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Copyright and Plagiarism: Getting Permission

Resources about copyright and intellectual property

Steps to Get Copyright Permissions

If you need to use a copyright work and you have determined that your use of the work is NOT fair use, you will need to get permission from the author to use the work.  To do this you will need to:

  1.  Determine who owns the work. (Note: The owner of the copyright may not be the author of the work, especially if the copyright permissions have been sold or otherwise transferred.)
  2. Contact the copyright owner to request the permission(s) you need.
  3. Make sure you obtain permission to use the work IN WRITING.

Even if you use is minor (i.e. reprinting a table from an article) and no payment is required, just make sure that you get the fact that you have permission to use the work in writing.  If your use is university affiliated and requires a contract and/or a monetary payment you will probably have get the contract approved by the local branch of the TTU System Office of General Counsel. 

1. Determining Who Owns the Work

You may have to conduct an investigation and research who owns the work you wish to copy.  You might think that the copyright owner is always the author of the work.  This is true if the author self-published the work and she did not sell the rights.  However, it is far more likely that the work is owned by the publisher.  Most authors transfer their copyrights in order to obtain royalties or one time payments.

To locate the owner of a copyrighted work one may need to contact the:

  • Publisher (Note: Many publishers' websites include a standardized form to request copyright permissions.)
  • Author or the Author's Estate
  • Copyright Clearance Center
  • U.S. Copyright Office

Note: A percentage of works are orphaned works, which means that they do not have a clear copyright owner.  It is advisable to show due diligence before you use an orphaned work.  To do this you will need to document in writing that you did a thorough search for the copyright owner.

Here are some links to lists of copyright owners:

2. Contacting Owner to Request Permissions

After one determines who the copyright owner is, the next step is to request the correct permissions from the copyright owner.  In order to do this you are going to need to provide the copyright owner with details about the original work, the portion of the work you wish to reuse, how you intend to reuse the work, what permissions you are interested in purchasing, and any limitations you wish to put on the author reselling the same rights to the work during the time period you are contracting for.

Information that should be included in your request:

  • title of book (including the edition, if applicable);
  • author or editor;
  • ISBN or ISSN;
  • title of the article, illustration, image, figure, diagram, table, etc., which you wish to use;
  • exact page numbers for the materials you seek permissions for;
  • purpose of use (education, research, commercial, etc.);
  • nature of the use;
  • course name, number, and term;
  • length of time for which the work will be used;
  • number of students enrolled in the class;
  • when you are planning to start using the work;
  • whether you wish exclusive or non-exclusive rights to the work;
  • whether you intend to translate the work into another language;
  • whether you intend to distribute the work in a foreign country.

3. Get Permission IN WRITING

After you contact the copyright owner, and provide all the necessary information to them, they should be able to provide you a quote of how much it is going to cost to obtain the necessary permissions.  Most copyright payments are annual in nature, which means that the duration of the use will only last one year.  After you pay for the permissions, the copyright owner should send you a license or a letter indicating that you have purchased the permissions for a year.  Even if the copyright owner does not charge you for the permissions, it is necessary to get a written document that indicates that you have permission to use the work.

Always get a written document that grants you the rights.  A lot of misunderstandings and law suits can easily be avoided with the proper documentation.