If there are no terms of use explicitly stated in the document, we need to check the terms of use for the website.
Many websites have a terms of use or a legal page written out that mentions intellectual property rights and how visitors to the website can use their intellectual property.
We are specifically looking for permission to distribute or link to the content.
Almost all websites have a Terms of Use page, but the name will usually differ.
The Terms of Use page could be called any of the following:
You can usually find the terms of use page linked at the bottom of the website.
Once you've located the Terms of Use page, you will need to look for any sections that mention use or intellectual property rights. These sections may be called different things but they will almost always state what you are allowed to do with the content.
In the example below, the Pew Research Center does a good job listing what a user is allowed to do with the content under the section called Grant of License.
We would be allowed to distribute or link to the content as long as all copies show the copyright owner and provide attribution. We would not need to get copyright permission in this case.
In the example below, you can find the information regarding use of the content under Copyright Status.
This website does a good job stating that documents may be freely distributed and used for educational purposes. In this case, we could put the PDFs in the classroom without worrying about getting permission.
However, the website also notes that some documents may have different copyright conditions. This is why it's important to check the documents too.
In the example, McKinsey & Company lists the Copyrights and the Use of Site Content in different sections. We would be especially interested in the Section for use of the content.
In this example, the copyrights and permitted uses are in different sections. Section 1 on copyrights mentions many uses that are not allowed unless you get written permission and directs you to Section 3 for permitted uses of the content.
The language used in Section 3 is a little hard to understand but we would essentially no comply with the uses listed since we are technically distributing the content to multiple people in a class, which goes against the non-transferable part of the license.
What does this mean? It means we could not distribute the content or a PDF copy in the classroom. However, we could definitely link to the content as that is not prohibited in the terms of use.
If you do not see a terms of use page (or legal page) linked at the bottom of the website, go to the About section for the website.
If you still do not see a terms of use, you can always contact the company to ask about using the document.
Some documents are freely available in a repository from an educational institution.
Although it's tempting to link directly to the PDF, it's better to link to the webpage specifically create for that document as in the example shown below.
Not all of the documents will have the notice on them that they are in an institutional repository. By linking to the webpage and not directly to the PDF, it's clear who has control of the content.
Sometimes a Course Developer might link to a document that Google found and that is actually hidden behind a membership or registration form.
This is another reason why it's important to search the website for that webpage or HTML page. If you find that page and hit the Download button and a membership form pops up, we cannot just freely link to that document.
For these documents, we have to contact the copyright holder and get permission to use the document in our class.