Copyright Decision Guide

Is the work in the public domain?

Works in the public domain are those whose intellectual property rights have expired, have been forfeited, or are inapplicable. This chart by Peter Hirtle at Cornell University is useful for determining the copyright status of works published in the United States. Works in the public domain include the following:

1. Anything published by a U.S. Government Office or Agency is not copyrighted and is available for your use.
2. Most materials published prior to 1923 are now in the public domain.
3. Materials clearly and explicitly donated to the public domain can be freely used without permission.

Is the work already licensed for your use?

Check to see if the work has a Creative Commons license. Look for these symbols to understand the appropriate uses:

AttributionCC BY
This license allows you to distribute, change, and build upon the work as long as you indicate what changes have been made and credit the original creation by including the name of the creator, a copyright notice, a license notice, a disclaimer notice, and a link to the material. All Creative Commons licenses are based upon this attribution license and have the same requirements for giving credit to the original work.

Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA
This license allows you to distribute, change, and build upon the work, but requires you to release your new version under the same license. This license is the basis of open source works and allows multiple people to improve upon the work of others. There are no restrictions on this license for commercial use.

Attribution-NoDerivs CC BY-ND
This license allows for commercial or non-commercial redistribution as long as the original is unchanged and the original work is given appropriate credit (as described under the Attribution license).

Attribution-NonCommercial CC BY-NC
This license allows you to distribute, change, and build upon the work in a non-commercial way. This means you cannot charge for your work to change or adapt the original and distribution must also be non-commercial.

Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike CC BY-NC-SA
This license allows you to distribute, change, and build upon the original work non-commercially and requires you to release your new version under the same license.

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs CC BY-NC-ND
This license allows for non-commercial redistribution only and the original work must be given appropriate credit and remain unchanged.

If you found this item on the Church website (Ensign article, media video), it is okay for you to use this item in a nonprofit education setting within the Ensign College community through either face-to-face instruction or LMS distribution without specific permission. For uses with wider distribution, particularly those on the internet, permission must be granted through the process outlined on the Church website .

Please note that not all products, publications, images, and other content published by the Church is owned by the Church.

If you found this item on the library website , it is probably okay for you to use this item in a nonprofit education setting within the Ensign College community setting. However, please check with Sarah Sorenson (library@ensign.edu) to make sure your use meets the terms of our license agreement.

Can you link to the item? In many instances, you can use content that is legally available to the public online or accessible through Ensign College journal subscriptions by simply linking to it.

Is your use of the copyrighted work permissible under the Fair Use Doctrine?

The purpose of the fair use provision is to allow limited use of copyrighted material without obtaining permission from the copyright owner. To apply fair use to your situation, conduct a reasoned analysis considering all of the fair use factors explained in the Fair Use section of this website.

Classroom Performances and Displays—Including Digital Transmissions

Face-to-Face Classroom: Section 110 (1)

Educators and students may perform or display a copyrighted work in the course of face-to-face teaching at a nonprofit educational institution in a classroom or other place normally devoted to instruction. See the Teaching and Copyright section of this website for more information.

Distance Education—Including Digital Transmission: Section 110 (2) (TEACH)

Section 110 (2) was recently revised by enactment of the Technology, Education, and Copyright Harmonization Act (TEACH) which allows the digital transmission of performances and displays of copyrighted works, without having to obtain prior permission from the copyright owner, as part of synchronous or asynchronous distance education applications if specific requirements are met. See the Teaching and Copyright section of this website for more information.