Copyrightinthe classroom

Copyright in the Classroom

SJR State Libraries

The Copyright Act

The Copyright Act of 1976, along with its amended

provisions, is the basis of copyright law in the United

States.

The Act spells out the basic rights of copyright holders

and the doctrine of “Fair Use.”

Under section 102 of the Act, copyright protection

extends to "original works of authorship fixed in any

tangible medium of expression, now known or later

developed, from which they can be perceived,

reproduced, or otherwise communicated, either directly

or with the aid of a machine or device.“

The 1976 Act preempts all previous copyright law in the

United States.

The Copyright Act

The Act defines "works of authorship" as any of the

following:

literary works;

musical works, including any accompanying words;

dramatic works, including any accompanying music;

pantomimes and choreographic works;

pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works;

motion pictures and other audiovisual works;

sound recordings;

architectural works (added in 1990).

The Copyright Act

The wording of section 102 is significant because

previously copyright protection attached to original

works only when those works were 1). published and

2). had a notice of copyright affixed.

The current Act provides that as soon as you create

an “original” work that is “fixed;” you get copyright

protection automatically.

No longer is a copyright notice on the work required

for protection.

No longer must the work be registered with the U.S.

Copyright Office to be protected.

The Copyright Act

Section 106 granted five exclusive rights to copyright holders:

1. the right to reproduce (copy),

2. the right to create derivative works of the original work,

3. the right to sell, lease, or rent copies of the work to the public,

4. the right to perform the work

5. the right to display the work publicly

The section was amended in 1995 to include a sixth exclusive right—the right to perform a sound recording by means of digital audio.

The Fair Use Doctrine

As amended in 1976, federal copyright law does

provide some limits to an author’s exclusive control

of a copyrighted work.

Section 107 provides that “the fair use of a

copyrighted work, including such use by

reproduction in copies … for purposes such as

criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching

(including multiple copies for classroom use),

scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of

copyright.”

This is what is commonly known as the “Fair Use

Doctrine.”


Section 107 sets out four factors to be considered in

determining whether or not a particular use is fair:

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. amount and substantiality of the portion used in

relation to the copyrighted work as a whole;

4. the effect of the use upon the potential market for

or value of the copyrighted work.


Under the Fair Use Doctrine, using copyrighted

material in a classroom without obtaining prior

permission from the author may be permissible, but

this is not a given.

Determining whether your contemplated use is a “fair

use,” and, therefore, is not copyright infringement,

requires careful consideration of all the factors

relevant to your specific situation.

Even in education, not all uses are fair uses. When

in doubt you should always seek legal counsel or

seek permission from the owner of the copyright.

Educational Fair Use Guidelines

Publishers and the academic community have established a set of educational fair use guidelines to provide "greater certainty and protection " for teachers.

While the guidelines are not part of the federal Copyright Act, they are recognized by the Copyright Office and by judges as minimum standards for fair use in education.

Please note that these guidelines do not apply to copyrighted works for which your institution has already obtained licenses such as electronic journals or databases subscribed to by the library. These works are subject to individual license agreements and will be addressed later.


The educational fair use guidelines apply to material

used in educational institutions and for educational

purposes.

"Educational purposes" means:

non-commercial instruction or curriculum based teaching

by educators to students at nonprofit educational

institutions

planned non-commercial study or investigation directed

toward making a contribution to a field of knowledge, or

presentation of research findings at non-commercial peer

conferences, workshops or seminars.

Adapted from the Stanford Universities Libraries, Copyright and Fair Use Overview

http://fairuse.stanford.edu/Copyright_and_Fair_Use_Overview/index.html


Reproducing Text Materials for In Class Use

The guidelines permit a teacher to make one copy of

any of the following:

a chapter from a book;

an article from a periodical or newspaper;

a short story, short essay or short poem;

a chart, graph, diagram, drawing, cartoon or picture from

a book, periodical or newspaper.




Teachers may photocopy articles to hand out in

class, but the guidelines impose restrictions.

Classroom copying cannot be used to replace texts

or workbooks used in the classroom.

Pupils cannot be charged more than the actual cost

of photocopying.

The number of copies cannot exceed more than one

copy per pupil.

A notice of copyright must be affixed to each copy.





Examples of what can be copied and distributed in class include: a complete poem if less than 250 words or an excerpt of not

more than 250 words from a longer poem;

a complete article, story or essay if less than 2,500 words, or an excerpt from any prose work of not more than 1,000 words or 10% of the work, whichever is less;

one chart, graph, diagram, drawing, cartoon or picture per book or per periodical issue.

No more than one short poem, article, story, essay or two excerpts may be copied from the same author, nor more than three from the same collective work or periodical volume (for example, a magazine or newspaper) during one class term.





Only nine instances of such copying for one course

during one school term are permitted.

In addition, the idea to make copies and their actual

classroom use must be so close together in time that

it would be unreasonable to expect a timely reply to

a permission request.

Teachers may not photocopy workbooks, texts,

standardized tests or other materials that were

created for educational use.




Reproducing Music

A music instructor can make copies of excerpts of sheet music or other printed works, provided that the excerpts do not constitute a "performable unit" such as a whole song, section, movement or aria.

In no case can more than 10% of the whole work be copied

and the number of copies may not exceed one copy per pupil.

Printed copies that have been purchased may be edited or simplified provided that the fundamental character of the work is not distorted or the lyrics altered (or added).

A single recording of a performance of copyrighted music may be made by a student for evaluation or rehearsal purposes, and the educational institution or individual teacher may keep a copy. In addition, a single copy of a sound recording owned by an educational institution or an individual teacher (such as a tape, disc or cassette) of copyrighted music may be made for the purpose of constructing aural exercises or examinations, and the educational institution or individual teacher can keep a copy.




Reproduction of Music

Instructors may not: copy sheet music or recorded music for the purpose of creating

anthologies or compilations used in class; copy from works intended to be "consumable" in the course of study or

teaching such as workbooks, exercises, standardized tests and answer sheets and like material;

copy sheet music or recorded music for the purpose of performance, except for emergency copying to replace purchased copies which are not available for an imminent performance (provided purchased replacement copies are substituted in due course);

copy any materials without including the copyright notice which appears on the printed copy.

If copyrighted sheet music is out of print (not available for sale), an educator can request permission to reproduce it from the music publisher.



Education Fair Use Guidelines

Recording Broadcast Television Programs

Broadcast television is defined as all stations

transmitted without charge to the general public.

Instructors can record television programs

transmitted by broadcast television and these can be

shown in class without copyright holder permission

under the following conditions:



It will be displayed by, or under the direct supervision

of, a faculty member or adjunct professor.

It will be displayed only in the classroom and only to

students enrolled in the class.

It is directly relevant to the teaching content of the

course.

Its copyright notice will be shown or the students will

be informed that the work may be copyright

protected.

No laws were broken in the making or acquisition of

the work.

Additionally --------



The program will only be shown during the 10 school

days following its broadcast.

It will be shown no more than twice in each class.

It will be shown only in one semester.

It will not be edited or manipulated.

Within 45 calendar days of the broadcast, the

recording will be purchased or licensed or the copy

will be erased.

Fair Use & Distance Learning

Up to this point we have covered the statutory

exemptions and established guidelines for

educational fair use of copyrighted materials used in

face to face classroom instruction.

When copyrighted materials, whether text or digital

multi-media, are uploaded to the web the statutory

and established guidelines are more restrictive.

However, the fair use exemption is medium-neutral;

it applies to the use of both print and digital content

alike.


First, it should be noted that posting copyrighted

materials to a website to which the general public

has access (even a course specific website) is a

violation of copyright law.

The following guidelines apply to copyrighted works

presented online through the MySJRstate portal or

Blackboard software which are restricted by

password to students currently enrolled in that

course.

The proceeding guidelines provide guidance for the

use, without permission, of portions of lawfully

acquired copyrighted works.


These guidelines are intended to apply to

educational multimedia projects that incorporate

educators' original material, such as course notes or

commentary, together with various copyrighted

media formats, including motion pictures, music, text

material, and graphics/ illustrations.

The guidelines are voluntary and do not have the

force of law.

If you follow the guidelines, it is highly likely that your

use is fair use.

The newly created work that includes copyrighted

material may only be used for learning activities.


Student Guidelines

Students may incorporate portions of copyrighted

materials when producing a project for a specific

course.

Students may perform and display their own projects

and use them in their portfolio or use the project for

job interviews or as supporting materials for

application to graduate school.


Faculty Guidelines

Faculty may include portions of copyrighted

works when producing their own multimedia

project for their teaching in support of curriculum-

based instructional activities at educational

institutions.

Faculty may use their project for:

assignments for student self-study

for remote instruction provided the network is secure

and is designed to prevent unlawful copying

for conferences, presentations, or workshops

for their professional portfolio


Both educators and students must provide attribution

and acknowledgment of the source of copyrighted

materials

They must include a notice of use restrictions under

copyright law on the opening screen of the program

and any accompanying print material.

For example:

“The materials on this course Web site are only for

the use of students enrolled in this course for

purposes associated with this course and may not

be retained or further disseminated.”


Further the access to the copyrighted materials

should be time limited.

The material should only be available for15 days.

After that15-day period, the material could be put on

reserve for up to two years.

After the two-year period, permission from the

copyright holder would be required.

Educational Fair Use & the Internet

Many people assume that everything posted on the

Internet is public domain.

However, once expression is committed to a tangible

medium (and computer media is considered

tangible), copyright protection is automatic. So,

postings of all kinds are protected exactly as

published printed works.

And are subject to the same fair use exemptions as

all other forms of copyrighted works.

Educational Fair Use & the Internet

In most cases simply linking to another site is not a violation of copyright. However, if the site you are linking to is violating copyright, your link could constitute a further copyright violation.

Copying text, graphics, video or other online content from the Web should be avoided unless the site specifically states that the material may be used.

Use of Creative Commons licenses is growing (www.creativecommons.org).

Using a Creative Commons notice, creators specify the rights conveyed to users — such as to copy, distribute, display, and perform the work, provided attribution is given.

If rights are specified you are required to follow those guidelines.

http://www.creativecommons.org/

Library Online Databases

Unlike other forms of information, the Library’s online

databases are not subject to the Fair Use Doctrine of

the Copyright Law because they are covered by

vendor-specific licensing agreements.

These agreements spell out in detail who may

access the information and how that information can

be displayed.

Our licensing agreements do not allow faculty to

download (save) a copy of an article from one of our

online databases and repost it on your Blackboard

course website or portal page.

Library Online Databases

Many of our online databases offer “persistent links”;

a url which can be used to link students directly to

the article.

Unfortunately, these persistent links only work if

accessed from a college computer.

As a result, the Library encourages faculty who wish

to utilize an article from one of our online databases

to provide students with the database name from

which the article can be retrieved and bibliographic

information such as author and title. Students may

then access the online database and, using the

information you provide, locate the article(s) in the

specific database.

Copyright is the Law

This presentation has provided some broad outlines of both copyright law and the fair use exception.

Please note that there are no hard and fast rules; each instance of “fair use” must be individually measured against the four criteria.

When there is any doubt that your intended use is “fair use” it is the obligation of the user (you) to get legal council or to pursue purchasing the rights to the materials in question through your department.

Nothing in this presentation should be construed as legal advice. These guidelines are simply that and in no way guarantee exemption from infringement.

Sources Used for this Presentation include:

Stanford Universities Libraries, Copyright and Fair

Use Overview

United States Copyright Office

United States Copyright Office, Report on Copyright and

Digital Distance Education

University of Maryland Libraries, Copyright and Fair

Use in the Classroom, on the Internet, and the World

Wide Web

Purdue University Copyright Office, Copyright Basics:

an Overview

Baruch College, Interactive Guide to Using

Copyrighted Material in Your Courses


http://www.copyright.gov/circs/

http://www.copyright.gov/reports/de_rprt.pdf

http://www.umuc.edu/library/copy.shtml

http://www.lib.purdue.edu/uco/CopyrightBasics/index.html

http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/tutorials/copyright/

Sources Used for this Presentation include:

University of North Carolina School of Education,

Fair Use

University of Texas, Fair Use of Copyrighted

Materials

University of Texas, Using Materials from the

Internet

http://www.learnnc.org/reference/fair+use

http://copyright.lib.utexas.edu/copypol2.html

http://copyright.lib.utexas.edu/useofweb.html

Documents

Copyrightinthe classroom