{"id":2382,"date":"2016-08-03T11:06:25","date_gmt":"2016-08-03T15:06:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/libraries-test.mit.edu\/scholarly\/?page_id=2047"},"modified":"2025-07-29T14:32:42","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T14:32:42","slug":"copyright-faq","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/scholarly\/copyright\/copyright-faq\/","title":{"rendered":"Copyright FAQ"},"content":{"rendered":"<section class=\"expandable\">\n<h3><a href=\"#\">What&#8217;s covered by copyright<\/a><\/h3>\n<div class=\"content\">\n<p>Most content \u2013 articles, books, unpublished manuscripts, tables, figures, photographs \u2013 is owned (copyrighted) by someone.<\/p>\n<p>There are laws and policies that affect reuse of such content for any purpose, such as putting material online for a course, or <a href=\"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/scholarly\/copyright\/using-copyrighted-content\/\">reusing it in another work<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>There may be multiple copyright owners for images: For example, photographs of works of art may involve the rights of the art work\u2019s creator\/copyright holder as well as those of the photographer.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright\u00a0may be\u00a0an issue when dealing with:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Journal articles, or excerpts from them<\/li>\n<li>Books, or excerpts from them<\/li>\n<li>Databases and electronic journals<\/li>\n<li>Musical works, scores, lyrics, sound recordings<\/li>\n<li>Pictorial\/graphic works, art, sculpture, photographs<\/li>\n<li>Audiovisual works, motion pictures, videos, video games<\/li>\n<li>Computer software<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<section class=\"expandable\">\n<h3><a href=\"#\"> How to tell if something is under copyright<\/a><\/h3>\n<div class=\"content\">\n<p>Works are copyrighted by their creators as soon as put in a tangible form, even if the creator doesn\u2019t add any special labels or identifiers to the work.<\/p>\n<p>While some images, text, or web content\u00a0may be marked with a copyright symbol or &#8220;all rights reserved,&#8221; these elements are not required in order for an image to be copyrighted.<\/p>\n<p>For this reason, it is appropriate to assume that an image found on the web is copyrighted, even if it is not labeled or identified.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<section class=\"expandable\">\n<h3><a href=\"#\">What isn\u2019t under copyright<\/a><\/h3>\n<div class=\"content\">\n<p>Copyright\u00a0is probably not\u00a0an issue when dealing with:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Content for which you are the copyright holder<\/li>\n<li>Publications of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/uscode\/text\/17\/105\">US federal government<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Published works for which copyright has expired or does not apply, i.e. works in the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/guides.library.cornell.edu\/copyright\/publicdomain\">public domain<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Works that have been dedicated into the public domain by their creator, e.g. through <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/share-your-work\/public-domain\/cc0\/\">CC0<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<section class=\"expandable\">\n<h3><a href=\"#\">Using copyrighted materials in your own work<\/a><\/h3>\n<div class=\"content\">\n<p>Fair use provisions of U.S. copyright law allow use of copyrighted materials on a limited basis for specific purposes without permission of the copyright holder.<\/p>\n<p>Our page on <a href=\"\/scholarly\/copyright\/using-copyrighted-content\/\">fair use<\/a> includes how to determine whether a use is fair, how to find worry-free images, and what to do when fair use doesn&#8217;t apply.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<section class=\"expandable\">\n<h3><a href=\"#\">Reclaiming copyright<\/a><\/h3>\n<div class=\"content\">\n<p>Copyright law permits authors to reclaim their copyrights 35 years after transferring these rights. Reclaiming copyright allows the author to make new publishing arrangements, including making the work openly available on the web.<\/p>\n<p>Since\u00a02013, authors can\u00a0reclaim copyrights they transferred (e.g. through an agreement with a publisher) on or after January 1, 1978. Authors interested in reclaiming copyright need to file a notice in advance.<\/p>\n<p>Use the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/rightsback.org\">Authors Alliance\/Creative Commons Termination of Transfer Tool<\/a>\u00a0to evaluate whether you can reclaim a copyright. You may need legal support to successfully file the appropriate notice.<\/p>\n<p>For more information:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.copyright.gov\/docs\/203.html\">Summary from the copyright office<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/copyright.gov\/title17\/92chap2.html\">Wording of the relevant section (203)<\/a>\u00a0of US copyright law<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<section class=\"expandable\">\n<h3><a href=\"#\">Other copyright resources<\/a><\/h3>\n<div class=\"content\">\n<ul>\n<li>Questions?\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/libanswers.mit.edu\/ask-scholarly-communications\">Ask Scholarly Communications<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/web.mit.edu\/copyright\/\">MIT \u2013 Copyright Central<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/policies.mit.edu\/policies-procedures\/130-information-policies\/131-intellectual-property\">MIT Information Policies\/Intellectual Property<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/web.mit.edu\/ogc\/pdf\/OGC-copyright.pdf\">Copyright at MIT<\/a>, from the MIT Office of General Counsel (MIT only)<\/li>\n<li>See our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/playlist?list=PLRvYzZqiaI_NAHg41TFwoaj23KaxH9jTT\">YouTube channel<\/a> with talks on copyright\/fair use<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/doi.org\/10.15781\/T24J09X6J\">University of Texas \u2013 Copyright Crash Course<\/a>\u00a0(a useful tutorial on copyright)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/libguides.ala.org\/copyright\/alaresources\">American Library Association copyright tools<\/a> including help with public domain, fair use, and exceptions for instructors<\/li>\n<li><em><a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.7551\/mitpress\/7803.001.0001\">The Copyright Book: A Practical Guide<\/a><\/em> by William S. Strong (open access book published by the MIT Press)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<h6>Page last updated on July 28, 2025<\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What&#8217;s covered by copyright Most content \u2013 articles, books, unpublished manuscripts, tables, figures, photographs \u2013 is owned (copyrighted) by someone. There are laws and policies that affect reuse of such content for any purpose, such as putting material online for a course, or reusing it in another work. There may be multiple copyright owners for images: For example, photographs of works of art may involve the rights of the art work\u2019s creator\/copyright holder as well as those of the photographer. Copyright\u00a0may be\u00a0an issue when dealing with: Journal articles, or excerpts from them Books, or excerpts from them Databases and electronic [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":4298,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"templates\/page.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2382","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/scholarly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/scholarly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/scholarly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/scholarly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/scholarly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2382"}],"version-history":[{"count":29,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/scholarly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2382\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5089,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/scholarly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2382\/revisions\/5089"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/scholarly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/scholarly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}