Copyright Policy
Western University of Health Sciences complies with all federal, state, and local statutes governing its copyright and privacy policy, in accordance with but not limited to the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976 (as amended, 1994), the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (DMCA), the Technology, Education, and Copyright Harmonization Act of 2001 (S. 487) and the U.S. Privacy Act of 1974.
Western University respects the intellectual property of others, and we ask our users to do the same. Western University of Health Sciences may, in appropriate circumstances and at its discretion, disable and/or terminate the accounts of users who may be infringing the intellectual property rights of others. All materials hosted by the university must meet the guidelines concerning copyright and fair use.
鈥淐辞辫测谤颈驳丑迟鈥� is a protection that covers published and unpublished literary, scientific, and artistic works, whatever the form of expression, provided such works are fixed in a tangible or material form. This means that if you can see it, hear it, and/or touch it鈥� it is protected. Examples of these works include an essay, play, song, midi, graphic image (including Web graphics, photos, logos, and other digital art), writing, text, HTML, JavaScripts, or other material that can be set on paper, recorded on tape, or saved to a hard drive. Copyright does not usually extend to an idea, procedure, process, method, system, discovery, name, or title.
Copyright laws grant the creator/author the exclusive right to reproduce, distribute, perform, and display the work publicly as well as to prepare derivative works. 鈥淓xclusive鈥� means only the creator/author of such work has the legal right to use the work. Written permission must be obtained from the copyright holder before works may be used. These works must then be appropriately referenced in accordance to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act Remember, the terms 鈥淚nternet鈥� and 鈥減ublic domain鈥� are not synonymous. Works available in the public domain do not have any copyright limitations and may be used freely. However, any work published on the Internet does not automatically place it in the public domain. If you have any doubt that a work is copyrighted, get permission or don鈥檛 use it.
鈥�Fair use鈥� or 鈥渇air practice鈥� is the utilization of a portion of a copyrighted work 鈥渁s is鈥� for purposes of parody, news reporting, research, or education and does not require the permission of the author. Use of copyrighted works, or portions thereof, for any other purpose is not deemed fair use. That includes copying text or scanned images from postcards, magazines, books, newspapers, or other Web sites.
For a complete discussion of the copyright laws and the DMCA governing copyright policy at Western University of Health Sciences, please visit the Web sites listed below.
If you have any questions about posting copyrighted material in online courses, please email them to copyright@westernu.edu.
If you wish to use any materials copyrighted by Western University of Health Sciences, please email permissions@westernu.edu.