Copyright: A Guide to the Law and Fair Use

It can be easy to confuse copyright infringement with plagiarism. Both are serious offenses that should be avoided, but they are not the same thing and it's important to be able to distinguish between them:

Keep in mind that sometimes these offenses overlap--if you claim authorship of a copyrighted work, you have committed both copyright infringement AND plagiarism! However, not all copyright infringement involves plagiarism and not all plagiarism involves copyright infringement.

Avoiding plagiarism is as easy as citing and acknowledging your sources. Copyright is more complicated, so please take a look at the other sections of this guide to learn more and do your part to avoid infringing on the copyright of creators and copyright holders!

Copyright is an important component of your thesis or dissertation. You should consider it from the beginning of your writing process, especially if you plan to use copyrighted material in your work. Here are some things that you should know when preparing and publishing your manuscript:

• You automatically own the copyright to your thesis/dissertation when you start writing it, regardless of whether you include a copyright notice on it (although you should) or formally register for copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office (for a fee). 

• As the copyright holder of your thesis/dissertation, you have the exclusive right to reproduce copies of it, prepare journal article or book adaptations from it, or distribute copies of it online.  

• If you include copyrighted material in your thesis/dissertation or supplemental materials (e.g., quotations, images, videos), you must obtain the copyright owner’s written permission for its inclusion and give full credit to the author. Exceptions to this must fall under fair use or be openly licensed. 

• In order to graduate, you must make your thesis/dissertation freely and publicly available online (i.e., open access) via ProQuest’s ETD Administrator. Temple Libraries also automatically receives a copy to deposit to Temple’s institutional repository TUScholarShare. Submission allows you to retain the copyright to your work and only grants ProQuest and Temple the limited non-exclusive right to distribute it. 

• If you are awaiting permission to use copyrighted material, have a patent pending, or are awaiting publication with a journal/book publisher at the time of submission, you should delay release of your work (i.e., embargo). ProQuest offers one or two-year embargo options during submission. This period can be extended by submitting a request to the Graduate School. 

• If you want to formally register your copyright, you can have ProQuest file this on your behalf (for a fee) during submission or, for less cost, you can register separately with the U.S. Copyright Office at any time. 

Visit the Theses & Dissertation page for additional information or contact Alicia Pucci with any questions. 

Alicia Pucci, Scholarly Communications Associate, Temple University Libraries