What Nursing EducatorsNeed to Know About

CopyrightRob Cagna, MA, MSLS, JD, AHIP

DirectorWVU Charleston Health Sciences Library

www.slideshare.net/cagna

What is copyright?

• It’s a balancing act to make sure works are able to be used by others in the future, and to make sure the rights of artists and creators are protected.

Copyright law

In the US Constitution

The Congress shall have Power … To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Tımes to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.

United States Constitution, Article I, Section 8

When not an infringement: fair use

In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include—• (1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use

is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;• (2) the nature of the copyrighted work;• (3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to

the copyrighted work as a whole; and• (4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the

copyrighted work. (US Code, Title 17, §107)

What’s very important in considering fair use1. Transformative usage2. The amount of usage relative to what is needed3. Customs and practices of the creative communities

(From Peter Jaszi’s analysis of Supreme Court cases)

The TEACH Act

•Modernized sections 110 and 112 of the Copyright Act to reflect current usage of materials in distance education, and the use of recorded materials, a little bit…

…but it’s still best to rely on fair use, because it’s hard to qualify for all the elements of the TEACH Act

Automatic copyright

•Works created after March 1, 1989, do not need a copyright notice and do not need to be submitted for copyright consideration to be considered protected under copyright law

Other considerations

• Open access• Governmental documents - usually not problematic to use• Your own publications that you have written: remember your

contract with the publisher trumps copyright law; you have probably turned over your copyright to the publisher

Open access

• Green open access: you’ve archived your final pre-publication article in your institution’s document repository or similar online place• Gold open access: your article is in an open access journal;

you and/or your institution may have had to pay to have it published• Open access usually does not mean the end user has

unlimited rights

Creative Commons

Creative Commons material does not necessarily grant unfettered usage rights

What about photos, drawings, videos, interactive creations, and audio clips, in addition to books and articles?

These all usually are subject to copyright law

Presentations

• Classroom (lecture with Powerpoint)• Live Webinar•Webcast (recorded, asynchronous presentation)• Presentation within the school to faculty• Conference presentation Questions: Are these being transmitted live? And/or are they being recorded? If so, will they be available on the Web to the public, or just to a limited number of people via password protection?

Presentations (continued)

• Conference poster…usually the live presentation is not recorded, but your poster may be online at the conference site…is it available to all or only to conference attendees?• Journal article or book…remember, you probably don’t own

the copyright, but usually the publisher gives you certain author rights.

Take away: best practices

• Use as little as needed (proportionality)• Share only with those needing the content (students, teaching

assistants)•Make sharing somewhat limited (locked, or must go through

institutional ID access)• Credit the creator• Obtain images from a royalty-free place, make your own, or ask

permission• Get permission for extended or extensive usage, or for materials

that were not available at hand in the institution’s library system

Take away: best practices (continued)• Continue to post a copyright notice on every online course• Link to the URL of an article instead of posting a PDF (better yet,

have the student find the article at the library’s database list online; this way they get practice using CINAHL, PubMed, etc.)• For graphics that illustrate nursing models, get the publisher’s

permission or make your own• For survey instruments, always get permission if you would like to

use that instrument for your own research project • Remember contracts usually trump fair use and other copyright

privileges• Read the “Author Permissions” section on a journal’s site

Thank you!

Robert CagnaLibrary DirectorWVU Charleston304-347-1287rcagna@hsc.wvu.eduwww.slideshare.net/cagna