VCOM Institutional Policy and Procedure Manual

VCOM Policy and Procedure

Policy #U004

2. C OPYRIGHT It is the policy of the College to respect the copyright protections provided by federal and state laws, including protections for digital materials and software. It is against College policy for faculty, staff or students to use College equipment or services to access, use, copy or otherwise reproduce or make available to others any copyright-protected materials, including digital materials and software, except as permitted under copyright law (especially with respect to "fair use") or specific license. VCOM expects all members of the College community to follow prescribed procedures to determine the ownership of copyrights and manage copyrights owned by the College. Copyright is a legal right, grounded in the United States Constitution, that gives the owner of said copyright the exclusive right to: • Reproduce (make copies of ) the work; and • Modify or prepare derivative works based on the work (Examples of derivative works include translations, transforming printed works into musicals or films, rearrangements of scores, and any other recast, transformation, or adaptation of a work); and • Distribute the work in any format by sale, publication, license, rental, or for free; and • Publicly perform or display the work; and • Authorize others to exercise some or all those rights 3. I NTELLECTUAL P ROPERTY OF I NSTRUCTIONAL M ATERIALS Instructional materials created as a part of an employee’s position at VCOM is the intellectual property of VCOM. To carry out its mission, VCOM retains a non-exclusive, no-cost license to use, reuse, reproduce, display, distribute, and make derivative works (such as compilations, archives, or composite works) of instructional materials for the education of its students. Instructional materials may include syllabi, course descriptions, reading lists, assignments, slides, lecture notes, lab exercises, tools, simulations, multimedia, web pages, exams, student assignments, and recorded discussions. In accordance with academic custom, VCOM will acknowledge the authors of these works unless the authors request otherwise. Policy R005, Intellectual Properties and Agreements Policies and Procedures, provides additional information on the ownership and use of intellectual property. 4. F AIR U SE D OCTRINE Copyright law recognizes that not all uses of copyrighted works infringe the rights of the copyright owner. Section 107 of the Copyright Act states: Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. "Fair use" of works do not require permission.

VCOM Copyright and Fair Use of Instructional Materials Policy

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