Over the past few years, as the ANTS team has publicized the project at different conferences and venues, a number of questions have come up regarding copyright and intellectual property issues. Below are some frequently asked questions about copyright, ANTS, and other collaborative projects.

Question: Is it okay to use screenshots of subscription databases or vendor logos in my project?
Answer: ANTS has never been contacted directly by database vendors with orders to cease and desist from using screenshots of subscription database or vendor logos, nor are we aware of any such cases within the profession. ANTS tutorials are developed to elucidate the value and quality of the resource(s) being highlighted, and as such, we believe our tutorials help increase the name recognition and usability of vendor supplied subscription sources (i.e. free publicity for the vendor's products!)

Question: As the creator/author of a tutorial, do I surrender copyright when I submit a tutorial to the ANTS project?
Answer: No, as the creator/author of a tutorial submitted to the ANTS project you retain your rights as the copyright holder. All tutorials submitted to the ANTS project are disseminated under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 license. This license indicates that the creator/author of the work will allow for certain uses of the work so long as the specified criteria are met. As creator/author you may request to have materials removed from the project at anytime.

Question: I work for a for-profit institution which claims copyright for all creative works produced by its employees. Does this mean I cannot contribute to the ANTS project?
Answer: Well, it depends. In this case, you will want to talk to to your supervisors and gain permission first. It is important to note that submitting materials to the ANTS project does not mean you or your institution are surrendering copyright. Instead you or your institution are specifying certain allowable uses of the work under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 license.

In this scenario, as a potential contributor to the project, you may find that the organizational culture at your institution does not favor collaborative, open access projects. You may need to build an argument in your favor that demonstrates the value and necessity of open collaborative library projects as critical to the future success of libraries. To help you build this argument, here are some suggested resources:

• Downes, S. (2007) Models for Sustainable Open Educational Resources. Interdisciplinary Journal of Knowledge and Learning Objects, 3: 29-44.
• Deiss, K. & Petrowski, M.J. (2009, March). ACRL 2009 Strategic Thinking Guide for Academic Librarians in the New Economy. Association of College and Research Libraries. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/ala//mgrps/divs/acrl/issues/value/acrlguide09.pdf
• Guterman, L. (2008, February 12). Harvard Faculty Adopts Open-Access Requirement. Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from http://chronicle.com/article/Harvard-Faculty-Adopts/40447
• Darnton, R. (2008, February 12). The Case for Open Access. The Harvard Crimson. Retrieved from http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2008/2/12/the-case-for-open-access-the/