Q. Can I share electronic copies of journal articles received through Interlibrary Loan with other UMD students?

Hello,

Electronic ILL materials are for the requester alone. Downloading the article you requested for your own personal/academic use is accepted as fair use, but further distribution may violate copyright law.

In fact, we do place specific copyright information on the page where your ILL request would be downloaded; it reads: 

"The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted materials. Under certain conditions specified in the law, libraries and archives are authorized to furnish a photocopy or other reproduction. One of these specified conditions is that the photocopy or reproduction is not to be "used for any purpose other than private study, scholarship, or research". If a user makes a request for, or later uses, a photocopy or reproduction for purposes in excess of "fair use", that user may be liable for copyright infringement. This institution reserves the right to refuse to accept a copying order if, in its judgment, fulfillment of the order would involve violation of copyright law."

If the people you want to share the material with are UMD faculty or students, they may also request the same item through ILL (sharing the citation information is fine). These requests will go through our regular copyright clearance procedures.

More Information is available at our Copyright Guide 

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