Students who are undergraduate and graduate have copyright in their work. This handout summarizes some of your rights and best practices for using copyrighted material so you stay out of trouble!
Some common copyright related situations for the student
1. I am writing my thesis/dissertation …
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Do’s |
Don’ts |
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Get permission from the publisher to use your previous works that you transferred your copyright to in your dissertation/thesis |
Use previous works that you transferred your copyright to the publisher without getting publisher permission to use your previous works in your dissertation/thesis |
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Realize that you are the owner of copyright to your thesis/dissertation |
Give away your copyright of your thesis/dissertation |
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Get written permission to use other people’s work in your thesis/dissertation either from the publisher or the author of the work |
Get permission to use works that are in the Public Domain in your thesis/dissertation |
2. I am a JHU student and I wonder what my copyright rights are as a student …
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Do’s |
Don’ts |
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Embrace the fact that you are the copyright holder of the works that you create even for class assignments |
Submit to pressures of the course instructor to share your work with others without getting your permission; students may be required to share their work in certain contexts (e.g., submitting copies to instructors, presenting in class etc.) |
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Understand university policy with regards to sharing classroom notes publicly; students are not allowed to share notes publicly without the permission of the instructor |
Assume you own copyright in recordings of class sessions or in notes that closely resemble a transcription of the class session or information presented in the readings or other course materials – these are derivative work based on the material presented by the instructor |
3. I am a JHU student and I want to know how to use copyrighted materials …
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Do’s |
Don’ts |
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Keep a personal copy of copyrighted content private if it’s for student personal use |
Post or upload the copyrighted content/document to a public website |
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Share materials with other students by sharing a link to the online journal articles, book chapter etc; or send them a citation. |
Share materials with other students by copying and posting the document to a public website |
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Share content for a class project by sending out the document links or posting the library-licensed article links to the class LMS |
Share content for a class project by sending the class PDF copies via email, posting the PDF on a public website, or sharing the flash drive with a copy of the PDF |
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Receive copyrighted work from someone else with caution; a single article is not a problem but the entire book or video would violate copyright law |
Receive copyrighted work from someone else that was obtained illegally |
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Share complete PDFs through posting links to online/library-licensed materials |
Post complete documents/PDFs that you did not seek permission from the copyright owner either on a public website or LMS |