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About the GDL

E-Reserves Copyright Policy

  • Material placed on e-reserve must constitute no more than 10% of a selected book and no more than one article per journal issue.
  • In addition to fair use, any e-reserve being used for the second consecutive term will require copyright permission. This may be provided by the professor upon the submission of the e-reserve, or it can be obtained by library staff. If time does not allow permission to be granted before the material is needed for class, it will be posted with permission pending. In the case that copyright permission cannot be obtained, library staff reserve the right to remove the material from e-reserve.
  • The selection of material placed on e-reserve cannot be the central portion, or “heart,” of a work.
  • All material placed on e-reserve must pass fair use scrutiny. If an initial judgment allows a specific selection to be used as an e-reserve, but later evaluation does not, library staff reserves the right to remove it without prior notification.
  • For materials that do not pass fair use scrutiny, the decision to obtain copyright permission from the publisher will be made on a case-by-case basis. It is likely that a hard copy of the material can be placed on reserve or that additional volumes may be purchased if needed.
  • Library staff reserve the right to determine if materials will be placed on course reserve, make the final determination if copyright permission is necessary, limit the number of course reserves for a given course based on copyright constraints, royalty costs, etc., and to remove or prohibit use of material for e-reserve without notification if it is determined that the use violates copyright law.

Note: Because the term “e-reserve” does not appear in U.S. Code, it is prudent to define it as an electronic photocopy. Its purpose is to provide teacher and students with access to material to be used in the classroom; it may or may not be printed by each student. Material not intended for classroom use (such as for clubs and extracurricular activities) is not covered by the e-reserves policy and will need additional evaluation.


Fair Use

Section 107 of U.S. code governs the making of photocopies for teaching and education purposes; it includes the four tenets of fair use:

§ 107 Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use

Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include—

  1. The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature of is for nonprofit educational purposes;
  2. The nature of the copyrighted work;
  3. The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
  4. The effect of the use upon the potential market value for the copyrighted work.

For additional information about section 107, click here: http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html.

Last updated August 16, 2010