Do You Have Authorization?

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:

1. Morton College Library already has a license or subscription, allowing employees to use the material
2. The copyright holder has given authorization to use the material using a Creative Commons license
3. The terms of use of the material authorizes the type of use you require without needing to ask express permission

Morton College College Library License/Subscription

You may already be authorized to use the material through a standing license or subscription with the Morton College Library. The library has a wide collection of resources that are available to Morton College faculty, such as:

• Databases, such as EBSCO, JSTOR, Academic Search Complete, and many others. These databases contain thousands of articles and other resources.
• Streaming music and video resources Morton College Library subscribes to are authorized to use.

Creative Commons Licenses

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.