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To be protected, works published prior to March 1, 1989 generally need to have a copyright notice posted in the work. In contrast, most works published on or after March 1, 1989 should be presumed to be copyright protected because a copyright notice is not required to be posted on those works. Works authored by the United States Government are not copyrighted protected, nor are works which the copyright holder intends to be in the public domain. The Copyright Office Circular 22 explains how to determine the copyright status of a work. Additional resources may be found at the end of the Copyright Policy. LINK
VIOLATION OF COPYRIGHT LAW: Violating the rights of a copyright owner constitutes a violation of law can result in civil and criminal penalties. Copyrighted materials, however, may be copied or otherwise used without the copyright owner's permission in carefully defined and limited circumstances. The Copyright Act’s "fair use" exception permits copyrighted works to be used or reproduced “for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research.” Four factors must be applied when determining whether “fair use” of copyrighted material is permitted. Those factors are:
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Additional Information and resources may be found in the Copyright Policy. LINK