Usage of e-resources in the classroom is governed by US copyright law and existing contracts between Melvin J. Zahnow Library and various vendors. Any time there is a license on file, the license will over-rule copyright law. (For example, if you want to download an article for personal use - which could qualify for fair use, but the license states that is not allowed, the article cannot legally be downloaded.)
Licenses from vendors tend to change over time. Many vendors are now putting in clauses about how their materials can be used with AI. The terms of the licenses will be updated on this guide as licenses change. While some of the tenets of the licenses can be very inconvenient, virtually all licenses have clauses that allow the vendor to penalize the institution if we are found to be violating the terms. Usually this is by the cancellation of the contract and removal of all access to the content. Other options can include legal action or financial penalties. Therefore, we ask that users of Melvin J. Zahnow Library's e-resources adhere to the terms of licenses as described on this Library Guide.
Best practices for when content can be shared in Canvas courses is to use a permalink. Almost all licenses forbid the posting of PDFs directly into Canvas courses. (They want users to use the product, so the link will drive traffic there.) Many licenses forbid data mining, scraping, or reverse engineering of the content. Many licenses written in the last year forbid the use of the content to feed large language model (LLM) artificial intelligence products (i.e. ChatGPT).
Finally, users cannot remove or obscure any copyright notices or acknowledgments on any content in any database.
If you have questions about license terms for your class, please contact Heather Fisher, Head of Access Services, at hgfisher@svsu.edu.
