The original home of "Free Culture," libraries rely on copyright law for their very existence. Librarians have been addressing issues around copyright and culture for years, working to make the academic and creative output of the world available to our users. Below, find a collection of resources from the University of Pennsylvania Library about Free Culture. And while you're here, add your own voice to the conversation about Free Culture at Penn by using PennTags to tag resources you find about Free Culture.

As we learned in Lessig's book, there are barriers to access of creative works beyond the strictures of copyright law, including licensing agreements and cost constraints. As a major research university, Penn produces a tremendous amount of valuable, copyrightable content. However, Penn authors often do not keep rights to their work and the University must buy back the work from journal publishers with considerable restrictions on use. This guide describes ways that faculty and other authors can negotiate with journal publishers to maintain some rights to their own works while continuing to participate in the publication of research articles.