Copyright

The Online Book or Chapter Is Available - From an EKU Libraries Resource

You may provide a link to the Library-owned resource to the students. Please contact your library liaison if you need assistance identifying durable links - this can be tricky and varies by database (the url from the browser header is rarely a durable link).

You should not post PDFs of the book or book chapter. This is not copyright compliant use of licensed materials available through a library subscription database.

The Online Book or Chapter is Available - Open Access from a Legitimate Source

You may link to the book or chapter providing the host site has no restrictions and you have determined that the site is safe and legitimate.

Potentially spam

  • As a rule of thumb links with names like "fast download", "direct download" or similar frequently turn out to be spam and are not critical in terms of piracy.
  • In many cases blogs or websites only claim to offer downloadable eBooks (without being able to offer any content) in order to generate traffic. They are considered spammers, too.
  • Sites that try to install a "downloader" should alert you. They probably do not offer any eBook content but will install potentially dangerous programs on your PC.

 

Unless explicitly authorized by the host site, you  should not copy or download text, graphics or other information from a website for posting and/or distribution.

The Print Book or Chapter is Available at the Library

You can put the entire book on print reserve.

If you want to post individual chapters on Blackboard, it is a copyright best practice to use only up to 10% of the work.

Generally accepted fair use guidelines are to limit your use to 10% or 1 chapter of the book, whichever is less.

You Own a Copy of the Book or Chapter

You can put the entire book on print reserve.

If you want to post individual chapters on Blackboard, it is a copyright best practice to use only up to 10% of the work. Generally accepted fair use guidelines are to limit your use to 10% or 1 chapter of the book, whichever is less.

The Book is Out of Print

If a book is out of print but still under copyright protection...

You may place the print book or copied book chapters on print reserve you would like to make content available online to students, there may be an argument for more use of content beyond the generally accepted fair use guidelines limiting use to 10% or 1 chapter of the book, whichever is less. It is important that any posted chapters:

  1. Be hosted restricted access area, such as Blackboard, which limits access to students enrolled in the class.
  2. Have access restricted to a reasonable time frame in accordance with the course syllabus. Date and time restrictions to content can be easily set in Blackboard.