Back to Section Home

Copyright & Education

1. Butte College Policies and procedures
a. Library course reserves policies
b. Butte College Board Policy on Computer and Network Use
2. What Is Copyright?

Circular 21: Reproduction of Copyrighted Works by Educators and Librarians (United States Copyright Office)

Copyright is a protection provided by the laws of the United States (title 17, U. S. Code) to the authors of “original works of authorship,” including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works. Protection is available to both published and unpublished works.

U.S. copyright law grants copyright holders, such as publishers, writers and other types of creators, the exclusive right to reproduce, perform, distribute, translate and publicly display their original works. Unless your situation meets an exception outlined in the Copyright Act, you must get explicit permission from the copyright holder before you can lawfully re-use the work in any of the following ways:

  • Reproduce the work in copies or recordings;
  • Prepare derivative works based upon the work;
  • Distribute copies or recordings of the work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending;
  • Perform the work publicly, such as literary, musical, dramatic works, motion pictures and other audiovisual works;
  • Display the work publicly, in the case of literary, musical, and dramatic works, and pictorial, graphic, or sculptural art works, including the individual frames of a motion picture or other audiovisual work; and
  • In the case of sound recordings,* to perform the work publicly by means of a digital audio transmission (including P2P filesharing)
2. When Does Copyright Matter?
  • When you are using materials that you did not create or to which you do not own copyright
  • When you are using materials not covered by a licensing agreement
  • When you have a licensing agreement that specifies compliance with Fair Use
3. The Good News: Special Copyright Provisions for Academics ("Fair Use")

The Copyright Act contains specific exceptions for the use of copyright-protected materials by academic institutions, and allow certain exceptions to educators and libraries. These provisions include:

Four factors of Fair Use:

Fair-use Statute Section 107 lists the following factors to be evaluated in determining whether a particular use of a copyrighted work is a permitted fair use:

(1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes; Nonprofit and educational setting use is more likely to be considered fair use than in commercial or for-profit setting. However, be aware that not all educational uses are considered fair use.

(2) the nature of the copyrighted work to be used. Reproduction of factual or statistical materials is more likely to fall under fair use than collections of of highly creative, original works, including artwork, poetry or musical compositions. Reproduction of previously published works is more likely to fall under fair use than reproduction of previously unpublished works

(3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole. Reproducing smaller portions of a work is more likely to be fair use than reproducing large or essential portions

(4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work. What effect would this use have on the market for the original or for permissions if the use were widespread?

Additional guides, resources and checklists for evaluating Fair Use compliance:  
4. Helpful Web Tools
Sources for copyright-free and open license works:
  • Creative Commons http://creativecommons.org/ “a nonprofit corporation dedicated to making it easier for people to share and build upon the work of others, consistent with the rules of copyright.” From
  • Creative Commons Search page http://search.creativecommons.org/ provides a search interface for Wikimedia Commons, Google Image, Flickr, and many other popular tools.
  • Firefox’s search functions also include search options for Creative Commons attribution.
  • Google Advanced Search: http://www.google.com/advanced_image_search Under “Usage Rights” you can limit to results that are filtered for re-use, re-use with modifications, etc.
  • There are many other specific sites, such as the Internet Archive http://www.archive.org/, Project Bartleby http://www.bartleby.com/, and others that include access to materials in the public domain. Ask one of our librarians if you would like more information or help.
General copyright issues: education 
Multimedia, audio & peer-to-peer filesharing 

Butte College | 3536 Butte Campus Drive, Oroville CA 95965 | General Information 530.895.2511

Back to Top