Copyright Permissions

In short, the answer is yes. There tends to be general misunderstanding about copyright in the area of purchased products and subscriptions. The Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) has a helpful handout titled "Top 10 Misconceptions about Copyright" that helps to address some of these misunderstandings.

The physical or digital ownership of an item (such as an article, book, USB, or conference audio) is not the same as owning the copyright for that item. To use copyrighted material legally, you must secure permission from the applicable copyright holder or agent. 

For products that do not indicate otherwise, CCEF retains the copyright to materials that you purchase. Your purchase of one legal copy of the work gives you permission to borrow, sell, or dispose of your one copy. However, it does not automatically grant you the right to reproduce (duplicate), redistribute (print or digital), make a derivative work of, or publicly post your copy (see 17 U.S.C. § 109). 

The following two examples help illustrate this point:

1. Consider the purchase of a hard copy of a book. Buying the book gives you permission to borrow, sell, or destroy your one copy (this is the principle that allows libraries to exist). However, it does not legally give you the right to photocopy it and redistribute it to your friends and family. Turning one copy into multiple copies is prohibited unless permission to do so is granted by the copyright holder (the publisher of the book). Digital products are viewed the same as physical products under copyright law—forwarding a copy makes a copy on every server it touches.
2. Purchasing one digital subscription to the JBC does not automatically grant you the right to repost all or a portion of your copy on an intranet site for other coworkers or to email it to your small group. 

To help with this, as the copyright holder, CCEF does grant an individual the right to reproduce and distribute an individual JBC article to up to 20 people without requesting additional permissions. Reproduction and distribution of entire volumes or issues is prohibited without permission.

Not necessarily. Publicly available is not the same as public domain. As the copyright owner, CCEF has the right to post content on our webpage. For another individual to borrow the content, reproduce on their website, or distribute, permission is required. This principle applies across the Internet for a wide variety of resources.

An alternative to requesting permission in this case is to simply direct people to the ccef.org page that hosts the content. You are always welcome to link people to our website!

No. Under copyright law, CCEF retains the exclusive right to reproduce, distribute, create a derivative work, perform publicly, and display publicly all of our resources. We are aware that individuals or organizations routinely post our copyrighted works online. In these cases, individuals or organizations may have already gone through a permissions process to do so or they may be hosting our content in violation of the copyright.

While we generally do not pursue instances of copyright violation, we do ask that you go through the proper permissions process to use CCEF material.

Resource production is one of CCEF's most costly activities. The finished product you see often takes extensive investment of time and resources to produce.

In addition to production, processing a request for permissions takes time and due diligence on the part of CCEF. Resources (or derivatives) can often be under contract or are included as parts of other published works. The process of reviewing an application involves assessing whether the work is by a current or former employee, whether it is part of another published work (i.e., book, minibook, etc.), whether or not the resource has already been translated (for translation requests), and the type, nature, and duration of the request.

Additional permissions fees can be assessed on requests and generally reflect a reasonable sum based on the nature and type of request. We are greatly encouraged that people want to share resources with others, and permissions fees allow us to continue production of helpful resources. We also try to price our resources so that they are affordable and enable individuals to purchase their own copy of the material.

As the copyright holder, CCEF retains the exclusive rights to

1. reproduce (photocopy or duplicate a resource)
2. distribute (send or share copies with others)
3. create a derivative work (such as an adaptation or translation)
4. perform publicly (such as playing a recording or reading a resource)
5. display publicly (such as hosting on the Internet or an intranet)

"All rights reserved" simply means that we retain those rights as the content creator.

Under copyright law, "fair use" is a defense against an infringement claim, not a right that is given to the user of the content. Fair use is generally determined by a court of law, and there are no set guidelines for the page amounts or word counts that qualify as a "fair use." 

For more information on assessing fair use, visit the University of Illinois Library's Copyright Reference Guide: Fair Use.  

Attribution (citing where the content is from) is not a substitute for permission and, depending on the purpose and nature of the content you are looking to use, the answer to whether or not a use is a "fair use" may be different.