About Copyright

An important part of the OSCR mission is using technological resources to help students successfully complete their course work. Often, students use multimedia that they've found online to illustrate a concept in a paper, presentation, or project, but find they need guidance on adhering to Fair Use guidelines.

We at OSCR are very concerned about the issues of illegal peer-to-peer (P2P) downloading and copyright infringement. We're not gonna sugar-coat it: illegally downloading copyrighted materials is stealing. Owners of copyrights are very aggressive in their pursuit of violators and The University of Arizona takes it very seriously when there are allegations of illegal file sharing using university networks and computers.

We know the issue is a confusing one with lots of legal gray areas. Please take some time to educate yourself on copyright issues by visiting UA Library's Office of Copyright Management & Scholarly Communication. This webpage provides straightforward, accurate guidance to help you determine what you can legally use and what you should avoid using without first obtaining permission from the copyright holder.

If you're still stumped about whether what you want to do is legal or not, just STOP what you're doing and contact the Office directly at 621.6433. UA staff is very interested in helping you stay out of trouble. Please don't hesitate to ask questions when you're unsure.

Royalty-free Music and Sound Effects for UA Student Projects

UA also has an agreement with Killer Tracks allowing free usage of original music tracks in a variety of styles and genres as long as they're used for coursework or in your portfolio of student work. Simply preview the collection in the "Network Music" catalog at http://www.killertracks.com/launchpage/KillerTracks/ and then use what you need legally and free of charge.

If your project requires sound effects, you may also use Network Music Library's royalty-free sound effects collection. Audio clips are available as MP3 files at http://web.cfa.arizona.edu/soundeffects/.

Music and sound effects are free to use in academic projects for classes and in your portfolio of student work. Visit or call OSCR's Multimedia Learning Lab (621.9404) for more details on how to use these two cool resources!

Where to Get Media Online... Without Breaking the Law!

There are lots of cool sites featuring music, videos, movies, software and more. Many of these sites offer free, legal downloads.

For music:
Amazon MP3
Apple's iTunes Music Store
Napster
Pandora

For the latest, greatest, most comprehensive list of legal music resources, check out this page on the Recording Industry Association of America's website:
http://www.riaa.com/toolsforparents.php?content_selector=legal_music_sites

For movies:
iTunes Store
Hulu
Netflix

Or check out the Motion Picture Association of America's list of great online movie resources: http://www.mpaa.org/piracy_LegalOpt.asp

For free software sponsored by UA go to:
https://sitelicense.arizona.edu