Copyright Basics
About
Understanding copyright and your rights as an author is complicated. This section is meant to help clarify certain aspects of copyright, but as always, please contact a librarian if you have additional questions. Also check out these useful guides:
- Columbia Copyright Quick Guide: This guide was conceived by Dr. Kenneth Crews and provides an overview of copyright law.
- What Does Copyright Protect: A series of FAQ's from copyright.gov on how you can protect your work.
- Author's Rights: SPARC's guide to your rights.
Key Points
Copyright provides the rules regarding ownership and use of creative works. Copyright law protects the author's original works for a limited period. And ownership of the copyright includes the right to control the use of that work.
Copyright owners hold specific rights, but not all rights:
- Reproduction of works
- Distribution of copies
- Making of derivative works
- Public performance and display of works
In addition, certain mediums have moral rights (such as visual art) or prevention of destruction. And copyright owners have rights to prevent anyone from circumventing technological protection systems that control access to their work.
Publisher Contracts and Copyright Agreements
SHERPA RoMEO provides information about the copyright policies, open access, and self-archiving policies of publishers. This is a great source of information about specific publisher's copyright policies, and can be useful to find out what rights an author has before or after signing a copyright agreement.
Visit the SHERPA/RoMEO website to find publishers allowing the deposit of a published version/PDF in Institutional Repositories.
At MUSC, we encourage our authors to submit their work to MEDICA@MUSC.
MUSC Policies
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MUSC Copyright Information Website
Higher Education Opportunity Act and Peer to Peer Compliance.
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MUSC Copyright Policy
This policy affirms that all members of the MUSC community are expected to comply with the U.S. Copyright Law regarding the use of materials protected by copyright for teaching, presentation, and any university-affiliated activities.
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MUSC Foundation for Research Development: Copyright Disclosure Form
Select this form to disclose creations which may qualify for copyright protection. This includes, but is not limited to, software, apps, webpages, videos and books.