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Copyright and Fair Use: Permission

This guide examines fair use in education and research, creating and using instructional materials, and the use of film and video in a classroom.

Getting Permission

Need to gather permission to use copyrighted material?

Visit the Copyright Clearance Center website for more information about their services.

Creative Commons provides a pool of CC-licensed content that you can freely and legally use.   You can locate hundreds of millions of works — from songs and videos to scientific and academic material — available to the public for free and legal use under the terms of our copyright licenses, with more being contributed every day."

If you choose to seek permission on your own, the University of Texas website provides valuable information about how to obtain permission to use a particular work. It also includes a Sample Letter Requesting Permission, and information on what to do if you cannot find the owner for permission.

SHERPA/RoMEO  is a searchable database of publisher's policies regarding the self- archiving of journal articles on the web and in Open Access repositories.”  As an academic author putting articles you have published online can be a difficult situation.  The publisher may or may not allow you to post the articles.  Search this database to find out the conditions that may apply.