The text throughout this guide serves as a guideline and is not intended as legal advice. If you have a specific legal question pertaining to copyright law, you should contact the Office of Legal Affairs.
Copyright law places a high value on educational use. The Classroom Use Exemption (17 U.S.C. §110(1)) allows instructors and students to perform and display (but not reproduce or distribute) works like movies, images, artworks, etc., when the materials are used for instructional purposes in face-to-face teaching at non-profit educational institutions (like Chapman University). The TEACH Act (17 U.S.C. §110(2)) also creates some rights for uses of copyrighted materials in online instruction, but has certain restrictions.
If neither the Classroom Use Exception nor the TEACH Act apply, then you should evaluate whether the usage may constitute a fair use as determined by the four factors on the Fair Use page of this guide.
In many cases, you can also eliminate the need for permissions or fees for copyrighted materials by linking to a library-owned copy of the material. For that reason, it is always recommended that you check the Leatherby Libraries' holdings to determine whether the material is already owned and available for student use.
In general, you should always use legally-acquired materials, include copyright notices, and only include as much as is needed for pedagogical purposes when using copyrighted materials for instructional purposes.
The copyright law of the United States (17 U.S.C. §108) governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. Under certain conditions specified in the law, libraries and archives are authorized to furnish a photocopy or other reproduction. One of these specific conditions is that the photocopy or reproduction is not to be “used for any purpose other than private study, scholarship, or research.” If a user makes a request for, or later uses, a photocopy or reproduction for purposes in excess of “fair use,” that user may be liable for copyright infringement. This institution reserves the right to refuse to accept a copying order if, in its judgment, fulfillment of the order would involve violation of copyright law.