For Teachers & Students

Copyright Laws

By: Terri Hall

The Copyright Law (U.S. Code, Title 17) was established to balance the rights of authors, composers, performers and other owners of intellectual property, with the rights of users. Many scholarly and pedagogical uses of music materials are legitimate and vital to preserve and foster creativity and to ensure transmission of cultural heritage in the United States, thus fulfilling this stated need for balance.

What is the Copyright Law?

The exclusive rights which Congress grants under the copyright are:

1. To reproduce a work

2. To prepare derivative works

3. To sell, rent, lease, lend, or otherwise distribute the work

4. To perform the work publicly

5. To display the work publicly, and

6. To publicly perform a work on a sound recording via digital transmission

These exclusive rights are cumulative and may overlap. The exclusive right to perform a work publicly is limited to "literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and motion pictures and other audiovisual works," (17 USC 106(4)) and to sound recordings in the case of digital audio transmissions (17 USC 106(6)).

The U.S. copyright law is contained in the U.S. Code, Title 17. Section 106 lists the exclusive rights, while sections 107-122 cover limitations in the scope of copyright.

Section 107 of the Copyright Law allows for the "fair use" of a copyrighted work for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research. Additional guidelines (H.R. Rep. No. 94-1476, and The United States Copyright Law: A Guide for Music Educators) permit multiple copies for classroom use under certain circumstances.

What is Fair Use?

1. Purpose & Character

2. Nature of Work

3. Amount

4. Market Effect

Four Factors of Fair Use:

Character & Purpose BalanceFavors

Fair Use

Non-ProfitEducational

Personal

Favors Permission

CommercialEntertainment

For Profit

Deciding Factors

Teaching Research

ScholarshipCriticism

CommentaryNews Reporting

FactPublished

FictionUnpublish

ed

Nature of Work

Favors Fair Use

FavorsPermission

Amount

Small Amount

UsedInsignificant to

WorkLarge Amount UsedHeart of the Work

Marketing Effect

Fair Permission

A Lot of Impact

Long Term Use

Licensing/Permissions available

Made Public

Little Impact

Licensing/Permissions unavailable

Copyright infringement is the act of violating any of a copyright owner’s exclusive rights granted by the federal Copyright Act. There are three elements that must be in place in order for the infringement to occur.

1. The copyright holder must have a valid copyright.

2. The person who is allegedly infringing must have access tothe copyrighted work.

3. The duplication of the copyrighted work must be outside the exceptions.

What is Copyright Infringement?

Pay the dollar amount of damages and profits.

Pay all attorneys fees and court costs.

The Court can issue an injunction to stop the infringing acts.

The Court can impound the illegal works.

You will fail your class and/or be kicked out ofschool.

You can go to jail!

Consequences of Infringement:

• Rewriting material in your own words.

• Document sources accurately.

• Ask for permission when necessary.

• Remember the different types of Fair Use.

• Do not make a profit from another person’s work.

Avoid Infringement By:

Text

Up to 10% of a copyrighted work or 1000 words, whichever is less

Poems

• Entire poem if less than 250 words

• 250 words or less if longer poem

• No more than 5 poems (or excerpts) of different poets, from an anthology

• Only 3 poems (or excerpts) per poet

Audio

Up to 10% or 30 seconds (which ever is less) for music.

An exception would be if the song is around 300 years old or after published before Jan. 1923.

Rules For Text and Audio For Teachers & Students

Educators and students must give complete bibliographic information when available.

Educators and students must make the copyright notice and copyright ownership information visible if possible.

Copyright information for pictures can be shown in a separate bibliographic section unless the presentation is for an online class. In this case, the information must be shown on the screen with the image.

Rules for Multimedia for Teachers & Students

• You must get written permission from the owner of the work or from their agent.

• The United States Copyright Office can then issue you a registration certificate for $35.

• If you know the owner personally, you can just ask for their permission.

• http://www.copyright.gov

How to Get Permission?