Do I need to ask permission to use another person's work in my thesis or dissertation?
Answer
Maybe. Copyright law includes certain allowances for using another's work without seeking explicit permission, including works in the public domain, works with licenses that grant permission without request, and usage that is considered to be fair use. Every instance of another's work you use will need to be evaluated. If the work is not in the public domain and does not have a license that allows you to use the work, you will need to evaluate each portion you use to determine if it can be included under fair use.
More information about performing these evaluations can be found in UC Berkeley's excellent guide on copyright and dissertations.
You should also consider consulting Columbia's fair use checklist.
Please contact your program administrator or Library-Repository-Team[@]northeastern.edu for help making fair use determinations.