The Copyright Policy affirms Washington College’s commitment to comply with United
States copyright law. Washington College community will:
respect faithfully the property rights of authors and their assignees; and
exercise vigorously our rights and responsibilities as teachers, scholars, authors,
and creators in educating students, creating new works of pedagogy, scholarship, and
art, and sharing those works with a wider community.
This Policy outlines the main principles of the copyright law, provides guidelines
to assist members of the faculty, staff, and students to distinguish between compliant
and non-compliant use of copyrighted materials, and recommends a variety of tools
by which faculty, staff, and students can learn more about copyright law.
This policy also affirms that intellectual works eligible for copyright protection
created by the faculty and students of the College in the course of their academic
pursuits (including most courseware, syllabi, textbooks, scholarly monographs, trade
publications, maps, charts, articles in popular magazines and newspapers, novels,
nonfiction works, supporting materials, artistic works, and like works) are owned
by their creator(s) and that any revenue derived from their work likewise belongs
to the creator(s). However, unless otherwise agreed in writing between the creator(s)
and the College, the College’s use of this material shall be royalty-free.
In general, non-academic work created by faculty, staff, or students in fulfillment
of their paid responsibilities, known as “work for hire” is owned by the College.
Faculty members and supervisors must abide by the rules governing photocopying and
duplication of copyright protected materials and are accountable for any such copying
delegated to support staff or students. At no time will an academic support assistant
or a student employee reproducing or circulating copyright-protected material in accordance
with a faculty member’s or supervisor’s written or verbal instructions be assumed
liable for any failure to adhere to copyright law.
The College will make every effort to educate members of the campus community about
copyright law and rights available under that law and will provide resources for helping
the community understand copyright law. In all cases, Washington College expects all
members of the College community to exercise informed judgment and to comply with
copyright laws. Members of the Washington College Community who willfully disregard
the copyright law shall be held accountable for their actions.
