This workshop will provide you with a practical workflow for navigating copyright questions and legal considerations for your dissertation or thesis. Whether you’re just starting to write or you’re getting ready to file, you can use this workflow to figure out what you can use, what rights you have, and what it means to share your dissertation online.

1. Copyright & Fair Use for Digital Projects
Copyright &
Your Dissertation
Office of Scholarly
Communication Services
Berkeley Library
Rachael Samberg, J.D., MLIS

2. We’ll help you
think about
your stuff!
You’re an author!
You have rights!

3. We said you have
rights
Alavi, S. J. (2013). The Poetics of
Commitment in Modern Persian: A Case
of Three Revolutionary Poets in
Iran. UC Berkeley.
ProQuest ID:
Alavi_berkeley_0028E_14033.
Retrieved from:
https://escholarship.org/uc/
item/9vn474vw

4. We’ll help you
think about
other people’s
stuff
Solution to Viscous Burger’s Equation
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/The-solution-to-v
iscous-Burgers-equation-11-with-e-0-04_fig1_228445669

5. Computational Design, Synthesis, and Structure Property
Evaluation of 1,3-Thiazole-Based Color-Tunable
Multi-heterocyclic Small Organic Fluorophores as
Multifunctional Molecular Materials
© Journal of Organic Chemistry
Other people’s
diagrams or images

6. Trieste, Umberto Saba, 1910
Ho attraversato tutta la
città.
Poi ho salita un'erta,
popolosa in principio, in
là deserta,
chiusa da un muricciolo:
Trieste, trans. Kline, 2012
I traversed the whole
city.
Then climbed a hill
crowded at first, in the
end deserted,
closed off by a little
wall:
http://poetsofmodernity.xyz/POMBR/Italian/FiveItalianPoets.htm#anchor_Toc326225674
Or text...

7. And what it means
to have permission
Translated by A. S. Kline ©
Copyright 2012 All Rights Reserved
This work may be freely
reproduced, stored, and
transmitted, electronically or
otherwise, for any
non-commercial purpose.

8. How will we dig in to all this?

9. WE’LL TEACH YOU A
WORKFLOW

10. “Get me out
of here!
I already cite
my sources!”

11. Difference between
attribution & permission
Dan4thNicholas, CC-BY, h2ps://flic.kr/p/8PEZiG Sakaki0214, CC-BY-NC-ND, h2ps://flic.kr/p/9jykF1

12. To flow, we’ve gotta know:
What is copyright?
Exclusive rights to make
certain uses
of original expression
for limited period of time

13. Exclusive Rights
▪Reproduction
▪Derivative works
▪Distribution
▪Public performance
▪Public display

14. Original expression
Protects expressions,
not ideas or facts
Must be original,
authored, & fixed
Ghana Statistical Service, “Gross Domestic Product 2016,”
http://www.statsghana.gov.gh/gdp_new.html By Rachael G. Samberg

15. Limited period of timeVaries, but at
least author’s life
+ 70 years…
Which means that
within “protected”
period, permission
needed to
reproduce, display,
perform, etc.
Unless...

16. There are limitations.
Public domain materials are
not protected by coypright.

17. Public Domain
Expired Copyright
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:
Britannica_Shakespeare_Droeshout_Engravi
ng.jpg

18. Public Domain
Federal Government

19. And other limitations.
Exemptions allow you to
undertake exclusive rights
without having to ask for
permission.

20. Fair Use
17 U.S.C. § 107
The fair use of a
copyrighted work…for
purposes such as
criticism, comment,
news reporting,
teaching…,
scholarship, or
research, is not an
infringement of
copyright.

21. e.g. Comparing visual
representations of Turkey
George Georgiou,
http://www.georgegeorgiou.net/projects.php
1. Purpose & character
Commercial vs. non-commercial;
whether “transformative”
2. Nature of copyrighted work
Factual/scholarly work vs. more
creative
3. Amount and substantiality
Size & importance of portion used in
relation to whole
4. Effect on potential market
Whether it supplants market for
purchasing/licensing original

22. Still in © and use exceeds
fair use?
Need a license
(i.e. permission)
Can be pre-applied

23. The Flow

24. 1: Do you need
permission?
License already
granted?
In public domain? Would publishing be fair use?
If yes to any, go to Step 3.
2: Seek permission
if needed
Research who holds
copyright & send
request
Keep records
Ensure permission covers
all intended uses
3: Address non ©
policy concerns
Contractual or terms of service
restrictions from archives, databases,
or websites?
Rights of privacy or
publicity?
Register
copyright?
License your work?
4: How do you
want to share?
Copyright & Your Dissertation Workflow

25. 1: Do you need
permission?
License already
granted?
In public domain? Would publishing be fair use?
If yes to any, go to Step 3.
Step 1

26. Practice Applying Step 1
By Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (Author), Tom Lathrop (Translator), Penguin Classics

27. Practice Applying Step 1
Heme Molecule

28. Practice Applying Step 1
Heart
By Tvanbr (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AAnatomy_Heart_Latin_Tiesworks.jpg

29. Layers of Step 1
Van Gogh, Irises, 1889, Getty
Museum
Stile Arte, 2011.
http://www.stilearte.it/dipingere-come-
van-gogh-tanti-tutorial/

30. Ensure permission covers
all intended uses
Keep records
Research who holds
copyright & send
request
2: Seek permission
if needed
Step 2

31. Researching who
holds copyright

32. Get permission
for what you need
“The image may be displayed
in eBook format for a period
of up to ten years only. All
future editions, reprints,
translations, or formats
(including electronic media)
must be negotiated
separately.”
Robert Rauschenberg, “Bed”
Image file MOMA

33. Keep Records
http://ucblib.link/nS

34. 3: Address non ©
policy concerns
Contractual or terms of service
restrictions from archives, databases,
or websites?
Rights of privacy or
publicity?
Step 3

35. Contracts:
Databases
Library License
Agreements:
EbscoHost
ProQuest
JSTOR
ScienceDirect
etc.

36. Archives
I understand that permission
to publish, or otherwise
publicly use, materials...must
be [granted by library]
I understand further that the
University makes no
representation that it is the
owner of the copyright... and
that permission to publish
must also be obtained from the
owner of the copyright.

37. Website
Terms of Use

38. Boston
Museum of Fine Arts
The use of the Website
constitutes an acceptance
of the following…
2. FAIR USE PERMITTED. Some
materials are made
available for limited
non-commercial,
educational, and personal
use only, or for fair use
as defined in the United
States copyright laws.
Users may download these
files for personal use.
(www.mfa.org) Terms of Use

39. Harry Ransom Center
If you intend to quote
extensive amounts of text, use
other original content, or
reproduce images from this
site, please contact us for
permission.
http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/use/

40. Rights of Privacy
Protect the people in the work
Federal (e.g. FERPA & HIPAA)
State (e.g. intrusion, private
facts, false light,
appropriation of likeness)
Limitations:
- Newsworthiness
- Permission
- Death

41. Step 4
Register
copyright?
License your work?
4: How do you
want to share?

42. If they liked it then
they should have put a
registration on it?
● Copyright automatic
● Registration not
required
● But it has
advantages...

43. Do you want to
license others to use it
beyond fair use?
● Talk to your advisor
● Think long term
(publishing book?
etc.)

44. What would you
like to discuss?

45. Copyright & Fair Use for Digital Projects
THANK YOU!
Let’s talk more…
E-mail:
schol-comm@berkeley.edu
Twitter: @UCB_scholcomm