Copyright and print/text resources

Disclaimer: These guidelines represent the Messiah University's best effort at articulating copyright principles. They neither represent general legal advice nor a legal response to a specific situation.

Information for Instructional Use

Information in this section primarily pertaons to educators using print/textual content within their courses.

Workbooks and textbooks can never be reproduced without permission.

Multiple reproductions of pamphlets, cartoons or illustrations must be approved by the rightsholder.

Items in the public domain may always be copied (even workbooks). Content with a Creative Commons license may be copied if the license allows.

Classroom distribution is allowed for photocopying of one chapter from a book, one article, or one poem without permission provided that the material has not been used before and the copyright information is included somewhere on the handout.

Only one copy per student is allowed, students cannot be charged any fee beyond photocopying costs, and the materials cannot be photocopied again for the same or another course without permission.

The same guidlines apply to "spontaneous" handouts.

Fair use governs the amount of a work which may be copied at any one time. Some suggest that specific percentages (i.e. less than 20%) are allowable under fair use. However, fair use is a guideline, not a law. As a result, we suggest using the Fair Use Evaluation Tool in conjunction with the fair use resource page to help you determine whether your use is fair. Remember to document your evaluation of fair use, which can help you should your use ever be questioned.

There is no copyright law that allows for a specific number of pages or percentage of any copyrighted book to be copied. Some suggest that only 25% of a book can be photocopied at any one time for personal use. Successive copying of an entire book could be allowable, provided that no more than 25% of the book exists at any one time. The remaining 75% must remain uncopied or the copied material must be destroyed immediately after use. However, fair use is a guideline, not a law. As a result, we suggest using the Fair Use Evaluation Tool in conjunction with the fair use resource page to help you determine whether your use is fair. Remember to document your evaluation of fair use, which can help you should your use ever be questioned. If you are unsure, purchase a legal copy of the material, check it out from Murray Library, or borrow it via Interlibrary Loan.

The hard copy of an e-book chapter may be printed and distributed to the class under first time fair use with no copyright clearance necessary. You may not charge students more than the cost of printing the material. If the chapter is used again in another semester and you must have a printed version, copyright clearance must be secured by submitting a custom adoption for your coursepack in Slingshot Pro, our Campus Store's online adoption tool.

However, it is always best practice and best for our students to make a link to the chapter in your Canvas course. If the book is not available from Murray Library, contact your liaison librarian to determine whether an eBook may be purchased. Note: not all publishers will sell eBooks to libraries.

You should not email articles to students or upload PDF copies of articles to students. You have no way of controlling "downstream" uses and the practice may be considered distribution, a right reserved by the copyright holder.

Instead, you should link to the article from its original source to Canvas. If the article is available in Murray Library, instructions are available to assist you with the linking to ensure that it is accessible to all students. If you have any questions, contact your liaison librarian.

Since the translation is copyrighted, you need to get copyright permission from the copyright holder of the translation to make changes to it, even if just to "smooth out" or update the language. The amount of altering does not make a difference. If the translation is difficult to understand and you want to make changes, you could offer your own paraphrased version in a footnote to the copyrighted text. Remember that you need to get permission from the translator to modify the translation - if you want to do a brand new translation, you would need to get permission from the original author/copyright holder.

Remember, items in the public domain may be modified. Content with a Creative Commons license may be modified if the license allows.

Any copyrighted material placed in a printed or digital coursepack must have copyright clearance because they are being reproduced even if the journal gave permission for student use. In this scenario, the best and most cost effective solution for the students is to provide a link to the article in Canvas. You may then request that students print the articles and bring them to class, or they may refer to them on their own device in class.

The same is true for articles and eBooks in library databases. They are available at no cost to educators and students when used with direct links, but a fee will be incurred if they are added to a coursepack. If the article is available in Murray Library, instructions are available to assist you with linking to ensure that it is accessible to all students. If you have any questions, contact your liaison librarian.

While there is no clear answer in this instance, one might argule that this use could be considered fair use, based on the 4 factors that determine fair use. Remember, fair use is only a guideline, and this information does not constitute legal advice. If you are unsure, you should obtain approval from the copyright holder.

Market effect: This use will not have an effect on the market for this work (nobody is using this copy as opposed to buying the whole essay). Further, no financial gain will come of this.
Purpose and character of the use: The purpose is educational and is for an exercise; the purpose is not for people to keep, presumably. Educational fair use is not limited to classrooms per se, but also extends to educational conferences. (You should collect and destroy the copies of the essay at the end of the exercise.)
The nature of the work: A short essay.
Amount and substantiality of the portion taken: It would be best to use less than the entire essay. Use only the amount required for the academic exercise. But sometimes copying the whole has also been considered fair use and the whole, in this case, is very short. The "brevity" guideline of fair use does allow for a short essay.

Copyright and print/text resources

Information for Instructional Use

Can an educator make copies of pamphlets, cartoons, illustrations, or workbooks?

Can an educator distribute materials in the classroom that he or she photocopies?

Is there a percentage of a book that can be copied without copyright approval?

Is it okay to make one copy of a book for academic purposes?

May I enlarge or digitize a copy of a book or article for a student with a disability?

May I print off a chapter of an e-book to distribute to all students in my class?

May I email articles to my students?

May I update or make small changes to the language of a copyrighted translation?

There are journals in my field that do not require copyright permission for use with students. If I want to include articles from those journals to create a coursepack, do I need to get copyright permission and are there copyright costs?