Copyright Policy
What materials may be placed on electronic reserve?
Materials may be placed on electronic reserve when any one of the following is true:
- The instructor owns the copyright for the material (e.g.: sample exams).
- The copyright owner has granted permission to use the work.
- The material is in the public domain.
- Fair use requirements have been met.
At Willamette University, faculty members assure that the use of copyrighted material in the classroom is either fair use or undertaken with the permission of the copyright owner. When the status specific item on reserve is an obvious violation of copyright, the instructor will be asked by the library to certify that permission has been obtained from the author or copyright owner.
Fair use
Fair use is an exception to the copyright owner's exclusive right to reproduce a work. It allows limited copying without the permission of the copyright owner or the payment of royalties. Section 107 of the United States Copyright Act of 1976 provides the following four factors to guide determination of when the use of a copyrighted work is fair:
- The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or
is for nonprofit educational purposes.
- The nature of the copyrighted work.
- The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a
whole.
- The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.
Note that fair use analysis requires viewing the facts in light of all four factors. Educational use alone, for example, does not make a use fair. Resources to help in making a fair use determination for electronic reserves are available from the library.
The sections below offer further guidance on when copyrighted materials may be placed on electronic reserve.
Use of library materials
The Hatfield Library purchases materials for the nonprofit educational use of students and faculty with the clear understanding that there will be multiple users, and frequently pays an institutional subscription price for academic journals that is many times the individual subscription price.
In the case of online resources, the library works to negotiate agreements that do not diminish fair use or prohibit the distribution of materials through electronic reserve systems. Our license agreements often give faculty an explicit right to use materials for electronic reserves.
Whenever possible, items used for electronic reserves should be those purchased or licensed by the library.
General guidelines
Guidelines can help to determine when placing a particular item on electronic reserves safely falls within fair use.
- In general, copyrighted materials of a consumable nature, such as workbooks, should not be placed
on reserve.
- Copying is typically limited to brief works, or brief excerpts from longer works. Examples
include a chapter from a book, an article from a journal, or unrelated
news articles. In all cases, the amount of material placed on reserve
should be directly related to the educational objectives of the course.
- Copies must be made from materials that have been legally obtained by the library,
the faculty member, or some other unit of the university.
- The total amount of copyrighted material placed on reserve without the permission of
the copyright owner should be a small percentage of the assigned reading
for the course. Electronic reserves should not serve as a substitute
for course packs.
- When repeated use of an item over multiple semesters would, if widely practiced, harm the market for the original, greater weight should be given to this market effect in fair use analysis.
- Whenever possible, use the library's licensed databases or electronic journal collections. License agreements frequently permit the use of online materials for electronic reserves, and thus avoid questions of fair use.
Practices
The following practices apply to all materials placed on electronic reserve:
- Materials will be placed on electronic reserve at the initiative of faculty for the
noncommercial, educational use of students.
- Access to materials will be limited to students enrolled in the course during the current
semester.
- Copyright notices will appear in the online reserve system and on scanned copies of reserve
readings.
- Materials placed on reserve will include citations or appropriate attributions as to
their sources.
- Students will access material only by the name of the professor and the course.
- Electronic reserve materials will be removed from the system at the end of each semester.
- Faculty must resubmit materials for use in subsequent semesters.
- No more than 25 items should be placed on electronic reserve for any given course.
Obtaining Permission
When a faculty member determines that copyright permission is required for electronic reserves, he or she may obtain permission from the copyright holder or through payment of a fee to the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC). Obtaining permission through the CCC requires year of publication, number of pages, and number of students enrolled in the course. Contact the library for more information on obtaining permission for reserves or see the University's Procedures to Clear Copyright.
Future developments
The distribution of copyrighted material through electronic reserves is an unsettled area of the law that may be addressed through future legislation or litigation. The library will monitor legal developments to assure that our service complies with copyright law.