Copyright Rules for Showing Films in Higher Education: Copyright Tools

Identifying Copyright Holders:

• Authors often transfer copyright to companies that publish or distribute their works.
• Copyright or contact information is often available with copies of a work.
• WATCH FILE (Writers Artists & their Copyright Holders): Database of copyright contacts for writer, artists, and prominent figures in other creative fields.
• Firms Out of Business (FOB): Database of information about vanished publishing concerns, literary agencies, and similar firms.
• U.S. Copyright Office Public Catalog: 1978 to present

Codes of Best Practice: Center for Media & Social Impact

Copyright Genie: American Library Association. Helps you find out if a work is covered by U.S. copyright and calculate its terms of protections.

Fair Use Checklist: Columbia University Libraries. Helps educators, librarians, lawyers, and many other users of copyrighted works determine whether their activities are within the limits of fair use under U.S. copyright law.

Fair Use Evaluator: American Library Association. Helps you better understand how to determine the "fairness" of a use under the U.S. Copyright Code.

Exceptions for Instructors eTool: American Library Association. Tool to help you find out if your intended use meets the requirements set out in the law.

Public Domain Sherpa: Copyright Term Calculator: Helps you to assess the public domain status of copyrighted works in the U.S.

Public Domain Slider: American Library Association. Find out if a work is protected by copyright.

Section 108 Spinner: American Library Association. Reproductions by Libraries or Archives for their Users, for Replacement, or for Preservation.

T.E.A.C.H Act Checklist: Indiana Univ of Pennsylvania Libraries

U.S. Copyright Office Public Catalog: Copyright catalog 1978 to present.