Permission to Use Copyrighted Materials
If you are employed by Ohio State University Extension, the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center, or the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences and want to use information from one of our publications, you do not have to seek permission as long as you follow fair use guidelines. Do acknowledge the source by quoting the author, attributing the material, or citing the origin of the information.
If you are not employed by Ohio State University Extension and want to use information from research or our published materials, you must obtain written permission and acknowledge the source. Keep a copy of the permission statement in your file. There are narrow exceptions covered by Fair Use and public domain exemptions.
To request permission to use Ohio State University Extension materials, please identify the materials and their intended use on the Copyrighted Materials Agreement form below and submit it to Dave Davisson at davisson.12@osu.edu. The form will be completed and returned to you.
Copyrighted Materials Agreement
Copyright and Intellectual Property
In today's world, just about everything is copyrighted, regardless of whether it carries the © copyright symbol. Copyright applies broadly to all creative works whether in physical or digial format. Exceptions include works created and published by federal employees for U.S.-based federal agencies.
Generally, the author or authors of a work own the copyright. If an employee creates a work within the scope of employment, the employer generally owns the copyright. This is known as "work for hire."
The Ohio State University's Intellectual Property Policy establishes specific rules on the ownership, distribution, and commercialization of intellectual property created by university faculty, staff, and students. Please see the policy for guidance on specific examples.
If you intend to use someone else’s work for any purpose, assume the work is copyright protected and that you need to take the appropriate steps to obtain permission for your specific use—educational, commercial, or otherwise. Failure to do so could lead to a costly lawsuit. Crediting the source is NOT a protection against copyright infringement in most cases.
OSU Extension and OARDC materials are copyrighted. That gives us the exclusive right to copy, distribute, modify, and display or authorize other people to do so. The 1978 copyright law did not exclude Extension and research stations from copyright protection even though some funds are from federal sources; the law treats these agencies as non-federal operations.
Questions?
If you are creating content for Ohio State and have questions about copyright and intellectual property, please ask. It is better to make a phone call or send an email than to find out later you made the wrong choice. Contact:
OSU Copyright Resources Center
libcopyright@osu.edu
614-688-5849
http://library.osu.edu/projects-initiatives/copyright-resources-center/