Copyright

 

The majority of the material included in the Sky Meadows State Park:
Nature Guide is not original to the author; it has been derived from
other sources (primarily from departments within the Commonwealth
of Virginia government and the United States government). Most of this
material is under copyright protection. Free use of this copyrighted
material has been developed using the "fair use" doctrine of the 1976
Copyright Act.

 

The University of California has posted a clear and comprehensive
discussion of the fair use doctrine (see below for web address).
Presented below is their general statement concerning fair use.

 

The 1976 Copyright Act provides important exceptions to the rights of
the copyright holder that are specifically aimed at nonprofit educational
uses of copyrighted works and libraries. Two provisions of the copyright
statute are of particular importance to teachers and researchers:

 

• a provision that codifies the doctrine of "fair use," under which limited

      copying of copyrighted works without the permission ofthe owner is

      allowed for certain teaching and research purposes;and

 

• provision that establishes special exemptions for the reproduction of

     copyrighted works by libraries and archives.

 

The "fair use" doctrine embodied in the Fair-Use Statute Section 107 of

the 1976 Copyright Act, allows reproduction and other uses of copy-

rightedworks under certain conditions for purposes such as criticism,

comment,news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for

classroom use), scholarship or research for educational and research

purposes.

 

Fair-use Statute Section 107 lists the following factors as the ones to be
evaluated in determining whether a particular use of a copyrighted work
is a permitted fair use:

 

• the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of

      a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes-- uses

      in nonprofit educational institutions are more likely to befair use than

      works used for commercial purposes, but not alleducational uses are

      fair use.

 

• the nature of the copyrighted work -- reproducing a factual work is

      more likely to be fair use than a creative work such as a musical

      composition.

 

• the amount and significance of the portion used in relation to the

      entire work -- reproducing smaller portions of a work is more likely

      to be fair use than large or essentials portions.

 

• the impact of the use upon the potential market for or value of the

      copyrighted work -- uses which have no or little marketimpact are

      more likely to be fair than those that interfere withpotential markets.

 

The Nature Guide meets all four factors listed above. The Nature Guide
is: 1) for nonprofit educational purposes, 2) reproduces only factual work,
3) reproduces only a small portion of the original works, and 4) has no
impact on potential markets (none of the information reproduced is
market based).

 

For the complete discussion of the fair use doctrine:

 

http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/copyright/fairuse.html

 

Because much of the material contained in the Nature Guide is copyrighted,
it is strongly recommended that no material be used that does not meet

"fair use" requirements.