Obtaining Permission Directly from the Copyright Holder
Plan ahead when requesting copyright permission directly from the copyright holder. It may take several weeks—or even longer—to identify and locate the copyright holder and to receive a reply to your request.
For most print and online publications, the publisher is usually the copyright holder.
If a copyright holder is deceased, contact the executor of his estate.
At the minimum, your permission request should include the following:
- Your name, address, telephone number and e-mail address
- Your title, position and institution's name
- The date of your request
- The title of the work to be copied with a description and citation of that work
- A description of how the work is to be used, by whom and for how long
- A signature line for the copyright holder to sign, signifying that permission has been granted
It is important to note that a lack of response from the copyright holder does not, under U.S. law, convey permission. In addition, some works may contain materials—text, images and graphics—from multiple copyright holders and may require separate authorization from each one. Also, simply acknowledging the source of content is not a substitute for copyright permission.
