You've Got to Be Kidding!: How to Keep Your Job Without Losing Your Integrity

Requesting Permission

Let’s imagine you have found something you want to copy, either printed on paper or on the Internet, but it’s copyrighted. Getting permission (and perhaps paying a nominal fee of $10 to $500) is not difficult; however, it typically takes a few weeks or months to obtain. You’ll need to send a request to copy a copyrighted work to the permissions department of the work’s publisher, or the Web site’s owner/producer. Permission requests should contain the following information about the work:

• Title, author, and/or editor and edition
• Exact material to be used, providing chapter or page numbers, or URLs
• Number of copies to be made
• How you’re planning to use the copied materials
• Form of distribution (classroom, newsletter, blog, etc.)
• Whether the material is to be sold

Some organizations will have forms (electronic or hard copy) on their Web sites that may ask for additional information from you as well.

Though this part might sound somewhat complicated, keep in mind that copyright protects against copying the “expression” in a work, not against copying the work’s “ideas.” The difference between “idea” and “expression” is one of the most difficult concepts to understand in terms of copyright law. However, the most important point to appreciate here is that one can copy the protected expression in a work without copying the literal words (or the exact shape of a sculpture, or the precise look of a stuffed animal). When a new work is generated by copying an existing ...