Even if the material you wish to use is protected by copyright, you may already be authorized to use the material. Common situations in which you may be authorized include:
You may already be authorized to use the material through a standing license or subscription with the Harper College Library. The library has a wide collection of resources that are available to Harper College faculty, such as:
Creative Commons is a non-profit organization whose mission is to make it easier for creators to share their work and/or build upon the works of others.
Creative Commons has created copyright licenses that anybody can apply to their work. These licenses allow others to use their work under the terms of the licenses without having to contact the owner of the copyright to ask permission.
There are several Creative Commons Licenses, each with different conditions of use. The following chart provides more information on what the different licenses allow:
You may be able to use copyrighted content from a website or other source if your use is authorized under the source's terms of use. Many websites allow non-commercial or educational uses of their materials without having to seek permission. Keep in mind, however, that a website's terms of use can only apply to their own content and not to other content that they may have linked to, embedded, or copied from another source.