Copyright Information for Students
You may use the following without making a copyright violation:
"Fair Use" rules are copyright rules for students and teachers. You may use the following without making a copyright violation:
Additional Guidelines
Check out Cyberbee for answers to other common copyright questions.
"Fair Use" rules are copyright rules for students and teachers. You may use the following without making a copyright violation:
- Music: Up to 30 seconds, but no more than 10% of a recording; up to 30 seconds, but no more than 10% of sheet music.
- Video: Up to 3 minutes, but more than 10% of the entire video.
- Photograph or illustration: Up to 5 graphics or photos from the same person/artist; no more than 15 images from the same collection.
- Book: Up to 1000 words, but not more than 10% of the book or article.
- Poem: Up to 250 words (or the entire poem if it is less than 250 words); no more than 3 poems by the same poet; no more than 5 poems from a collection of poetry.
Additional Guidelines
- Students may incorporate portions of copyrighted materials when producing a project for a specific course.
- Students may perform and display their own projects and use them in their portfolio or use the project for job interviews or as supporting materials for application to graduate school.
*ALWAYS CITE YOUR SOURCES!
Check out Cyberbee for answers to other common copyright questions.
Copyright Information for Teachers
You may use the following without making a copyright violation:
What Should Be Avoided?
When is Permission Required?
Additional Guidelines
See our Citing Your Sources for help citing sources.
- A chapter from a book (never the entire book).
- An article from a periodical or newspaper.
- A short story, essay, or poem. One work is the norm whether it comes from an individual work or an anthology.
- A chart, graph, diagram, drawing, cartoon or picture from a book, periodical, or newspaper.
- Poetry: Multiple copies of a poem of 250 words or less that exist on two pages or less or 250 words from a longer poem.
- Prose: Multiple copies of an article, story or essay that are 2,500 words or less or excerpts up to 1,000 words or 10 percent of the total work, whichever is less.
- Illustrations: Multiple copies of a chart, graph, diagram, drawing, cartoon, or picture contained in a book or periodical issue.
What Should Be Avoided?
- Making multiple copies of different works that could substitute for the purchase of books, publisher's reprints, or periodicals.
- Copying the same works from semester to semester.
- Copying the same material for several different courses at the same or different institutions.
- Copying more than nine separate times in a single semester.
When is Permission Required?
- When you intend to use the materials for commercial purposes.
- When you want to use the materials repeatedly.
- When you want to use a work in its entirety and it is longer than 2,500 words.
Additional Guidelines
- Faculty may include portions of copyrighted works when producing their own multimedia project for their teaching in support of curriculum-based instructional activities at educational institutions.
- Faculty may use their project for:
- assignments for student self-study
- for remote instruction provided the network is secure and is designed to prevent unlawful copying
- for conferences, presentations, or workshops
- for their professional portfolio
See our Citing Your Sources for help citing sources.
Works Cited
Gilman, Joni. "Copyright Fun!" Copyright Fun! Peachtree Ridge Media Center, n.d. Web. 18 Jan. 2014.
<http://www.prhsmediacenter.com/copyright.html>.
Sparlin, Dan. "Copyright Guidelines." Copyright Guidelines. NC WiseOwl, 2009. Web. 19 Jan. 2014.
<http://www.ncwiseowl.org/zones/copyright/Student_Guidelines.html>.
Gilman, Joni. "Copyright Fun!" Copyright Fun! Peachtree Ridge Media Center, n.d. Web. 18 Jan. 2014.
<http://www.prhsmediacenter.com/copyright.html>.
Sparlin, Dan. "Copyright Guidelines." Copyright Guidelines. NC WiseOwl, 2009. Web. 19 Jan. 2014.
<http://www.ncwiseowl.org/zones/copyright/Student_Guidelines.html>.