Copyright and Licensing

UC Davis follows a long tradition of respecting faculty and student ownership of the copyrights to most original works. In some cases, where the University has commissioned the work or, for faculty, where the work is not the product of “independent academic effort,” the University will instead be the copyright owner.

Knowing what you own is the first step toward effective management of your copyrights.

Learn more about copyright ownership policies from the University of California Copyright website, and from the UC Davis Office of Research Copyrights at UC Davis page.

You make regular use of copyrighted work in the classroom and in your scholarship. Knowing where, when, and how to make proper use of copyrighted work can save headaches and streamline your work.

Permission: of course you can use work with the owner’s permission. Learn more about the process of obtaining permission on the UC copyright page.

Fair Use: in the United States, “fair use” provisions allow some uses of copyrighted work without the owner’s permission. Learn more about fair use and how to use it on the UC copyright page.

The Public Domain: copyrights expire, and some works are never protected by copyright at all. Learn more about the public domain on the UC copyright page.

For a list of known UC delegated authorities who may grant copyright licenses (among other things) pertaining to UC-owned copyrights within their respective jurisdictions, go to this UC Copyright Permissions page.

For Davis campus, see Using UC Davis’ Copyrights.

For information on copyright and your dissertation/thesis, see the UC Davis Graduate Studies page Preparing and Filing your Thesis or Dissertation.

Most publishers will require that you sign some of your rights away. Do you know what you are giving up and how these agreements affect your future work?

To learn more, see the UC Copyright What Do I Own? section.

For information on open access, see Open Access Publishing at UC and the UC Davis Library’s page on Open Access Publishing.