The paper reports on the results of an examination of electronic thesis and dissertation (ETD) copyright policies adopted by tertiary level educational institutes in India. The objectives are to study the institutional copyright policies available in the websites, or elsewhere and understand the intricacies of copy right laws in regard to full text access of digital theses. The author looks at the institutional policy framework by using three questions:

• Who is/are the owner(s) of copyright of ETDs?
• What are the embargo policies and legal considerations for full text access?
• How IPR Laws impact upon availability/access?

It is suggested that knowledge of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) is crucial for librarians, and managers of digital repositories in tertiary level educational institutions (producing a sizable number of digital theses). Therefore, must take initiatives to promote and create awareness amongst academic communities on fair use, ownership issues, protection, and rights about digital theses. The author opined that capacity building amongst stakeholders is important to develop a viable and efficient ETD ecosystem.

On the author:

Maitrayee Ghosh is serving as a university librarian at Mahatma Gandhi International Hindi University, Wardha, Maharashtra. She is the recipient of Fulbright-Nehru post Doctoral fellowship in 2013–14, Canadian Studies Faculty Research Fellowship 2010, ACRC research Fellowship 2007 and Commonwealth Professional Fellowship 2005. She was awarded DANIDA scholarship 2002 to attend IFLA international congress in Scotland; IATUL travel grant 2005 to attend IATUL conference at University of Laval, Quebec City, Canada. She received the sponsorship award from Government of Singapore to attend IFLA 2013 world congress in Singapore. She has authored a large number of articles in international peer reviewed journals.