pictures in theses

I believe there was discussion about this issue at least a year ago. If there was agreement, it was not apparent. For decades, masters and ph.d students have illustrated their theses with illustrations. These have most often come from books. The thesis are generally produced in 2, or more, copies. One or two copies must be given to the library of the degree-granting institution.

The question came up of whether students could use images from books, which are copyrighted, in their theses. The fact the University Microfilms will produce microfilms of certain theses moves the thesis from a clearly unpublished scholarly writing much closer to quasi-published.

My question is whether students can continue to images from books in their theses without having to get written permission from the copyright holder, as in the past, or whether they must now obtain permission. It is my understanding that Fair Use protects this type of use.

Please comment.

Now to make it a little more complicated: should they obtain written permission from a commercial vendor of an image? My feeling is yes, they should.

Without any input from copyright attorneys and fellow librarians I would advise the student who came to see me to use the images from books but to obtain permission from the commercial vendors.

Maryly Snow
UC Berkeley
Architecture Slide Library
slides[_at_]ced.berkeley.edu Received on Wed Nov 23 1994 - 22:06:41 GMT