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Scholarly Communication

OU Libraries guides scholars in matters relating to scholarly communication, which we define as the formal and informal ways research and scholarly works are created, evaluated, disseminated, preserved, used, and transformed.

Copyright Basics

Copyright law intersects with what we do as educators and researchers in many ways. Questions can arise when using copyright materials in the classroom, online or in research.

What is Copyright?
Copyright (Title 17 of the United States Code) is a federal law which provides exclusive rights for original authors/creators to control the use of their work for a limited period of time.

Although most people would say that the purpose of copyright is to protect copyright holders/authors rights, the purpose of copyright is stated in the act itself.

The Congress shall have Power 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. 
(United States Constitution, Article I, Section 8)

The law was intended to serve a dual purpose, to provide rights to authors in order to protect their work but also to promote creativity and learning by allowing for others to be inspired to create more original work.

The protection is actually a means of promoting the production of culture by protecting creative expression while at the same time not allowing any one person to have a monopoly on the future creation of creative expression.

What exclusive rights do copyright holders have?

The six exclusive rights contained in the law are as follows:

The right to...

  • Reproduce the work.
  • Distribute the work.
  • Create derivative works
  • Publicly perform the work.
  • Publicly display the work.
  • Publicly perform sound recordings by means of a digital audio transmission.

Exclusive rights are divisible and can be inherited, given or contracted away, which means someone can own the copyright without physically owning the tangible work.

What is Protected by Copyright?

According to the U.S. Copyright Office, “copyright protects ‘original works of authorship’ that are fixed in a tangible form of expression.” This means the work must be written or recorded in some form to be protected. There are eight categories of works:

  • Literary works
  • Musical works, including any accompanying words
  • Dramatic works, including any accompanying music
  • Pantomimes and choreographic works
  • Pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works
  • Motion pictures and other audiovisual works
  • Sound recordings
  • Architectural works

Copyright DOES NOT protect:

  • Works not fixed in a tangible form
  • Ideas, facts or data
  • Titles, names or slogans
  • Works of the U.S. Government
  • Works in the Public Domain

Public Domain

The Public Domain refers to works that were created in certain time periods that are no longer protected by copyright. The following works are in the Public Domain:

  • Works published prior to 1923
  • Works published between 1923 and 1963 without a copyright notice
  • Works published between 1923 and 1963 with a copyright notice but without the copyright being renewed