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Case Writing Office

 

Copyright Permission

To use anyone else’s copyrighted work in a case study, whether published or unpublished, case authors must have the copyright owner’s permission unless the use is deemed to be "fair use."

Student writers employed by the School and research associates are responsible for getting the copyright permissions for their cases. For students writing a case for credit, the CWO will obtain the necessary permissions for the case when student writers submit a copy of the material they are citing with source information and the page from their case in which the material appears.

When is copyright permission required?

To use anyone else’s copyrighted work in a case study, whether published or unpublished, case authors must have the copyright owner’s permission unless the use is deemed to be "fair use."

Fair use allows case authors to quote from other authors’ work and to reproduce small amounts of graphic or pictorial material for purposes of illustration. When you are invoking fair use, transcribe the material accurately and credit the source. (See How do I acknowledge the source of the copyrighted material?)

To determine whether or not the use made of a work in a case study is fair, consider the following:

  • the nature of the copyrighted work
  • the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the whole
  • the effect of the use upon the potential market for, or value of, the copyrighted work
Materials that do not require permission:
  • publications of the U.S. government
  • data from annual reports
  • exhibits in a field case that come directly from the company (not market research firms)
  • material that is compiled or adapted from another source (often a good solution for case exhibits)
  • a chart that has been created by the case authors using data from a source such as an online service
  • a few lines from a book (footnote the material)
  • works in the public domain
  • works in which copyright never existed, or works in which copyright has expired
Materials that require permission:
  • use of charts and graphs from market research firms (Jupiter, Forrester, IDC)
  • use of substantial text or analysis by others (however, no more than 25% of a periodical or journal issue may be copied)
  • an exhibit lifted directly from any other source including websites and screen shots of websites.
How do I request permission?

Send a letter or e-mail to the copyright holder. Refer to the sample copyright permission letter for the content of the communication. Keep the communication of the permission and submit it with the final case to the Case Writing Office. Try to ask for copyright permission as early as you can because replies can be slow and sometimes permission is denied, requiring a change in the exhibit.

Copyright Permissions Contacts

Check this list of contacts for copyright permissions at organizations that the school has obtained permission from in the past.

How do I acknowledge the source of the copyrighted material?

Whether or not the material quoted requires permission, the exact source of the material should be cited—cite the publications from which the material was drawn as well as the company. This can be done three ways: in a footnote in the text, in a source note to a table, or in a credit line under an illustration or the title of the exhibit. (See the "6. Footnotes" section on page 5 of the Style Guide for how to cite the information fully.)

Where formal permission has been granted, the author should, within reason, follow any special wording stipulated by the grantor. Remember that copyright and other proprietary notices must be retained on the materials. For example, for a text passage complete in itself, or for a table or chart, the full citation to the sources can be followed by:

Source: The Wall Street Journal, June 2001. Copyright 2001 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reprinted by permission of Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

For further reference: