If you have determined that your use is not covered by any exceptions (Classroom Use, Fair Use, TEACH) and that the work is not in the public domain, you will need to ask the copyright holder for permission. Columbia University has some very helpful model letters you can use as a template.
When asking for permission:
If you are denied permission or quoted a fee that is unreasonable, remember that being denied doesn't have any impact on fair use. Some people ask for permission as a matter of course and only go to doing a fair use analysis if they are unable to get permission.
Seeking permission can be a long process, but it is necessary when your use is not permitted by any other part of the copyright law. Remember that not all educational uses are fair uses and that attribution is not a substitute for permission, when permission is necessary.
​Sometimes when we want to ask for permission it can be challenging to figure out who owns a copyright. Since copyright is automatic, requires no notice, and can be sold, given away, or otherwise licensed, certain materials may have no notice of copyright, or the notice of copyright that it has is no longer accurate (i.e. when a publisher is acquired by another publisher, or when rights revert back to the original author per a contract).
When the owner is a person
​Try to find contact information by searching for them online. Though your initial conversations might be over the phone or on Facebook, Twitter, or email, you'll still need a formal signed letter of permission for legal purposes. Remember that people often do not own the copyright on their work but instead it is owned by a publisher or other content producer.
When the owner is a company
Look on their website for a permissions or copyright department. Some companies will have copyright permissions operations with a clear process, while others might have little information and you'll have to make contact via their main address.
When you don't hear back
It is pretty common to send a request off and never hear back or to hear back months later. If you do not hear back and your use is really not fair or covered by another exception, unfortunately that material probably can not be used.
This page has been adapted from Copyright Resources at Portland Community College
The relationship between copyright and plagiarism can seem complicated. Plagiarism is about using creative work without attribution, or giving credit; it's using someone else's words (or other creative output) and claiming them as your own. In order to avoid plagiarism we cite sources and provide attribution for quotations and paraphrasing in our work.
Copyright infringement is about using creative work without permission. Copyright infringement happens whenever we use someone else's creative work without their permission. Does that mean that every time we quote someone in our papers we need to ask for their permission? No! This is because the copyright law has a concept called "fair use" built into it. The kind of quoting that you would do in a paper would nearly always be fair use.
So, it is possible to plagiarize without infringing copyright. It is also possible to infringe copyright without plagiarizing.
One of the issues in copyright law is the problem of "orphan works." These are those works where it is difficult or impossible to determine who owns the copyright. The copyright term in the US is long, and copyrights outlive their creators by 70 years. Works by corporate or anonymous authors are covered by copyright for up to 120 years. That is a lot of time for the details of ownership to get lost in the shuffle.
When dealing with an "orphan work," you must decide to either take the risk that a copyright holder might later identify themselves or forgo using the work. It is hard to say how risky a given use could be. If a copyright holder came forward they might insist that you stop using the work, or they may attempt to recover damages.