Re: Students and copyright

[John Mitchell <john@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The advisor may need a legal advisor. There should be no hard and  
fast rule on having to get permission "to use the figures and tables  
in the paper".

First, there is no "exclusive right to use." There is an exclusive  
right to reproduce a work into copies, but not generally to "use" the  
work. If the data from the figures and tables is used, but not  
reproduced, no harm, no foul.

Second, are the tables and figures copyrighted? If they merely  
organize data in a manner generally achievable through popular  
spreadsheet report generators (like MS Excel), it is hard to imagine  
an copyright existing.  See Feist.

Third, consider the nature of the use. Assuming that the figures and  
tables contain enough non-data original material to be copyrighted,  
then you need to examine the purpose for reproducing them. If it is  
the only practical way of offering criticism on or comment of the  
other author's work, then it may very well be fair use. Fair use may  
be clearer, also, if the figure or table is only a minor part of the  
author's work, or if the figure or table is repurposed.

My guess is that a student writing a thesis is not likely to over-use  
a table or figure, given that doing so might have a negative impact  
on the evaluation of the work from an academic standpoint, regardless  
what copyright law has to say about it.

Finally, the Supreme Court has been very clear that there is as great  
an interest in protecting freedom to make non-infringing uses as  
there is to prevent infringing uses. Although the penalties Congress  
came up with tend to tilt the balance decidedly toward infringing  
upon non-infringing uses, academic institutions, in particular,  
should be the champions of keeping copyrights within their bounds,  
not expanded through in terrorem effect.

John

John T. Mitchell
http://interactionlaw.com




On Aug 16, 2007, at 11:36 AM, Roegge, Kathleen wrote:

> Hi,
>     I recently was asked if students need to ask for copyright
> permission to use other works in their thesis.  This student does not
> intend to publish the paper only to use it to obtain their master's
> degree.  They were told by their advisor to obtain permission from
> publishers to use the figures and tables in the paper prior to
> submitting it for graduate school.
>
> Kathleen Roegge
> Information Access Services Manager
> Brookens Library
> e-mail:  kroeg1@xxxxxxx
> phone: 6-6618
>
> [***** removed an attachment of type image/gif which had a name of  
> anabnr2.gif]
>
> [***** removed an attachment of type image/jpeg which had a name of  
> Nature Bkgrd.jpg]