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Copyright, Fair Use, & Author Rights: Authors - Keep Your Copyright!

Your Scholarship, Your Rights

“Be a responsible steward of your intellectual property. Retain vital rights for you and your readers while authorizing publishing activities that benefit everyone by making scholarship more widely available.”

— Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC)

What can authors do? Librarians are happy to help with the process!

  • Negotiate with the publishers to retain explicit ownership of your content (Author's 5 Basic Rights)
  • Transfer, via an author addendum, to the publisher only those rights needed for publication.
  • Specify other rights of particular value to you or your  home institution
  • Consider publishing with an organization that will facilitate the widest dissemination of your work in order to help you fulfill your personal and professional goals as a scholar.

Know Your Rights

Copyright holders retain 5 basic rights:

  1. Right to Reproduce
  2. Right to Prepare Derivative Works
  3. Right to Distribute
  4. Right to Display Publicly (related to artistic works)
  5. Right to Perform Publicly (related to musical or dramatic works)

What Could You Lose if You Sign Away Your Rights?

The right to:

  • Use your work in a course pack
  • Place copies on print or electronic reserves
  • Mount a copy on your web site
  • Deposit a copy in your institutional repository
  • Distribute a copy to colleagues

Rights Reversion

Author Addenda to Copyright Agreements & Model Agreements

Authors Alliance - Support and Resources for Authors

The [student] Fight for Fair Copyright

Your Creative Commons License

About the licenses

the 'CC BY-ND' license, represented by the CC logo, an icon of a person (BY for attribution), and an equal sign (ND for no derivatives)

the 'CC BY-NC' license, with the CC logo, a person icon (BY), and a crossed dollar sign (NC for non-commercial).

the 'CC BY-NC-SA' license, with the CC logo, a person icon (BY), a crossed dollar sign (NC), and a circular arrow (SA for share-alike).

the 'CC BY-NC-ND' license, with the CC logo, a person icon (BY), a crossed dollar sign (NC), and an equal sign (ND)