Organization Alert … Copyright Clearance Center

Q: Can I trust your answers on copyright issues instead of asking a lawyer?
A: No. This isn't legal advice, I am not a lawyer, and I don't necessarily know what I'm talking about.
source: http://www.quotationspage.com/faq.php#85.5


What if you found the following thesis …
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Fischer-Tropsch Refining
Thesis by Arno de Klerk
University of Pretoria, South Africa
February 2008


Synopsis
Energy carriers, such as coal, natural gas and biomass, can be converted by Fischer-Tropsch technology into synthetic crude (syncrude). Fischer-Tropsch derived syncrude can then be refined to transportation fuels, such as motor-gasoline, jet fuel and diesel fuel. These fuels meet the same specifications as cured oil derived transportation fuels.


Conventional refining technologies have to be adapted to deal with Fischer-Tropsch syncrude, because they differ significantly from crude oil with respect to composition. Some of the key differences are the high concentration of oxygenates and olefins and absence of sulphur in Fischer-Trposch syncrude. Imposing a crude oil refining methodology on syncrude can lead to unwieldy and expensive refineries. Yet, despite an abundance of literature of Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, there is little literature that deals with the refining of Fischer-Tropsch syncrude.
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Let’s say that you, a law abiding citizen, purchase a copy of the thesis. Having done this, how much of the thesis contents can you share with colleagues, while maintaining copyright compliance?

Copyright compliance is not a trivial issue. Owners of copyright can cause big problems when they feel that your organization has used its intellectual property in an improper manner. “Improper” usually means “You owe me money … and lots of it.”

Your organization’s librarian is the first line of defense against inadvertent copyright non-compliance. Your information professional deals with the issue on a daily basis and can share his or her very practical experience with you.

If your organization is too small to employ an information professional, I suggest you visit the CCC-Copyright Clearance Center’s Web (http://www.copyright.com/). Quoting from its Web …

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New to CCC?
We provide smart solutions that simplify the licensing of content.
» Learn more about licensing solutions
» Learn about copyright here
» Register a copyright here
When you need permission to re-use content, turn to the rights licensing experts for simple, easy-to-use solutions
source: http://www.copyright.com/
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As informative as is the CCC Web, it may be easier to begin with the Wikipedia description, some of which appears below …

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) is a not-for-profit U.S. company based in Danvers, Massachusetts, that provides collective copyright licensing services for corporate and academic users of copyrighted materials. CCC procures agreements with rightsholders, primarily text publishers and authors, both for print and online, and acts as agent for them. This "collective agent" status allows CCC to represent thousands of publishers and hundreds of thousands of authors and other creators.


Collective licensing, as distinct from statutory licensing, is a means through which a user (licensee) can pay one annual fee for the use of all the covered materials of CCC’s publishers and authors. This arrangement provides one-stop shopping for the user, and obviates the need for users to track down many rightsholders, many times, for many uses of copyrighted content.


source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_Clearance_Center 
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When it comes to the support you need to do your research, there is no substitute for an information professional. If your organization does not support such … consider employing the services of an independent information professional like Jean Steinhardt. Visit his LinkedIn Profile: www.linkedin.com/in/jeansteinhardtresearch