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Copyright Policy

Copyright is a form of protection for intellectual property provided by the laws of the United States (Title 17, United States Code, Sect. 101, et seq.) to the authors of original works. These works include, but are not limited to, literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and multimedia works. Copyright protection extends to published, printed works such as books and magazine articles, but it also extends into unpublished works, and covers all forms of a work, including its digital transmission and use.

Wagner College is committed to the protection of intellectual property and believes in the importance of the Fair Use Doctrine – that portion of the Copyright Law that allows limited use of copyrighted material without prior permission of the copyright holder. Balancing property rights and fair use is the responsibility of every individual within the Wagner College community. It is also our responsibility to practice due diligence in respect to copyright protections – we must show that we have taken every reasonable precaution to not infringe on the intellectual property of others. The Wagner College Library works with community members on copyright issues and provides some basic guidelines to assist individuals with copyright questions.

Copyrighted works include the following broad categories:

1. Literary works
2. Musical works, including accompanying words
3. Dramatic works, including accompanying music
4. Pantomimes and choreographic works
5. Pictorial and graphical works
6. Sculptural works
7. Motion pictures and other audiovisual works
8. Sound recordings in all formats
9. Architectural works
10. Photographs
11. Museum reproductions of paintings or other works of art

In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include:

1. The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
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.

It is the responsibility of all students, faculty, and staff at Wagner College to understand and comply with copyright law. A basic primer on copyright law is found on the website for the United States Copyright Office http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html .

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Copyright Guidelines

Whether copied by individual faculty or submitted to the Copy Center, all copied materials must be in compliance with the fair use provisions noted below.

• The copies are for only one course, with no more than one copy per student in the course.
• No more than one short poem, article, story, essay or two excerpts may be copied from the same author, or more than three from the same collective work or periodical volume during a semester
• There shall no more than nine instances of such multiple copying for one course during a semester
• Every photocopy machine on campus should display signage with a copyright notice alert.

Course Packs

Every article or chapter in a course pack, if taken from copyrighted material, requires permission from the copyright owner (usually the publisher). Each item in the packet must also include a notice of copyright.

Interlibrary Loan Materials

In accordance with the voluntary guidelines formulated by the National Commission on New Technological Uses of Copyrighted Works (CONTU), we can request five journal articles per title published in the last five years free of copyright considerations. There are no restrictions for articles over five years old. The copies become the property of the requestor, and use is limited to private study, scholarship or research.

Electronic and Print Reserves

At faculty request, photocopies of journal articles or chapters of books may be placed on reserve in the library. Under fair use guidelines, photocopies of these materials may be made without permission from the copyright owner. ALA recommends that one copy be made for every 10-15 students. Photocopied materials will be retained for a specified period of time at the end of which they will be removed from reserve.

Audiovisual Materials

Videocassettes and videodiscs owned by the college may be viewed in person or mounted for distributive viewing over a secure server with the following provisions:

• They must be shown as part of an instructional program
• They must be shown by members of the institution for other members of the same.
• They must be shown either in a classroom or other school venue such as a studio, workshop, library, gymnasium, auditorium or dormitory.
• They must be shown only to students and educators.

Music, Music CDs and Sound Recordings

• Multiple photocopies of printed music may be made for classroom use if they comprise no more than 10% of a whole work.
• A performable unit (section, movement, aria, etc.) of printed music may be copied for individual use or for a course reserve
• Entire non-music cassettes or disks may be copied only if replacement copies cannot be obtained from a commercial source at a fair price. Recording brief excerpts is considered fair use.

Archival Materials and Photographs

Wagner College retains exclusive rights to all institutional photographs and materials as well as monographs, letters, manuscripts and ephemera of the Edwin Markham Archive in Horrmann Library.

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Copyright Services

Created by Dean Dorothy Davison, Revised and updated October 2008.

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