The use of copyrighted materials in all formats, including the creation, online delivery, and use of digital copies of copyrighted materials scanned for your course, must be in compliance with Fair Use Guidelines established by U.S. Copyright law.

Fair Use allows limited use of copyrighted materials for educational and research purposes. For each item these four factors that should be assessed to determine whether a use is a Fair Use are:

  • Purpose and character of your use

  • Nature of the copyrighted work

  • Amount and substantiality of the portion taken, and

  • Effect of the use upon the potential market.

The 1997 Conference on Fair Use (CONFU) established guidelines for educators to incorporate lawfully acquired copyrighted works into their educational programs:

  • No more than 10% of a text; 

  • No more than 10% or 3 minutes (whichever is less) of motion-based works;

  • No more than 10% or 30 seconds (whichever is less) of a song or video; 

  • Entire photographs or illustrations may be used provided that no more than 10% or 15 images (whichever is less) come from any one source.

The Library’s policy concerning photocopies of copyrighted materials is defined by the Copyright Act (17 U.S. Code, §107 and 108). No one should copy / scan / post content consisting of copyrighted material or portions of copyrighted material without first:

  • Determining that the content falls within the public domain,

  • Obtaining permission from the copyright owner, or

  • Determining, after a reasonable analysis, that the content is a fair use for which permission is not required.

Posting links is the safest way to provide access to digital content. Over 90% of the MMA Library collection is digital, providing access to e-Books, databases and electronic journals by subscription agreement with vendors such as EBSCO, Gale, Nexis Uni and ProQuest. Licensing agreements vary in addressing whether or not content may be downloaded and posted to an e-reserves system or learning management system (such as Blackboard). Whenever possible, the best practice is to provide a PERSISTENT LINK to an e-book, database or e-journal content rather than copying/downloading and re-posting the content.





Adapted from:  https://library.bridgew.edu/services/course-reserves (12 August 2020; Last Rev. 30 Jun 2021)