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Understanding Copyright Law

Copyright law is complex — and constantly evolving. Rapid advances in technology have introduced new ways to create, share, and use copyrighted materials, especially in educational settings. These changes bring exciting opportunities for teaching and learning, but they also raise new legal challenges. 

At UT, faculty, staff and students must navigate a legal landscape where rights and responsibilities are not always clear. As digital learning expands, so do the risks of unintentionally infringing someone else’s copyright — or having your own work used without permission. Meanwhile, creators, publishers and educators continue to advocate for competing interests, and the law is still catching up. 

This page is designed to help the UT community understand basic copyright principles and how they apply in an educational context. It offers guidance and resources but does not serve as official university policy.

University of Tennessee Copyright Policies

Below are the current UT policies concerning copyright.

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  Provides for faculty and staff ownership of some copyrighted work by faculty and staff members. Other work is owned by the university. Sponsored research may alter the provisions of the policy. 
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  Statement on software copyright compliance and license agreements. Statement 05, section 135, part 01. 
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  Statement addresses the duplication and distribution of printed instructional materials prepared by faculty for use in classes. 
• Provides information about using copyrighted materials in the preparation of theses and dissertations and includes instructions for copyrighting the final work. 

Unofficial Guidelines

The following guidelines have not been officially adopted by UT. However, they are generally regarded as a “safe harbor” for using copyrighted material in the classroom without permission. In fact, several courts have approved of these guidelines, especially the Guidelines for Classroom Copying, and use them to analyze whether the use of copyrighted material without permission would be allowed.

Determining the Need for Permission to Use a Work

• Reproduction of Copyrighted Works by Educators and Librarians 
   
• How to Investigate the Copyright Status of a Work 
  

Obtaining Permission to Use a Work

• For help in locating publishers and other copyright holders contact the  

Registering Your Work for Copyright

• U.S. Copyright Office 
• Copyright Registration for Multimedia Works 
   

Sources of Information on Copyright

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  For copyright basics. A good introduction to what copyright is, who can claim its protection, what is not protected by copyright, how to comply with various formalities of registering copyrighted materials. Information is for the general user and is not specific to educational situations. 
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  Copyright materials, without editorial comment or interpretation. Includes copies of the Copyright Act, Regulations, court decisions and interpretive sources. 
• A comprehensive accumulation of material and ideas on copyright law, University of Texas policy, hot issues of the day, and theories espoused by various groups. If you are not familiar with the basics of copyright law, take the .This site is a good source for those who understand the basics such as what copyright protects, what fair use is, and who owns copyright. Links to a wealth of intellectual property sites on the Web. 
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  Primary source materials, secondary and interpretive materials, links to other sites. 
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Non-Electronic Sources

• Goldstein, Paul. Copyright. 3rd edition, Little, Brown and Co. 
• Nimmer, Melville B. Nimmer on copyright by Melville B. Nimmer, David Nimmer. New York: M. Bender, 1978- 
  The classic text and very useful for understanding the basic principles. Not as useful in the application of the principles to technology.