Copyright Information

For your term papers and web projects you will be responsible for ensuring compliance with all relevent copyright law.  Understanding just what the rules are is difficult, especially when it comes to the Internet.  If you decide to submit a web project you will be required to sign a waiver for us stating that, to the best of your knowledge, there are no copyright violations in your work.  This is important because your projects will be posted on Brown's primary web server, which is watched closely.  The University accepts no liability for violations, instead they hold the original content provider (i.e. You) wholly responsible.  It will be hard to get a grade for a project that has to be taken down from the web.

There are two very useful sites you should explore thoroughly before creating anything for this course.

The Brown Library has a considerable amount of information about copyright law that will be especially useful for your term papers, as well as for website projects.  It includes specialised information about copyright at Brown as well as links to other copyright information available on the Internet.  The site also includes suggested wording for requesting permission to reproduce copyrighted work.  See what they have to offer by clicking here.

The Copyright Website is a great resource for any questions you could possibly have about copyright law.  For those of you doing website projects, pay particular attention to the section on 'Web Issues' which has useful information on everything from public domain to composite web sites, issues you will undoubtedly need to be familiar with.  You should also be aware that the rules, and their interpretation, change all the time so this information may already be a little out of date.

Generally speaking, if you have any doubts about the legality of using material, don't use it.  You can also ask me, I'm not an expert on copyright law either, but I will try and get answers to any questions you can come up with.

Last Updated on 1/24/00
By Kevin Dallas
Email: Kevin_Dallas@brown.edu