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Copyright FAQs

Copyright FAQs

Select a question to learn more. Contact your liaison librarian if your question isn't answered here. 

A coursepack is a collection of articles, book chapters, and other text content that faculty select as course materials for their classes. The Campus Store obtains copyright clearance for these items and sells them to students as either digital or print packs. 

  • Before assembling a coursepack, it is recommended that you discuss options with your liaison librarian who may be able to identify library resources that may be legally linked in Canvas at no cost to students. 
  • Remember that items legally available online may also be linked directly in Canvas.
  • If resources aren’t available through the library or legally available online, submit a custom adoption for your coursepack in Slingshot Pro, our Campus Store’s online adoption tool.
  • A Campus Store agent will contact you with further instructions. 
  • Coursepack adoptions must be submitted at the time of traditional course material adoptions.
  • If you have any questions about the process, send them to campusstore@messiah.edu.

 

Creative Commons is a non-profit organization that enables the sharing and use of creativity and knowledge through free legal tools. Creative Commons licenses are not an alternative to copyright. They work alongside copyright and enable you to modify your copyright terms to best suit your needs.

Creative Commons licenses provide the creator with a standardized way to grant the public permission to use their creative work under copyright law. For the user, the Creative Commons license specifically lets them know how they can use the work. Learn more about Creative Commons in this brief video from Wikimedia Commons.

There are six different licenses with a variety of different requirements, but all of which allow nonprofit educational use. To use a Creative Commons licensed item, you must simply follow the guidelines provided in the license.

A great resource in Murray Library is Creative Commons for Educators and Librarians. Your liaison librarian is happy to answer any questions you have about Creative Commons licensing, either for your own work or to determine how you might use the work of others. 

  1. Review considerations for licensing your work. 
  2. Review the Creative Commons license options.
  3. Choose your license.
  4. Mark your work with the Creative Commons license.

You may share your Creative Commons licensed work via resources such as Mosaic, Messiah's institutional repository. Contact a librarian with any questions about Mosaic. 

Yes. The TEACH Act (Section 110(2) of the Copyright Act) permits the use of copyrighted materials without permission when you are teaching in the online equivalent of a classroom. You must use technological measure to limit access such as password protection, you must use only as much as you would in a physical classroom, and you may only use "reasonable portions" of dramatic audiovisual works.

Fair use also provides users rights to use materials without permission under certain circumstances and can apply to online education.

If you have questions about using materials online, contact your liaison librarian. You may also review an in-depth explanation of the TEACH Act provided by Cornell University Libraries. 

Unless you have reason to believe that the item you are linking to is infringing on copyright, you may link to it in the LMS.

Copyright protection exists in original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression. The creativity level required for something to be considered "original" is very low.

Works of authorship include the following categories:

  1. literary works (books and articles);
  2. musical works, including any accompanying words;
  3. dramatic works, including any accompanying music;
  4. pantomimes and choreographic works;
  5. pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works (including cartoons);
  6. films and other audiovisual works;
  7. sound recordings; and
  8. architectural works.

You do not have to register copyright in order for your work to be copyrighted. The Cornell University Library offers a resource page for authors as they work through the scholarly publication process. 

Yes. Review the copyright guidelines by format page to learn more.