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The copyright information provided by the George Mason University Libraries is for informational purposes only and should not be considered legal advice.
Looking for an answer to your question? This Frequently Asked Questions might have the answer. If not, contact Emilie Algenio, ealgenio@gmu.edu
Do I need to get permission to use pictures/images/illustrations/figures/data in my dissertation or thesis?
Maybe. First, contact Emilie Algenio, OER & Scholarly Communications Librarian, ealgenio@gmu.edu, include times and dates you’re available to meet, and together we can determine what kind of permissions you need.
Do I need to register my dissertation or thesis in order to have copyright protection?
You own the copyright to your dissertation or thesis once it is preserved in a fixed medium, including digital memory. Registering your work with the US Copyright Office provides a public record of your copyright and is required if you seek statutory damages in an infringement lawsuit.
What is Fair Use?
Fair use is the term used for the limited exception to the exclusive rights granted to an author or creator by copyright law. The fair use doctrine allows limited use of copyrighted material without permission from the rights holder for certain activities such as research, instruction, criticism, commentary and news reporting.
How do I know if my use of copyrighted material is Fair Use?
To determine whether you are within Fair Use, the law calls for a balanced application of four factors. These four factors come directly from the fair use provision, Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act and they have been examined and developed in judicial decisions.
Generative AI tools are trained on massive collections of materials – both public domain and copyrighted. These materials are scraped from the internet without the consent of the creators, and with no opportunity for recourse other than lawsuits. As of October 2025, there are multiple lawsuits in process related to the use of copyrighted works in training AI. The plaintiffs in the lawsuits claim the use of copyrighted works without permission is an infringement of copyright. In opposition, some legal scholars have pointed out that non-consumptive uses of copyrighted content have been considered fair use in previous court cases (Google Books, HathiTrust).
While these cases are in process, we won’t have definitive answers about whether the use of copyrighted works in AI training data is legal.
For more information, see the George Mason University Libraries’ LibGuide, AI and Copyright.
How do I request permission to use electronic or physical copies of copyrighted materials?
Stanford University provides an overview of procedures for contacting and requesting permission from a copyright owner to use a copyrighted work. The first step in securing permission is to identify the copyright owner or owners and contact them to request permission.
See the University of Texas’ Copyright Crash Course web page, Getting Permission, for more information.
The University of Texas at Austin's Copyright Crash Course was originally created with faculty in mind, but can be used by anyone who is interested in understanding and managing their copyrights. The Course was created over fifteen years ago, is updated, stand-alone, and asynchronous.
Why are members of the George Mason University community receiving Stop It Notices about copyright violations?
The University’s Responsible Use of Computer policy forbids users from using Mason resources and networks for copyright violations. Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) of 1998, copyright holders have increased power to enforce their rights against those using their copyrighted materials without a license. The music, television, film and software industries have been particularly aggressive about enforcing their exclusive rights to distribute the works of their artists. Under the DMCA, the university is liable for fines up to $150,000 if it fails to assert its own policy against copyright violations.
How can these outside companies find violations?
Basically, copyright holders (or those acting on their behalf) find violations in the same way infringers find files. Using the same programs and protocols (Gnutella, BitTorrent, etc.): they scan for files. Once they find a shared file, they can track the IP address making the file available. A range of IP addresses is assigned to George Mason University and you are assigned one when you log onto the Mason network. Checking network log files can reveal the user who had a specific IP address when a file was shared or downloaded.
For more information about how the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) finds incidents of music piracy, read How It Does It: The RIAA Explains How it Catches Alleged Music Pirates – The Chronicle of Higher Education
How is having music, tv shows and movies on my computer a violation?
When your music, shows and movies are under the custody of a file-sharing program, anyone can access it and download a copy. This makes you a distributor of copyrighted materials. Under the law, this is illegal unless you have permission from the copyright holder to distribute the materials. As an illegal distributor of content, you are in violation of both US copyright law (Title 17, U.S. Code, §106.), and Mason’s Responsible Use of Computing policy (University Policy Number 1301), which is why the university sends Stop It notices to copyright infringers.
Why do I have to delete the files I previously downloaded?
To comply with copyright law, you should remove all music, television, movie and software programs and files from your system for which you do not have an explicit license that that allows you to distribute these files to others.
Can’t I just “unshare” my files?
In addition to the fact that you have illegally obtained these files, which is comparable to going into a store and stealing a CD, most file-sharing programs are designed to share. Even if you uncheck a program’s sharing option, some programs and files remain visible and can be detected by locator bots.
I received a Stop It notice but I never downloaded anything to my computer. What should I do?
If you have received a Stop It Notice and need to remove filesharing software from your computer, use the instructions for your particular operating system:
What are the alternatives to peer-to-peer and file-sharing programs?
There are many legal alternatives:
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