Educational Fair Use and Copyright

By: Leslie Noel

Picture by: PugnoM

Fair Use...

• is the right to use copyrighted material without permission or payment under certain circumstances

•  is the most important element of the copyright laws in regards to user's rights

• upholds the first amendment•  is situational

Video by: centerforsocialmedia.org/medialiteracy

Code of Best Practices

  The code was created to help educators using media literacy.  It identifies five principles in media literacy education where fair use can be applied.   The five principles were designed to guide your reasoning about copyright laws and fair use in education.

Five Principles

1.Employing Copyrighted Material in Media Literacy Lessons

Educators utilizing media literacy have the right to access materials from the full range of copyrighted sources and make them available to their students in an educational setting.

Five Principles

2. Employing Copyrighted Material in Preparing Curriculum Materials

Educators utilizing media literacy have the right to include copyrighted material into their curriculum.               

Five Principles

3. Sharing Media Literacy Curriculum Materials

Educators utilizing media literacy should be able to share effective materials with each other.

Five Principles

4. Student Use of Copyrighted Materials in Their Own Academic and Creative Work

Educators utilizing media literacy should encourage students to use existing media material in their classwork.

Five Principles

5. Developing Audiences for Student Work

Educators utilizing media literacy should collaborate with their students to determine how widespread their work should be distributed.

Five Principles

The five principles: 

o  can be applied to all forms of mediao  can be applied to institutional settings and non-

school based programso concern the unlicensed fair use of copyrighted

materials for education, not the way those materials were acquired

o  are subject to the "rules of proportionality"

Additional Information

For more information on “free use,” review “Yes, You Can!"  Other professional codes for: Documentary Filmmakers Film ScholarsOnline Video Creators

Creative Commons

• non-profit organization• provides free licenses to people for their creative

works (photos, music, videos, drawings,stories, etc.)• licenses allows an individuals works to be shared,

edited, and expanded upon by the rest of the world •  licenses covers everything that copyright laws cover•  individuals can put conditions on how the public can

use their creative works•  six main licenses are available with four possible

conditions to choose from

Creative Commons

video by: Creative Commons

Four License Conditions

1. Attribution- others may copy, distribute, display, and perform your work, or a derivative of your work, as long as they give due credit  2. Share Alike- others may distribute derivatives of your works under an identical license  3. Noncommercial- others may copy, distribute, display, and perform your work, or a derivative of your work, for noncommercial use only  4. No Derivative Works- others may copy, distribute, display, and perform only exact copies of your work

Six Main Licenses

1. Attribution- most accommodating license  2. Attribution Share Alike  3. Attribution No Derivatives 4. Attribution Non-Commercial 5. Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike 6. Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives- most restrictive license