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Copyright Education and Information: Start Here

Copyright is determined by the country in which the product was produced. Since we are located with the United States information provided here reflects U.S. laws. The information presented here is intended for informational or educational purposes only

Gen AI and Copyright: An Update Webinar

12/5/24: We had a great turnout for GenAI and Copyright: An Update with Professor Derek Bambauer of UF's College of Law. The recording is below.

Guide Authors

The Digital Services and OER Team of Florida Virtual Campus created this guide. They can be reached by emailing help@flvc.org if you have questions or need additional help. The team consists of the following people

  • Rebel Cummings-Sauls
  • Elisabeth Ball
  • Stephen Szanati
  • Simonne Jackson
  • Kestrel Ward

Introduction

Copyright information provided here is by the Florida Virtual Campus Library Services' Digital Services and OER Unit which offers a variety of services and products to support the Florida teaching and research higher education community, including online assistance and one-to-one consultation. For assistance with your teaching or research endeavors contact the Digital Services and OER Unit to ask a question or schedule an appointment.

 

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help@flvc.org

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Copyright is determined by the country in which the product was made tangible.  Since we are located with the United States information provided here reflect U.S. laws.  The information presented here is intended for informational or educational purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice. If you have specific legal questions pertaining to copyright or intellectual property please contact an attorney/lawyer.

Guide Navigation:

  • Faculty and Instructors information on copyright concerning instructors, including sharing content with your classes, copyrighting your own open educational resources, and much more.
  • Students information for students including author's rights, reusing content for education, and copyright as it pertains to Electronic Theses and Dissertations.
  • Library Staff information geared towards Library staff, including US copyright law and many tools to help librarians guide patrons on copyright.
  • Social Media copyright as it pertains to social media
  • Plagiarism and Infringement information on what constitutes plagiarism and how copyright is infringed upon.
  • Tools and Resources list of tools and resources, some included elsewhere in the guide.

AI and Copyright Disclaimer

Under United States copyright law machine generated content, like Artificial Intelligence (AI) outcomes, do not carry copyright.  This was recently upheld with a Federal Court Ruling from Judge Beryl A. Howell in August of 2023 (Civil Action No. 22-1564 Thaler v Perlmutter and US Copyright Office). The ruling states that a work must have a human creator in order to qualify for copyright. In reaction and recognition of this emerging trend, the US Copyright Office is actively studying the issue and plans to issue a report later in 2024 to summarize community input and their findings.
 
While machine generated content cannot be copyrighted, there remains the potential issue of copyright infringement from using AI/machine generated content that has been produced on copyrighted content. At this time there is a debate on whether a work generated through one of these models would be subject to copyright, or if they will be determined to be a large language model developed under fair use. As an example of this being debated, in September of 2023 a Delaware Judge ruled that a landmark case, Thompson Reuters v. Ross Intelligence, must go to a jury trial, which should begin sometime in 2024.

​New Legislation Affecting Copyright: CASE ACT and the Copyright Claims Board:

"In December 2020, Congress passed the Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement Act of 2020 (CASE Act), which directed the Copyright Office to establish the Copyright Claims Board (CCB). The CCB is a three-member tribunal within the Office that provides an efficient and user-friendly option to resolve certain copyright disputes that involve up to $30,000 (called 'small claims')." (Copyright.gov)

**FLVC recommends that libraries and archives opt out of participation in this process as soon as possible by submitting an opt-out form provided by the Copyright Office.**

For more information, consult the U.S. copyright office https://copyright.gov/legislation/ and your attorney

​CASE Act background:

Bill – Number H.R. 133​

Title​

Date Enacted​

For § 2319C on illicit digital transmission services, ​
see bill excerpt​

​

For the CASE Act, see bill excerpt ​

Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 ​

Dec. 27, 2020​

Florida Post-Secondary Higher Education Policy on the Use of Copyrighted Works in Education and Research

Florida Institutions of Higher Education require compliance with copyright law and, when appropriate, supports the exercise in good faith of full copyright exemption rights by faculty, staff, and students. Specifically, Florida Institutions of Higher Education:

  • inform and educate faculty, staff, and students about copyright law, including the limited exclusive rights of copyright holders as set forth in 17 U.S.C. § 106, the application of the four fair use factors in 17 U.S.C. § 107, and the other copyright exceptions;
  • make available tools and resources to faculty, staff, and students for their use in determining copyright status and ownership and whether use of a work in a specific situation would be a fair use and, therefore, not an infringement under copyright law;
  • facilitate use of materials currently licensed by Florida Institutions of Higher Education and provides information on licensing of third-party materials; and
  • identifiy individuals who can counsel faculty, staff, and students regarding application of copyright law. Contact help@flvc.org for more information.

 

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