Copyright Guide for Instructors

Best Practices 

• Ensure that the material can be uploaded to the course management website. 
• When unable to upload the material directly onto the course management website, link to the material first before requesting permission from the copyright holder. 
• Print copies of required texts can be placed on course reserve in the Library (kept at the Circulation Desk). Please fill out this form completely and email it to Aparna Frank. Faculty can also place personal copies of print material on Course Reserve by bringing those materials to the Circulation Desk. 
  • An email is typically sent by the Library before the start of each Semester for submission of course reserve requests. Faculty members have the option of sending in a Word document form containing the details of their request.

Materials That Do Not Require Copyright Permission

1. Safe Harbor Provisions: The NYU Statement of Policy and Guidelines on Educational and Research Uses of Copyrighted Materials has some safe harbor provisions at the university level. See Appendix 2, Classroom (Safe Harbor) Guidelines, "II. Multiple Copies for Classroom Use. (pp. 12-14)
2. Public Domain materials, including court opinions, federal government publications, or works whose copyright has expired.
3. Under Fair Use (Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act). 
   1. Applying Fair Use (NYU Libraries)
   2. Fair Use Checklist (Columbia University Libraries)
4. Open-source and open-access materials can also be used (and sometimes copied) without permission. These include Creative Commons licenses. 
5. NYU Licensed Materials are available to use as NYU has already paid for or otherwise obtained a license to use the work for educational purposes. These include many electronic content, including articles, audio, images, and other publications. Generally, these materials are restricted to members of the NYU community. Faculty should provide links to NYU Licensed Materials, rather than copying such materials in Coursepacks or onto the Course Management website. 
6. Other statutory copyright exemptions, such as TEACH (Technology, Education and Copyright Harmonization Act) in the context of distance education.

For more information, refer to "Section V. Materials Not Requiring Copyright Permission" of the NYU Statement of Policy and Guidelines on Educational and  Research Uses of Copyrighted Materials.

How do I obtain permission from the copyright owner? 

• NYU Bookstores has a Coursepack service which allows one to create Coursepacks in print or digital form. As part of the process, NYU Bookstores will clear all permissions for copyrighted materials. To do so, send an email to the NYU Bookstore course pack team, and email your course number and course name with your citations when you submit your request. 

• If you are intending to clear permissions independently, there are a few steps. First, identify who the copyright owner is. The author is the first owner of the copyright, but may sell or transfer the copyright to another body, such as the publisher. 
  • You can check to see if there is a copyright notice, like "© 2022 NYU Press", to determine who is the copyright owner. However, not all works will have a notice. 
  • The Copyright Office's Online Catalog can be used to find the copyright owner of post-1978 works that have been registered with the Copyright Office. The Copyright Office publication Circular 22: How to Investigate the Copyright Status of Work has information on how to determine the copyright status of a work using the Office's resources.
  • WATCH (Writers, Artists, and Their Copyright Holders) is another database to find the copyright and contact information for writers, artists, and other prominent figures in creative fields. 
• Once you identify the copyright owner, ask for permission to use the work. Remember, that you need to determine and clearly define the scope of how you intend to use the work. 
  • The Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) provides pay-per-use permission services for academic uses of books, articles, and other literary works. Certain publishers may already incorporate CCC into their permissions request workflows, which you can make use of.
  • The NYU Library has uploaded sample permission letters you can use to obtain permission.