ETDs: Copyright
Rights of copyright holders
As the author of your ETD you own the copyright and you make decisions about sharing or relinquishing some or all of these rights.
- Reproduction
- Modification
- Distribution
- Public performance
- Public display
As of March 1, 1989, the copyright warning does not have to appear for a work to be legally copyrighted. However, it is a good idea to remind people of your copyrights by including:
© 2017 by [your name]
Consider adding statements that grant permission or limit use. See Permissions column on the far right.
Copyright and Creative Commons
Copyright resources: http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/copyright/cprtmoreinfo.html
Open Access: Copyright: https://guides.lib.vt.edu/oa/copyright
Assign a Creative Commons license
Register
- Copyright is automatic (no © required)
- Copyright registration is not required
- Payment is not required
US Copyright Office
Circulars and Factsheets
Copyright Basics (2008)
Why registering your copyright? To possibly receive greater compensation with less documentation when filing an infringement suit.
Permission
Permission to use a copyrighted work is NOT required if:
- Creative Commons license [see below also]
- Adding a CC license changes its copyright from “All Rights Reserved” to “Some Rights Reserved.”
- Facts or ideas
- Public domain: A work is not protected by copyright and may be freely used by everyone.
- Term of copyright has expired
- A work of the US Government
- The Law: When US Works Pass into the Public Domain
- Fair use: Use someone else's work without permission after you consider ALL 4 FAIR USE FACTORS and the majority weigh in your favor and not in favor of the copyright holder.
- Purpose and character of use
- Commercial or educational use
- For profit or not
- Degree of transformation; value added
- For criticism, commentary, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, research
2. Nature of the copyrighted work
- Character of the work (consider factual vs. fiction)
- Worthy of (extensive) protection?
3. Amount, substantiality
- Use only what's necessary
- Quantity and quality in relation to the whole work
4. Effect
- Harm tor potential harm to the market of a work after a portion has been used separately from the whole
Advice about Signing Agreements with Publishers
Search Sherpa RoMEO for publishers copyright policies
Creative Commons Licenses
Let people know through a Creative Commons license whether and how they may use your work.
Public Domain - no known copyright
The Public Domain mark by Creative Commons indicates that neither you nor anyone else currently has rights to the work. Common reasons for a work to be in the public domain include because its copyright has expired, because it was created by a government body, or because it is factual and therefore does not meet the copyright standard for original creative expression. The Public Domain mark is most often appropriate for texts and images published before the early 20th century, government documents, datasets, graphs, and charts.
CC0 - no rights reserved
CC0 ("Creative Commons Zero") enables you to waive your rights in your works and thereby place them as completely as possible in the public domain, so that others may freely build upon, enhance, and reuse your works for any purposes without restriction under copyright or database law.
Creative Commons - some rights reserved
Creative Commons licenses allow you to retain some rights: this option will let you decide and declare whether to allow or refuse permission for commercial uses of your work, whether to allow or refuse permission to modify your work, or whether to allow modifications of your work only on the condition that modifiers also allow others to modify the new work ("ShareAlike").
No Creative Commons license
You need not specify a Creative Commons license or mark for the work you are uploading, but in that case, people who find the content online will not know whether or how they are permitted to use, share, redistribute, remix, tweak, and build upon your work.