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Copyright: Copying for personal use

An important reminder

You are responsible for making sure that all the materials you use comply with copyright law.

Assume that these materials are protected by copyright unless you can determine with confidence that they are not. 

Quoting and copying for personal use

Fair use allows limited use of copyrighted works without permission.

Under the fair use provision, you may quote passages for review or criticism or make a copy of an article or a book chapter for private study, scholarship, or non-commercial research.

Copying for personal use guidelines

The U.S. Copyright Law does not clearly define the exact amount of copyrighted material that can be copied  for private study, scholarship,
or non-commercial research.

The following  copying practices are generally considered fair use:

  • A single chapter from a book
  • One article from a journal or newspaper
  • A short story, short essay or short poem
  • A chart, graph, diagram, drawing, cartoon, or picture from a book, journal, or newspaper