Copyright and Fair Use Guidelines

The BCC Library guidelines for print and electronic reserves follow "fair use" as defined in Section 107 of the United States Copyright Act of 1976.

Section 107 is as follows:

Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified in that section for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiples copies for classroom use), scholarship or research is not an infringement of copyright.In determining whether these made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include:

The purposes and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
The nature of the copyrighted work;
The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
The effect of use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

WARNING CONCERNING COPYRIGHT RESTRICTIONS

Under certain conditions specified in the United States Copyright law (Title 17, United States Code) libraries and archives may be authorized to furnish a photocopy or other reproduction. One of these conditions is that the photocopy or reproduction may not be used for any purpose other than private study, scholarship or research, and that the only one copy be provided for scholarly purposes, unless copyright fees are paid. Further reproduction of paper copies made from this computer system may be in violation of copyright laws and is prohibited. Further electronic transmission may also be in copyright violation.

Materials which may be placed on reserve without obtaining copyright permission:

Exams
Lecture notes
Virtually all Government publications (there are exceptions)
Public domain such as government documents.
Non-copyrighted materials, such as personal notes or sample tests, lecture notes
Course related sites on the Web
Our online databases such as EBSCO (Academic Search Premier, etc.): The license agreements for articles available from these sources include the right to use this material in an electronic reserve service. Special permissions need not be sought, even for repeat uses. This rights does not extend to any online content providers other than the ones specifically listed here.

Portions of copyrighted materials that may be photocopied or scanned and placed on electronic reserve:

A chapter from a book, including only one selection from an anthology
An article from a periodical or a newspaper, including those from our online databases
A short story, essay or short poem
A chart, graph, diagram, drawing, cartoon or picture from a book, periodical, or newspaper.

Copyrighted Materials that may not be photocopied or scanned and placed on reserve:

Pages from works intended to be "consumable" in course of study or teaching. These include workbooks, exercises, standardized tests, test booklets and answer sheets
An entire book, whether in-print or out-of-print (electronic reserves only)
Substituting textbooks: creation of an anthology of reserve material to be used instead of a textbook.

Length of time photocopied/scanned materials may be on reserve:

Photocopies of copyrighted materials may be placed on reserve for only one semester without permission. If the instructor wishes to keep these materials on reserve for more than one consecutive semester, permission from the copyright holder must be requested. Once the request has been made the material can remain on reserve pursuant to the copyright holder's response. If permission is not granted then the material must be taken off reserve.

When copyright permission is needed:

When a journal article, book chapter or a portion of a work is on reserve for consecutive semesters
When multiple articles from one issue of a journal are needed for reserve during the same semester.
When multiple chapters from a book are needed during one semester.