Circulars are published by the Copyright Office to provide up-to-date and authoritative information to a general audience. Circulars are arranged below by topic and cover the basics and fundamental concepts of copyright law, highlights of policies and procedures of the Copyright Office, and registration issues for specific categories of works. For full details regarding the Office’s policies and procedures, refer to the Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office Practices, third edition.”
The U.S. Copyright Code provides for the educational use of copyrighted material without the permission of the copyright holder under certain conditions. Use this free online tool to find out if your intended use meets the requirements set out in the law. This tool can also help you collect information detailing your educational use and provide you with a summary in PDF format.
The Fair Use Checklist and variations on it have been widely used for many years to help educators, librarians, lawyers, and many other users of copyrighted works determine whether their activities are within the limits of fair use under U.S. copyright law (Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act).
The “Technology, Education, and Copyright Harmonization Act,” better known as the “TEACH Act,” is designed to provide educators more opportunity for the use of copyrighted works in distance education programs while still offering adequate copyright protection to those works. In order to qualify for these further possibilities, educators must meet several requirements.
The information presented on this page does not constitute legal advice or legal assistance. Neither Coastal Pines Technical College nor the CPTC Library are providing legal advice with this resource.