Federal Copyright Laws

What is copyright and why is it important?

Understanding and recognizing copyright is a balancing act.  You must balance the rights of the authors with your rights to use their work, without seeking permission or paying royalties.  Under copyright, authors have the right to control the use of their work subject to exceptions permitted under the law.  If use of the author's work goes beyond what the law allows you are infringing on someone's copyright.


What are the penalties for violation of federal copyright laws?




What is the difference between Copyright and Plagiarism?

Copyright is a federal law that protects original works from being copied and distributed without the author's permission unless one of the exceptions applies. 
Plagiarism is passing off someone else's work as one's own or lack of attribution.  There is no federal or state plagiarism law but there can certainly be severe repercussions for plagiarizing (refer to the Code of Student Conduct).

Examples of copyright infringement and plagiarism:

Copyright infringement example: Incorporating an entire poem by Maya Angelou into a published work without her permission.  The poem is property attributed to Ms. Angelou.

Plagiarism example: Using a line or even an entire poem by Maya Angelou in a paper and not attributing the poem to the author or citing the source.  It would appear that the poem is the creation of the person writing the paper and not Maya Angelou.

Resources for this information are as follows: