Copyright and Fair Use in the Classroom for IMPACT Grant

Participating Teachers.

Is copyright a little fuzzy?

Mr. Jones has a computer program at home that he thinks the students in his class will benefit from. He brings in the program and

installs it on all three computers in his classroom. Because the program is for use by students and has met the spontaneity test, he concludes that this is legal under

the Fair Use doctrine. Is it?

Yes No

What is Copyright Law?

Copyright is a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States (title 17, U. S. Code) to the

authors of “original works of authorship,” including

literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works.

Protection is available to both published and unpublished works.

What is Copyright Law?

Technology makes it easy to:

Copy

Use and Share

Modify and Repurpose

Excerpt & Quote From

Distribute

Copyright Rights

• Reproduce the work in copies or phonorecords

• Prepare derivative works based upon the work

• Distribute copies or phonorecords of the work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending

Copyright Rights

• Perform the work publicly, in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and motion pictures and other audiovisual works

• Display the work publicly, in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and pictorial, graphic, or sculptural works, including the individual images of a motion picture or other audiovisual work

• Perform the work publicly (in the case of sound recordings*) by means of a digital audio transmission

Popular Copyright Myths

If I only use a part of the image I don’t need permission.

If I don’t profit from it, I can use it

If I alter the image I don’t need permission

All educational use is fair use

If there is no copyright notice, I can use the image

If it’s on the internet it is in the public domain and therefore free

Copyright Tips

Limit use of copyrighted materials to

your classroom

Give proper credit

When in doubt, get permission

Assume it’s copy written!

Copyrightable Works

• Literary, musical and dramatic works• Pantomimes and choreographic works• Pictorial, graphic and sculptural works• Sound recordings• Motion pictures and other AV works• Computer programs• Compilations of works and derivative works• Architectural works

What is not copyrightable

Ideas, procedures, methods, systems, processes

Titles, names, short phrases, slogans

Facts, news, research

Works in the public domain

•Works created by US government employees

•Works with expired copyrights

Fair Use

Educators may use copyrighted materials within their own classrooms without express permission from the copyright owner.

Guidelines for Fair Use

Fair use is analyzed using four factors:

• Character of the Use

• Nature of the material to be copied

• Amount and importance of the part copied

• Effect on market for permissions

Educational Exemptions

Classroom or face-to-face teaching

TEACH – Distance Education

Disclaimer

Only guidelines

Exceeding these may or may not be

fair use

The bigger the

excess, the bigger the risk

Video

Off Air

•Show the tape within 10 days, keep it for 45 days, then erase it.

Rented Videos

•They should be used to meet your instructional goal.

TV Shows

•They can be duplicated, circulated, and kept for one year.

Video Portions for Educational Use

•10% or 3 minutes, whichever is less, with proper attribution.

Backup copies may be made for archival purposes or to replace lost

or damaged copies.

Music

You may copy up to 10% of a copyrighted

musical composition as

part of a multimedia project

for educational purposes.

The length of a musical

composition is sometimes cited as

30 seconds.

SoftwareSoftware: You may make one backup

copy.

Multiple copies are not allowed.

You may not make one copy for home and one for school.

You may not make copies for a friend.

You may not transmit software through a network

unless it’s freeware.

Print Materials: Single Copies

You may copy a chapter from a book.

You may copy an article from periodical or newspaper.

You may copy a short story, essay, or short poem.

You may copy a chart, graph, diagram, cartoon,

picture from a book, magazine, newspaper.

No consumables may be duplicated.

You may not substitute copies for books.

Print Materials: Multiple Copies

Spontaneity: If it is used immediately after it is

copied and not again, you may copy it.

3 per class from collective

works, excluding newspapers are

permitted.

Copying from Books, Periodicals

• Teachers may make a transparency from a book or periodical for classroom use.

• Teachers may copy materials and put them on reserve at the library if the use is spontaneous and is for educational purposes and does not violate the fair use guidelines.

• A short story may be copied in its entirety if it meets the criteria of brevity and was an inspiration of the teacher for a unit she was planning (she did not anticipate using the story ahead of time); she cannot use the copied story the following semester.

Internet• The same restrictions apply as for text,

recorded sounds, and images.

• Always credit the source of your information.

• Find out if the author has instructed you on how his work is to be used. If instructions exist, follow them.

• Whenever possible, ask the owner of the copyrighted work for permission to use his work and keep a written copy for your records.

Copyright vs. Plagiarism

Copyright a legal right that protects original

works

Plagiarism passing off

someone else’s work as one’s

own

Creative Commons

Offers tools to give everyone from individual creators to large

companies and institutions a simple, standardized way to keep

their copyright while allowing certain uses of their work.

Uses Creative Commons licensing to allow the sharing

of images.

People can upload images and decide

how they want them to be used by others.

The Internet

• A teacher gets clip art and music from popular file-sharing sites, then creates a lesson plan and posts it to the school Web site to share with other teachers. This is permissible.

– True False

False

• Legitimately, acquired material can be used in classrooms.

• However, under the current law, no teacher can redistribute such material over the Net or any other medium.

• You can use it, but you can’t spread it around.

Video

• A history class videotapes the Holocaust survivor who lives in the community. The students digitally compress the interview, and, with the interviewee’s permission, post it on the Web. Another school discovers the interview online and uses it in their History Day project. This is fair use.

– True False

True

• That’s the other side of fair use.

• Just as you can use other people’s intellectual property for educational purposes without permission, so can your own be used.

Video

• On Back-to-School night, an elementary school offers child care for students’ younger siblings. They put kids in the library and show them Disney VHS tapes bought by the PTA. This is permissible.

– True False

False

• Video (like everything else) is not covered under fair use for entertainment or reward.

• Disney will sell you a one-time license for $25 that makes this legal use.

For more information please address all

correspondence to:

Robert R. Heinrich

Director of Academic Computing

The Richard Stockton College of NJ

609-626-6039

Email: robert.heinrich@stockton.edu