| General
Statement
It is the
policy of Alfred University and its Libraries to uphold the provisions
of the Copyright Law (Title 17, United States Code). The intent of the
law is to balance the rights of the copyright owner with society's free
flow of ideas. Alfred University is committed to providing an environment
that supports the research and teaching activities of its faculty, students
and staff. As a matter of principle and practice, the University encourages
all members of the Alfred community to publish without restriction their
papers, books, and other forms of communication to share openly and fully
their findings and knowledge with colleagues and the public.
This Copyright
Policy is intended to promote and encourage excellence and innovation
in scholarly research and teaching by identifying and protecting the rights
of the University, its faculty, staff, and students. At the same time,
we must recognize that copyright owners have exclusive rights to reproduce
their copyrighted works, to prepare derivative works, to distribute copies
and to perform or display the works publicly. Consequently, it is copyright
infringement for any person other than the copyright owner to exercise
any of the rights listed above unless properly authorized by the owner,
or unless the use of the material constitutes "fair use" as provided by
law.
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Fair
Use
Every administrator
and faculty and staff member who may be involved in the reproduction of
copyrighted materials for classroom use, preparation of lectures and/or
labs, or other campus organizational use has an important responsibility
to use his/her best efforts to assure that the rights of copyright owners
are recognized and honored.
Whenever
copyrighted materials are to be reproduced for educational or administrative
use, the user must first obtain the permission of the copyright owner,
or determine that the planned use of the material fits the fair use concept
through the application of the Four "Fair Use" Factors. Persons
requesting University services involving copyrighted material will be
asked to provide written certification either that the copyright owner's
permission has been obtained or that, for specific reasons, the proposed
use has been determined to be covered by the fair use provisions of the
Copyright Law.
The Four
Fair Use Factors are as follows:
1. The purpose
and character of the use, e.g., whether such use is of a commercial nature
or is for nonprofit educational purposes.
2. The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the
copyrighted work as a whole.
3. The nature of the copyrighted work.
4. The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the
copyrighted work.
Fair use
is not susceptible to exact definition. Generally speaking, however, it
allows copying without permission from, or payment to, the copyright owner
where the use is reasonable and not harmful to the rights of the copyright
owner, e.g., the right to reproduce the work, to prepare derivative works,
to distribute copies and to perform or display the work publicly. Thus,
for example, do not assume your intended use is fair use just because
it will occur in a university or teaching environment.
The fair
use factors were deliberately designed to allow for flexible interpretation
of the law. A court will apply all four factors to a given situation and
will balance them against each other. Thus if one factor weighs heavily
against fair use but the other three do not, generally the court will
not call the use unfair. You may wish to go to the S.U.N.Y. at Albany
Libraries' copyright web page. It has an excellent list of links with
information about all sorts of questions on copyright law, fair use, obtaining
permissions from copyright holders, and more:
http://library.albany.edu/digital/copyright.html
Individuals
who willfully disregard the Copyright Law are in violation of University
Policy and do so at their own risk and assume all liability. Therefore,
if a user makes a request for, or later uses, a photocopy or reproduction
for purposes in excess of "fair use," that user may be liable for copyright
infringement. Please note that, except in cases where the University is
the author of or owns a work, permission from the University does not
constitute permission from the copyright owner.
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Computer
Related Copyright Infringement
Alfred University
reserves the right to terminate computer access or accounts of repeated
violators of the Copyright Law, whether or not valid notices of infringement
(see below) have been received by our designated agent. The designated
agent for Alfred University, on file with the Copyright Office, is:
Adrian Morling
Manager of Network Services
Herrick Library
1 Saxon Drive
Alfred, NY 14802
Ph: 607.871.2177
Fx: 607.871.3780
Email
Valid notice
of infringement - A valid notice of infringement under the Digital Millennium
Copyright Act must substantially comply with the following requirements:
1. Have
a physical or electronic signature of the complainant
2.
Identify the copyrighted work
3. Identify the material claimed to be infringing the owner's copyright
4. Have information enabling the ISP to contact the complainant
5. Have a statement of the complainant's good faith belief that use of
the challenged material is not authorized by the owner or by law
6. Have a statement that the information in the complaint is accurate,
and, under penalty of perjury, that the complainant is authorized to act
on behalf of the copyright owner
7. A notice that complies ONLY with elements 2, 3, and 4, does not constitute
a "notice" under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act if Alfred University
has made reasonable efforts to contact the complainant and obtain a notice
that complies with all of the six (6) required elements listed above.
If Alfred
University ITS receives a valid notice from a copyright owner that substantially
complies with the requirements spelled out above, the University will
remove or disable access to the challenged material. If you lose internet and your browser is redirected to a page that says "Alfred University-Information Security..." then ITS may have received a notification that your computer is illegally sharing copyrighted material. Please follow the directions on the "Alfred University-Information Security" page and ITS will restore your internet connectivity. For further information, please read Illegal Distribution Of Copyrighted Material On The Alfred University Network or contact the ITS Helpdesk at: helpdesk@alfred.edu.
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Ownership
Of Created Works
To learn
about the University's Policy on intellectual property ownership, please
refer to the most recent version of the Alfred University Intellectual Property Policy.
The Copyright
Committee at Alfred University gratefully acknowledges the use of text
from policies written at Willamette University, Cornell University, and
SUNYNet. August 2000.
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Approved
by Presidents Cabinet 9/19/2000, Updated 5/2008
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