Section 108 of the U.S. Copyright Act allows libraries to make copies of materials for preservation and security, to give copies to users for their private study or research, and to send copies through interlibrary loan. Like most of the statutes, it applies only to certain types of works, and only under certain circumstances.
Used under a Creative Commons BY license from the Copyright Advisory Office of Columbia University, Kenneth D. Crews, director.
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Copyrights are subject to many limitations and exceptions that permit the public to make certain uses of copyrighted works. Section 107 (Fair Use) is the best known of these exceptions and is probably the most important.
The U.S. Copyright Act, however, includes more than a dozen statutory exceptions. Most of these exceptions are narrow in their application and depend upon meeting a variety of specific conditions. By contrast, fair use is flexible and general in application and scope.
If a use is not covered by an exception, one can also make a fair use determination or request permission from the copyright owner. Other parts of this website offer guidance about fair use and permissions.
Below is a brief summary of some of the statutory exceptions of importance to the university, with references to the provision of the U.S. Copyright Act:
Based on and used under a Creative Commons BY license from the Copyright Advisory Office of Columbia University, Kenneth D. Crews, director.
Section 110(1) of the U.S. Copyright Act allows educators and students to perform or display all types of copyrighted works in a classroom or similar place at non-profit educational institutions. Instructors and students can recite poetry, read plays, show videos, play music, project slides, and engage in many other performances and displays of protected works in the classroom setting.
CAVEATS:
1. There should be a pedagogical purpose for using the material.
2. There are no limitations to the amount of material that can be used.
3. Materials must be acquired legally.
4. This exemption does not apply to making copies or posting materials to Moodle. For those activities, make a fair use determination or request permission from the copyright owner.
Based on and used under a Creative Commons BY license from the Copyright Advisory Office of Columbia University, Kenneth D. Crews, director.
Section 1201, part of the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act, provides that, upon the recommendation of the Register of Copyrights, the Librarian of Congress may, every three years, designate certain classes of works as exempt from the prohibition against circumvention of technological measures that control access to copyrighted works.
As a result of the 2012 section 1201(a)(1) rulemaking process, the Librarian of Congress has granted the following exemptions related to academic institutions:
1. Literary works distributed electronically (e-books), to permit blind and other persons with print disabilities to use screen readers and other assistive technologies;
3. Motion pictures on DVDs or distributed by online services, for purposes of criticism or comment in noncommercial videos, documentary films, nonfiction multimedia ebooks offering film analysis, and for certain educational uses by college and university faculty and students and kindergarten through twelfth grade educators; and
4. Motion pictures and other audiovisual works on DVDs or distributed by online services, for the purpose of research to create DVD players capable of rendering captions and descriptive audio for persons who are blind, visually impaired, deaf or hard of hearing.