Copyright and Online Images: Copyright Basics

A work passes into the public domain when the applicable copyright term has expired. Works in the public domain may be freely used by anyone for any purpose.

Under U.S. law copyright expires 70 years after the death of the author. For practical purposes any work that was first published before 1923 is now in the public domain. For corporate authors the duration of copyright is the shorter of 95 years from publication or 120 years from creation.

Works created by federal officers or employees as part of their official duties such as presidential speeches, congressional reports, federal judicial opinions, and other government documents are also in the public domain.

Copyright is a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States (Title 17, U.S. Code) to authors of original works of authorship, including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic and audiovisual works, and software. This protection applies to both published and unpublished works that are fixed in a tangible medium. The law gives the owner of the copyright exclusive rights to:

♦ reproduce the work (i.e. make copies)

♦ prepare derivative works

♦ distribute copies publicly

♦ perform or display the work publicly

The copyright in the work immediately becomes the property of the author who created the work but the owner may transfer all or part of these rights to others. Subject to some exceptions (i.e. fair use) a person who exercises any of these rights in another's work without permission, may be liable for copyright infringement.

1. Is the work protected by copyright or is it in the public domain?

2. Is the work covered by a license? Is your use addressed in the license? (Contact Miner Library for more information about using electronic journal articles and book chapters licensed by the library.)

3. Is there an exception in the Copyright Law that allows your use, i.e. classroom performances? (See Other Exceptions section.)

4. Is your use a fair use? (See Fair Use section.)

5. Who can you ask for permission? (See Obtaining Permissions section.)

Acknowledgement: We would like to thank Kevin Smith, J.D., Director of the Office of Copyright and Scholarly Communication at Duke University for the above framework for analyzing any copyright problem.

The University of Rochester is committed to upholding the principles of intellectual property as embodied in U.S. copyright law, and to protecting the rights of its faculty to make appropriate and limited use of copyrighted works for legitimate educational purposes. It is University policy that works that are subject to copyright protection should only be used with the permission of the copyright owner, unless the use meets the test of Fair Use, or some other exception to the copyright law applies.

University of Rochester's Copyright Policy

Fair Use Analysis Checklist (From Columbia University)

Dark Horse Analytics Blog

Tips on how to improve the looks of visualizations you include in your papers and posters.