Copyright Policy

Copyright is a complex topic which can cover rights to use materials in research and the classroom as well as what your rights as an author are. The UK Copyright Center is a good introduction to the topic and what needs to be considered when using copyrighted materials. 

Exceptions to these limits include titles in the public domain, federal government documents, and certain open access works.

• Public domain titles are those for which copyright protection has expired, been explicitly waived by the work’s creator, or is not allowed (as with many federal government documents).
• Government publications created by federal employees in the course of their work are considered in the public domain in the US. Publications from many non-US governments are also freely available for reuse.
• Certain open access works may have fewer limits on reuse. Many open access works are still governed by publisher restrictions, and their terms of use reflect the terms of use for licensed resources. Others are governed by Creative Commons licenses, which allow for broader reuse. Some Creative Commons licenses allow for reusing the original work on the broadest of terms, as long as the original creator is credited. Other Creative Commons licenses only allow for downloading and sharing the work non-commercially, and disallow any changes to the original work. There are other Creative Commons licenses that fall between these two extremes. If a work is open access, double-check how it may be reused, or contact the Electronic Resources Department for assistance.

Please direct any questions about the appropriate use of licensed information resources to the Electronic Resources Department at lib-er@lsv.uky.edu.