IED-PK | How to Get Copyright Clearance: Permissions

Why seek permissions?

Permissions are necessary from the copyright holder at any point where users utilize their copyright protected work. However, this will only be applicable for usage that goes beyond the usual exceptions or limitations of copyright law like fair dealing or fair use. Seeking permissions ensures the lawful use of materials. This reduces the risk of copyright infringement and the underlying penalties.

It is the responsibility of each user to obtain permissions for the works they would like to use by personally contacting the copyright holder.

For any complex clearance requests, please fill in the Copyright Clearance Form ​​

The Copyright Office shall endeavour to respond to your request in a timely, reliable and effective manner. However, there may be delays in the processing of clearance requests as responses depend on copyright holders.

Users may review the Copyright Policy for the clearance process and various copyright guidelines.

The Copyright Office is an institutional facilitator for copyright clearance. We advise internally based on the jurisdiction/country and its applicable laws of each of our global locations. The Copyright Office is not a legal office and mainly gives direction on the copyright issues presented to it and ensuring internal copyright compliance. Users may contact the Office of the General Counsel or seek external assistance for any matters pertaining to personal legal advice.​

When to seek copyright clearance

The conditions where one should seek the assistance of the Copyright Office in obtaining clearance permissions include when one needs to:

• Distribute a course pack in print or electronic format
• Post content on an e-learning system
• Post content to the institution's intranet
• Post materials on a public website
• Photocopy content
• Photocopy documents for library reserve
• Borrow or lend material through ILL
• Reproduce an out-of-print book
• Use content in a private consulting engagement
• Republish content in a dissertation/thesis
• Use or republish content in university events and exhibitions
• Conduct research for non-classroom use (e.g., during an instructor's private consulting engagement) or
• Use content in a presentation (e.g. PowerPoint or other platform)

In the reference to above mentioned examples, simply giving reference or credit to the source of content is not a substitute for seeking copyright permission.

Additionally, some works may contain materials—text, images and graphics—from multiple copyright holders and may require separate authorization from each copyright holder one.