Copyright Information is Not Always Free
Like most things in life, good information is not free. Scholar frequently refers searches to publisher websites, where in order to access articles, you need to pay for them. The previous page details how to go about getting articles for no cost, but it is important to realize why Scholar does not give you free access to most of the articles in it.
Publishers do not print magazines just to spread knowledge; they also do it to make money. The time spent gathering, editing, formatting and distributing information costs money, and the way to recoup their costs is to charge for it. Publishers like to use Scholar because it is a convenient way for them to publicize their goods (articles),but their goods cost money. Most of the time, publishers and authors are able to charge for access to materials because of copyright laws.
Copyright allows authors and publishers an amount of time to make money on their products. The laws ensure that if an author puts time and energy into creating something, he has the write to charge for the use of his creation. Copyright usually lasts for 70 years after the death of the author. When you conduct a search about gun control and deaths, 99% of the material you find is probably covered by copyright because the information you are looking for is probably less than 70 years old. There are fair use rules in play for people using copyrighted material for teaching, research and scholarship.
If you are looking for articles and information as part of a school project, you should not have to pay copyright fees. Use the library, we can help you find what you are looking for.
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If you have any questions or problems using Google, finding information, or using the library resources, contact a librarian- we are here to help!