Educational Exceptions, Teaching, and Research FAQs

  

IPTLO FAQs
Fair use allows certain uses of copyrighted material without permission from the copyright holder for limited and transformative uses primarily for commentary, criticism, teaching, scholarship, or parody.

This is determined by a case-by-case assessment for each use using the "four-factors" analysis criteria:

 

  1. Purpose of the use
  2. Nature of the work
  3. Amount and substantiality of the portion used
  4. Effect on the market or potential market for the work.

 

Fair use assessments are done weighing all four factors together.

Identify and contact the copyright holder(s). This can be a complex and difficult process, especially for older, foreign, or unpublished works. But obtaining permission may be required if the use of the work is not covered by educational exemptions, your publisher requires that you obtain permission, or other contract and license restrictions apply.

Permissions may also be obtained from the Copyright Clearance Center. Make permissions requests in writing and keep that documentation.

 

If the film was a lawfully acquired copy and integral to the course and its instructional goals then you can show it in the classroom (face-to-face teaching). For distance learning, performing a "reasonable and limited" amount of a film is permitted provided that access is limited to students in the class only for the term of the course. Performing AV works online is also permitted if there is a public performance (PPR) or streaming license for that particular work.

That depends. Investigating the copyright status of content found online is an essential part of due diligence.

However, it is not always apparent if the work is protected by copyright or what entity retains the copyright. Given how often and easily a single work can be reused and shared online, finding the origin of the work can be challenging. Some works may also have multiple copyright holders.

Look for the website’s terms and conditions or other types of copyright statements such as Creative Commons licenses to help determine permitted uses.

No. Copyright and plagiarism are two separate but related concepts. Attribution does not protect you against copyright infringement or liability.

No. "Copyright law does not protect ideas, methods, or systems. Copyright protection is therefore not available for ideas or procedures for doing, making, or building things; scientific or technical methods or discoveries; business operations or procedures; mathematical principles; formulas or algorithms; or any other concept, process, or method of operation."

However, some of these may qualify for other types of intellectual property protections.

 

NJIT developed its Supplemental Code of Ethics to provide clear guidance to employees working in a scholarly capacity on consulting, development of commercial enterprises and other outside professional activities, in accordance with State ethics regulations.

These activities provide an important means of continuing education for the faculty and grant experience in aspects of their professional fields outside the context of NJIT itself.  These activities can also provide a mechanism for the transfer of knowledge from the University to the public good.

Data as a representation of fact is not generally protected. However, data may be protected if:

  1. The data constitute a copyrighted work (literary work, chart, graph, audiovisual work, sound recording, etc.) or
  2. The data is a compilation of data elements such as a database.

Databases can have some copyright protection if creative decisions were made regarding how the elements are organized and interrelated. Licensing and contract law often govern how data is reused.