Copyright

FAQs

The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, U.S. Code) governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. The person making the copy is liable for any infringement.

The Terms of Service with database vendors prohibit inputting any database content into third-party AI tools (e.g. ChatGPT, etc.). These include but are not limited to:

EBSCO License Agreement: "Licensee and Authorized Users may not use artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies with any of the content included in the Databases or Services for any purpose" (para. 4).
ProQuest (Clarivate) Product/Service Terms: "Authorized Users shall not...use the Product or underlying data in conjunction with any third-party technology or any artificial intelligence, algorithms or models, or use the Product or underlying data to develop or train any artificial intelligence, algorithms or models" (p. 35).

For further information about copyright and fair use laws, please see the following:

Copyright - United States Copyright Office
Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Academic and Research Libraries - Association of Research Libraries
Copyright & Fair Use - Stanford University Libraries
Copyright Essentials Tip Sheet - Copyright Clearance Center
Campus Guide to Copyright - Copyright Clearance Center
Creative Commons Licenses - Creative Commons
Fair Use Checklist - University System of Georgia
The Four-Factor Fair Use Analysis - University of Minnesota Libraries

Disclaimer: We welcome all questions you may have about copyright and fair use, however, we cannot give legal advice. We can help you research and find resources, but if you need legal advice, please contact an attorney.