Obtaining Permission to use Copyrighted Material
Educators, Educational Institutions and Copyright/Intellectual Property
ALA Copyright Issues – deals with copyright of digital information and recent developments.
Campus Copyright Guide - A booklet on copyright written especially for higher education communities, developed by representatives of the Association of American Universities, Association of Research Libraries, Association of American University Presses, and the Association of American Publishers.
Copyright or Intellectual Property Policies - EDUCAUSE has indexed and abstracted many information policies--including copyright and intellectual property--into a variety of resources that is updated periodically.
Manage Your Intellectual Property – gives guidance to authors of scholarly publishing for retaining copyright to their work. Sample copyright agreements are provided.
Ownership Issues - Includes websites and articles that concern issues in faculty ownership, work-for-hire, online course material and licensing, and student ownership.
Stanford University Libraries. Copyright and Fair Use – links to web sites that provide help with understanding copyright. Fair use, fair use and multimedia, The TEACH Act (related to distance education) are some links provided.
University of Albany Intellectual Property, Copyright and Fair-use Resources - Links on this page are for faculty and students who wish to find out how current copyright law effects their use of intellectual property.
- Center for Intellectual Property - Materials, workshops, and other resources on digital copyright issues.
Music and Copyright
Copyright Law - Copyright law information for music educators from the Music Publishers’ Association.
Copyright for Music Librarians - Site explaining music copyright for librarians and teachers from the Music Publisher's Association Resource Center.
Public Domain Music - Steps to understanding rules and laws of music in the public domain from the Library of Congress. For more information about music in the public domain, check PDInfo.
Public Domain
Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States - Version is current as of 1 January 2008.
Social Software Copyright
Alternative to Copyright – Creative Commons - "Creative Commons provides free tools that let authors, scientists, artists, and educators easily mark their creative work with the freedoms they want it to carry."
Legal Guide for Bloggers - From the electronic Frontier Foundation, a guide to help bloggers in defending their digital rights.
Podcasting Legal Guide - A roadmap to the legal issues specific to podcasting, including copyright, publicity rights, and trademark issues.
The United States Copyright Law
Copyright Basics (U.S. Copyright Office) - “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” (U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 8)
Simpson College Student Handbook Definition
The Simpson Code states that students are expected to observe honesty in academic work and official college records. Cheating, plagiarism and giving false information to the college are not allowed.
View the section on Academic Honesty Policy and Penalties for Dishonesty for more information on Simpson College's definitions and punishments for plagiarism. Check with the General Catalog for more information, including Penalties for Dishonesty.
Dunn Library has a PowerPoint on plagiarism, adapted from a presentation given by Lisa Stroschine at the Technology and Education workshop July 2005. This PowerPoint explains what plagiarism is and some tips to designing assignments. Avoiding Plagiarism (for students)Not sure what Plagiarism is? Check out Dunn Library's Plagiarism Tutorial. Also, try Plagiarism-by-Paraphrase quiz to test your skills.
The best place to go is the Hawley Center on campus. There are people there who can help in proofreading and writing papers. For more help in writing, check out the Hawley Center's Writing Skills webpage.
Another site to try is the Purdue University's Online Writing Lab. This website covers all aspects of the writing process, including helping with quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing.
Detecting and Preventing Plagiarism (for faculty)
A Faculty Guide to Cyber Plagiarism, maintained by the University of Alberta, provides tips on detecting and preventing plagiarism and provides links to detection services and paper mills.
Another site that has information on detecting plagiarism is Anti-Plagiarism Strategies for Research Papers from VirtualSalt. This site contains tips on how to spot plagiarized papers and ways plagiarism can be stopped.
Why do students cheat? is an NPR special report on the growing trend/ability of students to copy and paste from Web sites and full-text articles into their papers.
Difference between Plagiarism and Copyright
Laurie Sterns notes three distinct differences between copyright infringement and plagiarism:
- Using even a small amount of a work written by someone else without attribution is plagiarism, but to be guilty of copyright infringement, the amount copied must be in some sense substantial.
- One can plagiarize any work that has ever been written, no matter how old and no matter who the author, but copying even an entire book that is in the public domain-whether a product of Shakespeare or the U.S. government-is not a violation of copyright.
- It is possible to plagiarize ideas, even facts (if, for example, they are presented in the same order and context as another work), but copyright law does not protect facts or ideas, only the original way in which they are expressed within a particular work.
Laurie Stearns, “Copy Wrong: Plagiarism, Process, Property, and the Law,“ in Perspectives on Plagiarism and Intellectual Property in a Postmodern World (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1999) as reprinted in Carrie Russell, ed. Complete Copyright: An Everyday Guide for Librarians (American Library Association, 2004).
Recommended Resources
Bowman, Vibiana. The Plagiarism Plague: A Resource Guide and
CD-Rom Tutorial for Educators and Librarians. 2004.
Simpson General 808 B79pHarris, Robert A. Using Sources Effectively: Strengthening Your
Writing and Avoiding Plagiarism. 2002.
Simpson General 808.027 H31uLathrop, Ann. Student Cheating and Plagiarism in the Internet
Era [Electronic Resource]. 2000.
Simpson Web-Linked ItemsPlagiarism: it's a Crime. 2003.
Simpson Videos/DVDs 346.048 P69vid