Your Thesis and Copyright

The U.S. Copyright Act sets forth in Section 102(a) that copyright protection vests immediately and automatically upon the creation of "original works of authorship" that are "fixed in any tangible medium of expression." Copyright applies to all tangible mediums including but not limited to text, computer programs, music, paintings, drawings, graphics, and charts. Copyright is a protection for you as an author. As an author, you also have to be aware of the copyrights of other authors and ensure that your thesis does not include any unauthorized use ofcopyrighted material of others or any use of your own material for which you have signed away the copyright.

Copyright Your Dissertation:

Copyright vests immediately upon the creation of your work. It is helpful if you include a copyright notice on your dissertation. A notice often takes this form:

Copyright 1997 Jane Student

If you do use a notice of copyright, the OGI Style Guide requires that you place this on a separate page after the title page of your thesis.

Life of Copyright:

The duration of the copyright on a work depends upon when it was first published or put into a fixed medium of expression. Circular 15a from the Copyright Office provides a detailed explanation of the provisions concerning duration of copyright. Circular 15t explains the extensions of copyright terms granted by the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998.

Lolly Gasaway from the University of North Carolina has created a tableat http://www.unc.edu/~unclng/public-d.htm summarizing when a work passes into public domain. Reviewing these sources will help you determine whether or not previously published material is still protected by copyright.

Permissions:

Request permission from the copyright owner before using their material whether it is published or unpublished. Document your request by keeping copies of any letters or email correspondence. You can find some information from the publisher's website or by sending emails to the contacts that handle permissions for the various publishers. Allow time to get necessary permissions prior to the date your dissertation is submitted. It is recommended that you start obtaining permissions at least four months before filing your dissertation. Permission letters for previously published materials within your thesis must make it clear that an electronic copy of your dissertation may be published on the OGI dissertation site or may be supplied by UMI.

Determination of Fair Use:

Fair use requires analysis of all four factors before reaching a conclusion.

• Purpose of use.. Nonprofit educational uses are favored over commercial uses. Since you will receive royalties from UMI if more than seven copies of your dissertation are sold within a calendar year, your dissertation publication could be termed "commercial."
• Nature of work used.This factor examines the characteristics of the work being used. Courts more readily favor the fair use of nonfiction, rather than fiction and consider that unpublished materials may weigh against fair use.
• Amount of use. Amount is measured both quantitatively and qualitatively. No exact measures of allowable quantity exist in the law.
• Effect on the market. If you make a use for which a purchase of an original should have occurred, then this factor may weigh against fair use.

University Microfilms Inc.

If you wish to publish your thesis or dissertation with UMI, the OGI Library will assist you in this. As with the submission of your electronic thesis, you will be required to obtain copyright permissions necessary to publish and distribute your dissertation in either paper or electronic format with UMI.

Credit for much of the information on this page goes to: Kenneth D. Crews. "Copyright Law and Graduate Research: New Media, New Rights, and Your New Dissertation", University Microfilms, 1996. (OGI Ref KF2994 .C73 1996).

For further information about copyright see the following websites:

• 10 Big Myths About Copyright Explained.
• General Copyright Information from U.S. Copyright Office.
• Copyright Management Center at Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis.
• Copyright & Fair Use at Stanford University Libraries