Welcome to the Copyright Toolkit for Faculty which is designed to share information about Copyright Law, Fair Use, the TEACH Act, best practices, and Alvernia University’s Copyright Policy. This guide is a living document and will be updated regularly.
Copyright is a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States (title 17, U.S. Code) for “original works of authorship,” including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works. These protections give authors exclusive rights to copy, prepare derivative works, distribute, perform, and publicly display their works.
Teachers seek ways to legally and ethically share writings, artwork, videos, images, and music that are created by others. It can be confusing to determine how instructors may use others’ works responsibly.
Suggestions to keep it simple:
Guidelines for using works in your teaching may be found at the Association of Research Libraries’ Know your Copy Rights page.
The TEACH Act applies to transmitting protected works in nonprofit educational settings. Classes using learning management systems such as Blackboard are an example. Below are links from the original TEACH Act Toolkit from UNC Charlotte's J. Murrey Atkins Library.
Want to know what Alvernia's Copyright Policy has to say? Check out our Copyright & Fair Use guide for thorough information.