Examples of problems with teacher/school site violations:

• A company’s logo and link on footer of homepage when company is not their business partner—only providing some services.

• Teacher with ad and link for his tutoring business.• Teacher with political messages.• Displaying class codes for online text books.• Teacher with own website displaying student photos

and providing opportunities for other students (or anyone) to enter comments and email addresses.

• Teacher who links to a voting site that collects students’ email addresses and home addresses.

• Teacher mistakenly uploaded XLS file of students’ FCAT scores which was cached by Google before he could get it down.

• Teacher posting copyrighted study materials• School site posting links and ads for yearbook

company and senior class supplies company

The Scope and Nature of Copyright Protection

• The Copyright Act protects all types of expression or authorship fixed in any tangible medium. 

• The Act does not protect the underlying facts or ideas in a copyrighted work -- only the "expression" of those facts or ideas. 

• Works created since 1978 assume protection from the moment the work takes tangible form.

Use of Copyrighted WorkA copyrighted work may be used or copied under certain

conditions: • public domain -- work belonging to the public as a whole--

government documents and works, works with an expired copyright or no existing protection, and works published over 75 years ago;

• permission -- prior approval for the proposed use by the copyright owner;

• legal exception -- use constitutes an exemption to copyright protection--parody, for example; or

• fair use -- use for educational purposes according to certain restrictions. 

Fair Use Guidelines

Instead, the proposed use of a protected work must be evaluated in terms of four statutory factors: (1) the purpose and character of the use; (2) the nature of the work to be copied; (3) the amount of copying; and (4) the effect of the copying on the potential market for or

value of the work.

No single factor is conclusive.

More likely to qualify as a “fair use” if

• The copying is for a “fair use” purpose expressly identified in the Copyright Act: criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research (17 U.S.C. 107).

• The copying is for non-commercial purposes.

• The substance of work to be copied is more factual than expressive.

• Only so much of the work is copied as is necessary to accomplish the “fair use” purpose.

• The copies are limited in number and, with respect to digital copies, distributed in a manner that reduces the risk of infringing uses (e.g., password protected for use by enrolled students during a limited period).

• There is not a “ready market” for the sale or licensing of the work (e.g., the author or publisher is difficult to locate after a good faith search).

• The copying is not a substitute for the purchase of the entire work and would not, if widespread, have an appreciable effect on the market for the sale of the entire work.

• The author and publisher are properly identified (if known).

• The work from which the copies are to be made has itself been legally obtained.

• The work has been published such that copying will not deprive the copyright owner of the right of first publication.

Fair Use Checklist - PurposeFavoring Fair Use• Teaching (including multiple copies

for classroom use)• Research• Scholarship• Nonprofit educational institution• Criticism• Comment• News reporting• Transformative or productive use

(changes the work for new utility)• Restricted access (to students or

other appropriate group)• Parody

Opposing Fair Use• Commercial activity Research• Profiting from the use• Entertainment• Bad-faith behavior • Denying credit to original author

Favoring Fair Use• Published work• Factual or

nonfiction based• Important to

favored educational objectives

Fair Use Checklist - Nature

Opposing Fair Use• Unpublished work• Highly creative

work (art, music, novels, films, plays)

• Fiction

Favoring Fair Use• Small quantity• Portion used is not

central or significant to entire work

• Amount is appropriate for favored educational purpose

Fair Use Checklist - Amount

Opposing Fair Use• Large portion or whole

work used• Portion used is central to

work or "heart of the work"

Favoring Fair Use• User owns lawfully acquired

or purchased copy of original work

• One or few copies made• No significant effect on the

market or potential market for copyrighted work

• No similar product marketed by the copyright holder

• Lack of licensing mechanism

Fair Use Checklist - Effect

Opposing Fair Use• Could replace sale of copyrighted

work• Significantly impairs market or

potential market for copyrighted work or derivative

• Reasonably available licensing mechanism for use of the copyrighted work

• Affordable permission available for using work

• Numerous copies made• You made it accessible on the

Web or in other public forum• Repeated or long term use

Library Exemptions•   The Copyright Act also grants a number of specific exemptions

that generally allow libraries to reproduce copyrighted works in their collections for preservation or security purposes and to reproduce portions of such works for the private study, scholarship or research of library patrons.

• http://assembler.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode17/usc_sec_17_00000108----000-.html -- Cornell University Law School

• DMCA: The Digital Millennium Copyright Act -- http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/wo/woissues/copyrightb/federallegislation/dmca/dmcadigitalmillenium.cfm

MCPS Website Guidelines

• https://www.marion.k12.fl.us/dept/tis/internal/docs//School%20and%20Classroom%20Websites.pdf