Limitations on the Rights of Owners

The Copyright Act gives broad rights to copyright owners, but it also defines significant limitations on those rights. There are several limitations outlined in the Copyright Act, but those of most interest in higher education are:

Without these exceptions, we could make very limited uses of copyrighted materials. Using them, we can distribute photocopies of articles in class, place materials on reserve, and show videos in class. We can not, however, view these exceptions as a “free pass” that means anything we might want to do is allowed; all of the exceptions are limited, and the use we propose must meet the conditions outlined in the statute.