have used, offer for sale, sell, have sold, or import patentable inventions.

Text adapted from “Copyright Basics”  by Creative Commons. CC BY 4.0. 

All works in the public domain are free for anyone to use, adapt, or redistribute. Public domain means the works are no longer covered by copyright and each year new items enter the public domain in the United States on the first of January. 

There are various laws that determine when items fall out of copyright, but in the US all newly created works have a copyright of the life of the creator PLUS 70 years.  Duke Law maintains the Center for the Study of the Public Domain which lists items that enter the public domain each year.  They also curate resources about the public domain.

Public Domain Day 2021 from the Center for the Study of the Public Domain

Congress passed the TEACH (technology, education, and copyright harmonization) act in 2002 which enables performance and display of copyrighted material in distance education classes.  TEACH applies to performances of nondramatic literary or musical works in their entirety and limited portions of other works provided the following conditions are met:

• The instructor is the one who decides to use the work; and
• A lawfully acquired copy of the work is used; and
• The work is relevant to the course; and
• Access is limited to students enrolled in the course; and
• Authorized users do not distribute the work to others; and
• The work is taken down at the end of the semester; and
• No one interferes with technological measures used by copyright owners of the work to prevent such retention or unauthorized further dissemination.

Instructors of University courses may transmit entire musical works, but may not transmit entire dramatic works (operas, plays).

The University of Texas has developed a checklist to determine if the TEACH Act applies to your materials.