Are You Legal? Copyright and Fair Use in the Classroom
Making use of other’s works for classroom use can raise questions regarding copyright and fair use. The most common questions usually surround copying articles from journals, images from the web, and excerpts from books. Copyright law gives legal protection to mostly all text, graphics, recordings, and other materials that might be desirable to use in class, even when the works do not include a statement regarding copyright.
Materials may be copied only if:
- The user is the copyright owner of the material
- The copyright owner grants permission
- The material is public domain
- The use of the material is considered a “fair use” under the law
How Does Fair Use Apply in the Classroom?
Fair Use allows limited use of copyrighted work without permission. It is dependent on four factors which include the following.
- 1. Purpose for Use – only classroom use for the purpose of serving the educational needs of students. Students should not be charged any fees specifically or directly related to the materials.
- 2. Nature of Work – only portions of work relevant to educational objectives of the class should be used. Avoid substantial excerpts from written works, art images, and other similar materials.
- 3. Amount of Work Used – materials used in class will usually be limited to brief works or excerpts from longer works and should be directly related to the educational objectives of the class. Questions to consider include: Does the amount used exceed reasonable expectation? Is the work being used more than once? Is the “essence” of a work being used?
- 4. Effect of Use on Potential Market – consideration of whether the use harms the sales of the copyrighted materials must be thorough. The user should include a citation to the original. One needs to consider the availability of materials to students for affordable purchase. In other words, is this putting money in your pocket or taking money from the works’ owner?
Sign up for a Class
For further information, sign up for the CITT class Copyright in the Classroom scheduled for April 1st, 2009.
Resources
For further resources on related topics see below.
- Crash Course in Copyright
- Copyright & Plagiarism in the Classroom (slideshow)
- Common Scenarios of Fair Use Issues: Posting Materials on Course Management Systems
- United States Copyright Office
- Intellectual Property Policy of University of Florida (PDF)
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Tags: Teaching Online, Training and Workshops
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Posted on Thursday, February 5th, 2009.