Copyright Advisory Office Home
Copyright at Columbia
The Copyright Advisory Office supports Columbia faculty and students in understanding copyright and how it relates to their work, course materials, and scholarly communications. Copyright, Fair Use, and Licensing are some of the areas that intersect with the daily functioning of academic research institutions. They are outlined in the the Copyright Basics tab of this site.
For Faculty
University faculty faces multiple copyright related issues when engaging in academic work. Whether carrying out research, publishing academic work or seeking to share scholarly work with other colleagues or with the public, copyright, particularly, in in this digital era, has become increasingly complex. The Faculty tab of this site addresses three areas of activity: Protecting Scholarly Legacy, Sharing Scholarly Work and Enabling and Developing Teaching Tools.
For Students
As a student, whether graduate or undergraduate, your University program may have provided you with some guidance on the reproduction and distribution of existing materials. Copyright law plays a big part in how you can use and re-use materials in preparation of your scholarly work undertaken to complete your course of study while you are a student at the University. Under the Student tab, you will find information about managing existing copyright protected materials during the course of your research and study and how to manage your own rights as you begin publishing your work.
Permission to use the content on this site
Except where stated otherwise, the content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 License.When making use of the content on these pages under the terms of the CC license, please include this form of attribution: "Used under a CC BY/NC license from the Copyright Advisory Office of Columbia University." If your needs are outside the scope of this license, please consider fair use or ask us for permission.
Requests for Permission From Columbia University Libraries
The Copyright Advisory Office does not field individual requests for permission or reproductions of Columbia University Libraries materials. Please reference Columbia University Libraries Digitization and Copying Services for further information and to send your request.
news about the copyright advisory office
Office Hours
Copyright Advisory Office hours are held on Tuesdays from 10am to noon. If you have a specific issue that requires assistance that cannot wait, please call or email for an appointment outside Office Hours.
Celebrate Fair Use with Ann Thornton, University Librarian
Created to mark this year's Fair Use Week, The Copyright Advisory Office produced its latest video, How Have We Faired? Fair Use, a Year in Review with Ann Thornton, University Librarian, in conjunction with the Center for Digital Research and Scholarship CDRS
Columbia's Copyright Guidelines for MOOC Production
The Office of the General Counsel, and the Copyright Advisory Office have developed faculty guidelines that address copyright issues relating to MOOC production. Read More...
DMCA Rule-Making and Exceptions for Audio-Visual Works
The Library of Congress has issued final rules pursuant to its rule making authorities under section 1201 of the DMCA. They include new exceptions that allow for the reverse engineering of technical locks to access audio-visual materials in prescribed circumstances that include the development of educational materials and the production of massive open online courses (MOOCs). Read More...
Copyright and Dissertations
Just added under the Students tab, this chapter highlights copyright issues students face when researching and writing dissertations. Read More...
Copyright Policy Initiatives
Columbia University Libraries submits Response to the Notice Of Inquiry issued by the U.S. Copyright Office on Visual Works. Read More...