Printed materials include anything written or drawn. This includes essays, poetry, articles, books, graphs, tables, and infographics. It also includes drawings, paintings, sketches, photographs, and other artwork. For the purposes of this policy, electronically downloaded creations that could also be disseminated in print format are considered printed material. Musical scores, however, are not; their usage is described in another part of this policy.
Increasingly, scholarly publications such as journal articles include a note offering the right to copy for educational purposes. This is also known as the “creative commons” license.
Also, some categories of publications are in the public domain; that is, their use is not protected by copyright law:
1. Publications dated 1922 or earlier.
2. Works that do not include a copyright notice and were first published before 1/1/1978.
3. Most United States government documents.
Once a work has acquired public domain status it is no longer eligible for copyright protection.
Copyright litigation involving academic users has focused on these "anthologies", which are perceived as substituting for textbooks and thus as reducing the potential market for copyrighted publications. Every article or chapter in a course packet, if derived from copyrighted material, requires permission, either from the copyright owner (usually the publisher) or through checking with the Copyright Clearance Center to see if the Seminary is covered, and if not, paying a royalty fee through the Copyright Clearance Center. Each item in the packet also must include a notice of copyright -- e.g., "Copyright 1990 by Academic Books, Inc." Individuals who purchase course packets should not be charged in excess of cost. Expect several weeks' delay in cases where copyright owners are elusive.
The Seminary participates in contractual arrangements mandating royalty payments or licensing fees to copyright owners whenever feasible. Nevertheless, it often falls to the individual scholar to obtain written permission from the copyright owner to copy a large portion of a work or an entire work, or to produce multiple copies of chapters or periodical articles.
If you wish to copy materials in excess of fair use, please contact the Director of the IRC to ascertain if the work falls under our "umbrella" license, or if you will need to purchase a separate license for the work.
