1986 Policy and Guidelines on the Reproduction of Copyrighted Materials for Teaching and Research

Guidelines

II. Unrestricted Photocopying

A. Uncopyrighted Published Works

Anyone may reproduce without restriction works that entered the public domain. Any work published in the U.S. before January 1, 1978 without a copyright notice entered the public domain.

Copies of works protected by copyright must bear a copyright notice, which consists of the copyright symbol (a letter "c" in a circle, the word "Copyright" or the abbreviation "Copr.") plus the year of first publication for books and the name of the copyright owner. Prior to 1/1/78, in the case of a book or other printed publication, this notice had to be on the title page or the page immediately following: for periodicals, on the title page, the first page of the text of each separate issue or under the title heading. "Notice" requirements for works published after 1/1/78 have been relaxed somewhat with respect to both the position of notices and inadvertent omission of these, so there may be limited protection for some works on which notices do not appear. However, in such instances, if you were to innocently infringe a copyright, in a reliance upon an authorized copy from which the copyright notice had been omitted, there would be no liability for actual or statutory damages for any infringing acts committed before receiving actual notice of copyright registration, if it is proved that you were misled by the omission of copyright notice; in such a case, a court may allow or disallow recovery of any of the infringer's profits attributable to the infringement, and may enjoin the continuation of the infringing undertaking or may require the infringer to pay the copyright owner a reasonable license fee as a condition of continuation of the infringing undertaking.

B. Published Works with Expired Copyrights

Anyone may reproduce without constraint published works whose copyrights have expired. All U.S. copyrights dated earlier than 75 years ago have expired. Copyrights dated later than that may also have expired because the initial period of copyright protection prior to 1978 is for 28 years if there is no renewal. The work probably will not contain notice of the renewal. We recommend that you either assume the protection is still in effect for copyrights more recent than 75 years old, or ask the owners of them (or the U.S. Copyright Office) whether they are still subject to copyright protection. Usually publishers are either the owners or know the owners' locations. If not, owners may be located through the U.S. Copyright Office in Washington, DC.

C. U.S. Government Publications

U.S. Government publications are documents prepared by an officer or employee of the U.S. Government as part of that person's official duties. Government publications include the opinions of courts in legal cases, Congressional Reports on proposed bills, testimony offered at Congressional hearings, and reports of government employees. Works prepared by outside authors on contract to the Government may or may not be protected by copyright. As with other publications, copyright notices may be in the front (for pre-1978 publications) or on the front and back (in works published since 1/1/78. In the absence of copyright notice in such works, it would be reasonable to assume they are in the public domain.