Copyright and Library Policy

Find links to information about copyright and fair use at The Library.

U.S. Copyright

• For educational purposes, U.S. copyright laws allow for specific and limited amounts of copying, mostly through the Fair Use statute. For more details on this please see our online guide.
• Open Access required of federally funded research: the National Institutes of Health requires at least the author's manuscript or the post-peer reviewed manuscript to be deposited in PubMed Central wihtin 12 months of publication. For more details on this please see our NIH online guide.
• US Copyright FAQ

UC Copyright Resources

• The UC System put together great resources for exploring copyright, fair use, and more.
• Use our online guide for links to UC resources and more.
• UC's Senate Faculty & Presidential Open Access Policies.

International Copyright

• International Copyright Relations of the United States states that protection against unauthorized use in a particular country depends on the national laws of that country. Use this circular to get a brief overview of the international conventions, treaties, and other tools that the U.S. has with other countries.
• Copyright Laws around the World - written by Kenneth Crews, a noted authority in copyright.

The Library's Reserves Copyright Policy

• The UC San Diego Library policy for course reserve services is derived from the fair-use provisions of the United States Copyright Act of 1976, specifically, section 107 which expressly permits the making of multiple copies for classroom use. For more information please see the Reserves Copyright Policy page.

The Library's Digital Collections

• The Library's Digital Collections is a publically searchable website for more than 50,000 digital objects from across our collection in support of education and research. Usage and copyright information varies. See the online guide to request permission to use something or ask that your item be removed from the collection.

Visual Material

• The Library's online guide to film and video copyright.
• The Library's online gude to copyright for images.

Maintaining Your Intellectual Property

• For UC Authors (faculty, staff, or students) - what do you own?
• See UC's Ownership page

Creative Commons Copyright

• With a Creative Commons copyright, one can share one's own content (print, video, audio, ect.) and specify how others can use or reuse it. See more info about Creative Commons on our guide.

Open Access and the Senate Faculty & Presidential Policies

• In 2013 & 2015 the UC system adopted an open access policy requiring all authors of scholarly articles make their research publically available at no charge via the repository eScholarship.
• UC's Open Access Policies