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Copyright

Licensing

In some circumstances, a may be covered by a license that would allow you to use it in certain ways. 

Creative Commons

Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that enables the sharing and use of creativity and knowledge through free legal tools. Content licensed under certain Creative Commons licenses can be used freely for classroom teaching at the University of South Carolina.

Library Databases

The University of South Carolina subscribes to hundreds of databases on many subjects for you to use for research and teaching. You are welcome to provide links to these resources, although in many cases, downloading and reposting is prohibited. 

Copyright law and the University contractual license agreements govern the access, use, and reproduction of most of the University Libraries' electronic databases. Users of library-licensed resources must comply with the terms of these agreements by a) limiting their uses to non-commercial, educational, or personal research purposes; and b) not facilitating unauthorized access by others outside of the University community.

Where library databases are concerned, these general rules apply:

You usually may:

  • Print, download, or quote limited amounts of information (with proper attribution)
  • Email an article to another current University faculty, student, or staff member (unless this practice is specifically forbidden by the license)
  • Create a link to an article on a publisher's website.

You may not:

  • Engage in systematic downloading of licensed content (e.g. download all the articles from an online journal issue or all the chapters from an e-book)
  • Email an article to a person who is not a current University faculty, student, or staff (unless this practice is specifically allowed by the license)
  • Post a copy of an article to a University server (e.g. Blackboard, departmental web site).