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“Copyright is a property right attached to an original work of art or literature.
It grants the author or creator exclusive rights to reproduce, distribute, adapt, perform,
or display the protected work. Other than someone to whom the author/creator has extended all
or part of these rights, no one else may use, copy, or alter the work. Wrongful use of the material
gives the copyright owner the right to seek and recover compensation in a court of law. A
copyright gives the author or owner the right of control over all forms of reproduction,
including photocopies, slides, recordings on cassettes and videotapes, compact disks, and
other digital formats. Fair use explicitly allows use of copyrighted materials for educational
purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.”
Copyright and fair use, are topics that are important for Information Literacy students and all students to learn. If students are unaware of copyright laws then they may not correctly site information that they borrow from an article or web site. Current Penalties at Universities are high for plagiarism, so it is necessary that we educate students about these rules and regulations.
This Unit covers 4 areas of Copyright and Fair Use: