Copyright FAQs

The copyright to a thesis belongs to the student, according to the University's General Rules. As a condition of being awarded the degree, however, the student grants the University the non-exclusive right "to retain, use and distribute a limited number of copies of the thesis, together with the right to require its publication for archival use."

Please refer to the Office of Technology Management's Policy for Withholding Graduate Theses from Publication.

You may register your copyright directly through the United States Copyright Office.

No. There are, however, certain benefits to registering your copyright. The U.S. Copyright Office provides a thorough explanation of these benefits (PDF).

It could be possible for you to negotiate which rights you transfer to a publisher before you sign a publishing agreement. The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) has developed an author addendum that students may find useful in negotiating the rights that they transfer.

The Thesis Office does not advise students on what can or cannot be considered "fair use." Students are urged to consult the U.S. Copyright Office's explanation of "fair use." Students may find the following resources helpful in making their own determination--and documenting that determination--of whether permission is required for the use of previously copyrighted material in a thesis:

• Fair Use Checklist, offered by Columbia University's Copyright Advisory Office

• Fair Use Evaluator, offered by the American Library Association

Did you create the material? If not, you will need to identify the owner of the work's copyright and determine whether the work's copyright protection has expired. You may find the following publication of the U.S. Copyright Office helpful: "How to Investigate the Copyright Status of a Work." (PDF)

Yes. If your work has been published, you may have transferred the copyright to the publisher. Check your publishing agreement: if the publisher owns the copyright to your work, you will need to request permission to reprint it in your thesis and elsewhere.

Yes, a detailed example of the content that should be included in the permission request letter is provided on page 4 of A Student's Guide to Copyrights and Fair Use (PDF), a publication of the Office of Technology Management.