Getting
Permission
When Your Use is Not Fair
Slides produced by the Copyright Education & Consultation Program
Guiding Questions
• Why get permission?
• Who should I contact?
o How do I contact the copyright holder?
• What should I say?
o What if my use is denied or I get no answer?
• What if I can’t find someone to contact?
• How is licensing related?
Slides produced by the Copyright Education & Consultation Program
Why get permission?
• Your use is not fair
• This might happen if your use is:
o
o
o
o
Too extensive or long
Commercial
Detrimental to market value
Or the work is highly creative
Slides produced by the Copyright Education & Consultation Program
Who do I contact?
• The current copyright holder - this could be:
o The author or creator
o A publishing company
o A beneficiary of the creator or someone else
• For help, check:
o
o
o
o
Author and publisher websites
The US Copyright Office
Stanford Copyright Renewal Database
Collective Licensing Agencies (more about these
later)
Slides produced by the Copyright Education & Consultation Program
How should I make
contact?
• **Be sure to keep copies of all
correspondences for your own records!**
• Write a letter to the copyright holder
• If the owner is a publishing company there may
be a form on the company’s website that
allows you to formally request permission
Slides produced by the Copyright Education & Consultation Program
What should I say?
• What portion of the material you will be using
• How you will be using the material
• The frequency of your use
• What you will be getting out of the use (e.g.
money, prestige)
Slides produced by the Copyright Education & Consultation Program
What happens if I get no
response?
• No response from the copyright holder does not
grant you permission to use a work!
• Consider using an alternative work or paring
down your intended use of the work
o An author may be more willing to consider and
respond to a request for a more limited use of their
materials
Slides produced by the Copyright Education & Consultation Program
What if my request is
denied?
• Double check to see if your use is fair
• Replace the material with something you can
legally use
Slides produced by the Copyright Education & Consultation Program
What if I cannot find a
copyright holder?
• Works for which the copyright holder cannot be
found are called orphan works
o Currently, you still need permission to use these works
• Double check to see if your use is fair
• Replace the material with something you can
legally use
Slides produced by the Copyright Education & Consultation Program
How is licensing related?
• If a work is licensed, licenses generally take
precedence over copyright
o e.g. a Creative Commons license
• For some works you can purchase a license to
use the work through a collective licensing
agency
o Agencies have often negotiated access to works
o e.g. The Copyright Clearance Center
• http://www.copyright.com
Slides produced by the Copyright Education & Consultation Program
Questions?
Slides produced by the Copyright Education & Consultation Program
Resources
• US Copyright Office search for registered
documents (from after 1978)
o http://www.copyright.gov/records/
• Copyright Education & Consultation Page on
getting permission
o http://blogs.cites.illinois.edu/librarycopyright/getting-permission/
Stanford Copyright Renewal Database
o http://collections.stanford.edu/copyrightren
ewal
Slides produced by the Copyright Education & Consultation Program
More Info …
The Copyright Education & Consultation Program is funded by
a Library and Technical Services Grant Administered by the
Illinois State Library
Please visit our website at http://go.illinois.edu/copyright
Slides produced by the Copyright Education & Consultation Program