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Copyright and Fair Use

What is copyright?

Information creators (author or authors) are given certain intellectual property rights to their piece of work for a certain length of time. These rights include its publication, distribution and adaptation.   Before you can use a reproduce or copy a work (in part or in entirety) you must pay a royalty fee, or have permission of the author.  Exceptions to this rule are fair use. For more information on copyright refer to the US Copyright Office web site.

What is fair use?

The Copyright Act of 1976 (17 U.S.C. 107) allows copying without permission or payment under  "fair use guidelines".  Fair use applies to the reproduction of copyrighted material for teaching, scholarship or research.  The statute does not clearly define fair use, but instead gives four non-exclusive factors to consider in a fair use analysis. Those factors are:

1. the purpose and character of the use;
2. the nature of the copyrighted work;
3. the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
4. the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

Generally you are given the right to make a single copy for their own private study, scholarship or research purposes, provided that copy is not a substantial amount of the entire work.   This means you cannot share a pdf or electronic copy of an article which you obtain from the library without permission.  Please contact the publisher of the article to arrange to pay for reprints or a royalty fee.  This is not a charge the library will absorb.

When it is legal to make multiple copies

Multiple copies can only legally be made by those providing clinical or medical instruction to groups/departments within Overlake Hospital with the following restrictions: 

• the number of copies cannot exceed more than one copy per student
• a notice of copyright must be affixed to each copy
• the article may only be copied if it is less than 2,500 words or 10% of the work, whichever is less.  
• you  can only reproduce one chart, graph, diagram or picture per periodical issue. 
• Not more than one article may be copied from the same author,
• Not more than three articles may be copied from the same journal volume during one class term. 
• Only nine instances of such copying is permitted during one school term. 
• teachers may not photocopy workbooks, tests, texts or other materials created for educational use (in other words they act as a substitute for the purchase of reprints, etc).

Instructors are advised to purchase reprints for classes.  These can often be purchased through the publisher or journal website.  If not, please contact the publisher directly.  

Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the library is given the right to make a copy of an electronic resource for preservation purposes provided it is not make available to the public outside the library premises.

Copyright and document delivery services

The National Commission on New Technological Uses of Copyrighted Works (CONTU) permits the copying during a calendar year of no more than five articles from a single journal title, not owned by the library, dated within the past five years. This means that the library   staff can order a total of only 5 articles from a single journal title dated within the past 5 years regardless of how many users request articles from the same journal title. For articles obtained in excess of this number, the Library must pay a fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, to the publisher/author, or must purchase the articles from a commercial vendor.

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