If you determine that your use of copyrighted material does not qualify as fair dealing, you will need to ask permission from the copyright holder to use the material. It is best to contact the copyright holder via email or mail so there is a written record of the request, if you receive permission verbally please follow up with a confirmation email so we can keep proof that permission was granted.
Before you ask permission, you should try to identify the copyright holder of the work. This is usually the original creator of the work, however in academic publishing the publisher usually holds the copyright, and may grant copyright permission. If you wish to use material from an academic journal, start by checking the publisher website, and see if they have a copyright permission process for you to follow.
If you are asking permission from an individual or organization that does not have their own copyright process, you should draft a permission letter. This permission letter should include the following information:
An example of a copyright permission letter:
Hello,
I am a library technician at North Island College Library, on Vancouver Island BC. Our library has put together an online guide promoting the book “21 Things You May Not Know about the Indian Act”, and we would like to ask permission to use the images from your Meme Project (https://www.ictinc.ca/indian-act-art) as part of this guide. This guide is available on the Library’s webpage which is freely accessible by the public, so our use of these images would be non-commercial in nature. We would provide a full attribution to the original artist of the work as well as the Meme Project, and the images would not be adapted or altered. We do not currently have an end date for when this guide will be taken down, so we are seeking permission to use them on an ongoing basis.
We understand that the meme project uses artwork from a variety of artists and that these artists maintain copyright of the original images. We are wondering if your arrangement with the original artists allows these images to be shared and used in the manner outlined above? If so, would you be willing to allow us to use these images in our guide? If you would like to see our guide, you can view it here: https://library.nic.bc.ca/21things/intro
Thank you for your consideration