Rights
- For film and television rights, please contact:
The Kohner Agency
9300 Wilshire Boulevard,
Suite 55
Beverly Hills, CA 90212
phone: 310-550-1060 (ext. 207)
e-mail: stephen@paulkohner.com
- For all other rights and permissions including translation, please contact:
fax: (814) 863-1408
814-865-1327
Requesting Permission
For Classroom Use (Course Packs and E-Reserves)For permission to photocopy Press material for classroom use or to place it on electronic reserve, please include:
- title and author of the Penn State Press book or journal article
- page(s) containing the material to be reproduced
- semester and name of course
- approximate enrollment or number of copies to be made
- for e-reserve only: a description of the method of access (password-protected, open access, etc.)
You may also request permission for classroom use through the Copyright Clearance Center.
For RepublicationFor permission to use Press material in another printed or electronic book, please include:
- title and author of the Penn State Press book or journal article
- page(s) containing the material to be reproduced
- title, author, and publisher of the forthcoming book
- format (cloth, paper, other), estimated print run, and publication date of the forthcoming book
- for any e-book: a description of the type (CD, online, etc.)
Because Penn State University holds the copyright to most Press publications, authors of Penn State Press works must still obtain permission before reusing their own material. In virtually all cases, permission is granted free of charge. For permission, please include:
- title of your Penn State Press book or journal article
- page(s) containing the material to be reproduced
- title and any co-authors or editors of your forthcoming book
- estimated print run and publication date of the forthcoming book
Requests are generally answered within one week of receipt, but please allow two to three weeks for a reply. Although we try to accommodate rush requests when necessary, we encourage you to submit your request well in advance of any deadlines.
About PermissionsPenn State University Press is happy to consider requests for use of copyrighted material. Before requesting permission, please check to see:
- Is the material you want to use credited to another source?
We cannot grant permission for third-party material. Check credit lines on the copyright page and the acknowledgements page, in captions, lists of illustrations, footnotes, and endnotes. This is especially important for images: many of the images in our books are from third-party sources, such as museums or historical societies.
- Is it public domain?
- Material in the public domain is not protected by copyright. Some Penn State Press books contain material that is public domain, either because the copyright has expired or because the work was created by the U. S. government. A list of our material that qualifies as public domain may be viewed here .
- Copyright Term and the Public Domain
- Is it covered by fair use?
- Fair use is a vital but complex element of copyright law. The following cases meet our minimum standard for fair use:
- A single line of poetry
- A total of no more than 500 words from one book
- A total of no more than 200 words from a single article of any Penn State Press journal
This list is not exhaustive; other uses may qualify as fair.
- The U. S. Copyright Office on Fair Use
- Fair Use: A Double-Edged Sword by Sanford G. Thatcher
- For additional information on copyright, visit the following sites:
- An excellent introduction to copyright from the University of Chicago Press.
- Copyright Clearance Center
- The U. S. Copyright Office
The following is a partial list of Penn State Press books with a significant amount of public-domain content:
- Darling, Arthur B. The Central Intelligence Agency: An Instrument of Government, to 1950. All of the main text, but not the front matter (except the Author's Preface), chapter introductions, Appendix A, Notes and Index.
- Dock, Julie. "The Yellow Wall-paper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman: A Critical Edition and Documentary Casebook. Text of the original short story is public domain (pp. 27-42).
- James, Henry, edited by John Auchard. Italian Hours. Text of the 1909 Houghton Mifflin edition (pp. 1-320) is public domain.
- Loewenberg, Bert James and Ruth Bogin. Black Women in Nineteenth-Century American Life: Their Words, Their Thoughts, Their Feelings. All of the text of the writings of the women included, but not the front matter, pp. 1-38, the biographical section before each text, or the back matter.
- Montague, Ludwell Lee. General Walter Bedell Smith as Director of Central Intelligence: October 1950-February 1953. All of the main text, but not the front matter (except the Author's Preface) and back matter (Chronology, Notes, Index).
- Moses, Wilson Jeremiah. Liberian Dreams: Back-to-Africa Narratives from the 1850s. The texts of the four original documents are public domain: The Looking Class (Peterson, 1854); Four Months in Liberia (Nesbit, 1855); Four Years in Liberia (Williams, 1857); Five Letters on Liberian Colonization (Washington, 1851-63). Bracketed editorial comments are protected by copyright.
- For the Edinburgh Editions of Thomas Reid, all of the Critical Text (i.e., the actual work written by Reid himself), but not the front matter or any of the editorial apparatus (which varies by volume and includes anything labeled Explanatory Notes, Editorial Principles, Textual Notes, etc.).
- Long, Richard A., and Eugenia W. Collier, eds., Afro-American Writing: An Anthology of Prose and Poetry. All text of the selections originally published before 1923 (consult the Select Chronology in the front matter for the dates of publication), but not the front matter or any of the editors' biographical introductions (set in italic) before each author's writings