Copyright Statement and Use Policies
The University of Maryland encourages the use of all items in the University of Maryland digital collections for fair use purposes such as teaching, research, and private study. The University of Maryland generally does not own copyright to materials in its Digital Collections. For materials in which the University is identified as the owner of copyright, permission to use those materials for purposes other than personal research, teaching and scholarly work may be granted by the curator for the particular collection, identified below. Permission is not necessary for fair uses; the Libraries request, however, that fair uses include an appropriate notice of copyright and attribution. Works of the government of the United States and, in general, works created before 1923 are in the public domain and permission is not required to make use of these works.
For materials that are not in the public domain and in which the University does not hold copyright, it is the responsibility of the patron to determine whether a particular use requires permission. The University may not make such determinations for the patron. Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright law specifically authorizes the use of works protected by copyright without permission for "purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching ..., scholarship or research."
Uses of materials that fall outside the scope of fair use may require the prior permission of the copyright owner who may also require payment of a fee or royalty. It is solely the patron's obligation to determine and ensure that use of material fully complies with copyright law and other possible restrictions on use. The holding repository will furnish what information it has, if any, regarding the owner of copyright and restrictions on the use of particular materials. The nature of archival materials may make it difficult, if not impossible, to identify the owner of copyright and restrictions on the use of some materials. The following resources may be helpful in determining if a particular use is fair and identifying the copyright owner and copyright status of a work:
- How to Investigate the Copyright Status of a Work, U.S. Copyright Office
- Duration of Copyright, U.S. Copyright Office
- Checklist for Fair Use, Copyright Management Center, Indiana University / Purdue University, Indianapolis
- Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States, Peter Hirtle, Cornell University