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Copyright

Disclaimer

This is a basic guide to copyright and fair use. This guide is for general educational purposes only.

What Is Copyright?

Copyright protects the rights of owners of original works that have been fixed in a tangible form (e.g., written down or published). A copyrighted work must contain some original literary, pictorial, musical, or other type of intellectual expression. Facts or data cannot be copyrighted, but the specific way they are expressed can be. Copyright ownership begins as soon as a work is created regardless of whether it is registered. Printed documents, as well as web content, electronic documents, e-mail, and software, can all be protected by copyright law. 

Getting Permission

To use copyrighted material, you must obtain written permission from the copyright owner by using the Request to Use Copyrighted Material in Argonne Publications (ANL-597). Be specific in your request as to how you plan to use the copyrighted material: in a presentation, in a conference paper for a specific meeting, in a technical report that will be posted to a web site. Follow the publisher’s instructions regarding acknowledgments and use.

If you want to use the published form of a table or figure that you created and included in a previously published document for which copyright is held by another organization (for example, a journal article), you still need to contact the publisher (copyright owner) for permission. If you use the version you previously submitted to the publisher, you must still seek permission to re-use that version.

For more information, review the policies and procedures of the relevant publisher. 

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