Copyright, Fair Use, & Author Rights: Getting permission from copyright holder

Getting Permission

Permission Request Letter Template
Use the text, plugging in your information in brackets.
UCSD Dissertation Permission Letter Template
Modify if you'd like to gain permission from the copyright holder to use their work in your work.

Step 1: Contact the Copyright Owner
Step 2: Secure Permission
Step 3: Keep a Record
What If I Reach a “Dead End”? Can it be considered an Orphan Work?

Steps to cover

Developed by the Center for Digital Research and Scholarship at Columbia
The Basics of Getting Permission

Determine if permission is needed.
Stanford University Libraries.

UCLA Rights Toolkit

Resources - places to help find the copyright holder

Purdue University Copyright Office
In Copyright? Copyright Renewal Database
Use this online resource to search copyright-renewal records for books published in the United States between 1923 and 1963, after which copyrights were automatically renewed by the 1976 Copyright Act.
US Copyright Office
US Copyright catalog
SHERPA/RoMEO
To determine publisher policies
The WATCH File
..a database of copyright contacts for writers, artists, and prominent figures in other creative fields.

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WATCH is run jointly by the Harry Ransom Center and University of Reading Library.