Copyright Essentials

**All information in the following section was adapted from Central Missouri State University's DMCA web site.**

Congratulations! You are an intellectual property owner! Under U.S. and international law, any postcard you sent someone, your scribbled grocery list, and even recordings of your midnight snores have enforceable protection as copyright or other intellectual property rights.

Warning! Other people have these rights too. They can sue for infringement or can require embarrassing recall of infringing materials. They have these rights whether the material is on the Internet or on paper, whether distribution is limited or wide, whether the expression is printed words, or pictures, or sound. Generally, owning an object or having one right does not give you other rights.

If you provide materials by means of Lowell Telecommunications Corporation (LTC) equipment or network connections, LTC as your service provider may have obligations to take down your materials if LTC receives a claim of infringement. LTC may exercise additional disciplinary measures for repeated or flagrant misuse. This process includes recourses to make counter-claims and appeal.