Once material is out of copyright you can copy and use it as you want without needing the permission of anyone. However, you have to be sure it is out of copyright (and you might need expert advice to be sure about that), and you should ALWAYS acknowledge the author and the source of the material you use and DO NOT pretend that it is your work. To do so is to commit plagiarism (basically that's academic cheating) and it applies to both ‘out of copyright’ work and ‘in copyright’ work. Always include your source acknowledgement in BOTH the main text of your work AND any bibliography.
Be careful if you want to use material with multiple copyright holders as it is likely to be more difficult to determine the length of copyright protection than with a singe author.
A very important thing to note when you want to copy from a book or a journal or a web page for example is that text and Illustrations have SEPARATE copyrights – check both!
All copying done without permission or a licence is done at the risk that the rights holder will take action against you, ie sue you in court.
However, you CAN legally copy from material that is still in copyright in a number of circumstances:
- The law actually allows you to copy SMALL portions of many classes of work for certain purposes and this is known as ‘fair dealing’ (in the UK) or ‘fair use’ (in the USA).
- Copying may be allowed because it is covered by a general licence from the rights holder eg for educational (teaching and research purposes).
- Copying may be allowed because it is covered by a licence from an organization representing the rights holder, eg the photocopying and scanning licence that the University has from the Copyright Licensing Agency. But note that in these cases there will usually be ‘terms, conditions and limitations’ which apply, so you need to check them before copying.
- Finally, you are allowed to copy because you have asked the rights holder directly and received permission from them.
To learn all about Plagiarism and how to avoid it, you can self-register for the WebCT Course:
‘Administration – Plagiarism’
For information about the Licences for copying held by the University, see the relevant items in the menu list at: