Copyright Law for Educators

Oluwakemi Chima

The Congress shall have Power…To promote the progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Rights to their Respective Writings and Discoveries.

-- Article 1, Section 8, Clause 8

Copyright and the Constitution

Copyright and its Purpose

Copyright A legal protection for the authors of “original works of authorship,” including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works.PurposeTo promote creativity, innovation and the spread of knowledge

Rights of the Copyright Owner

• Make and distribute copies of the work• Perform the work publicly (such as for plays,

film, or music)• Display the work publicly (such as for artwork,

or material used on the internet /television)• Make “derivative works” (including making

modifications, adaptations or other new uses of a work, or translating the work to another media).

Copyright Infringement

A violation of any of the exclusive rights of copyright including but not limited to:• Reproduction or use of whole or part of

someone else’s work without permission• use beyond the scope of a license• adapting an image without permission• asking another photographer to recreate the

image.

Penalties for Copyright Infringement

• Fines from $750 to $30,000 per infringement, up to $150,000 for willful intent

• Fines of $250,000 and up to 5 years in prison for private or commercial gain

• Monetary damages(actual damages; profits)• Attorney’s fees and costs• Destroying infringing copies and

machinery/equipment used to produce them

Example of Copyright Infringement

This image was created by a computer graphics artist who “borrowed” images from several sources.

These are the two images that were infringed upon to create the Newsday cover.

What is Fair Use?

• An important limitation and exception (teachers and students included) to the exclusive right granted by copyright law to the author of a creative work•Limited reproduction of copyrighted material for educational and research purposes such as commentary, criticism, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), research, library archiving, scholarship, or parody

Conditions of Fair Use

• Purpose and character of the use: commercial vs. educational, transformative vs. reproductive

• Nature of the copyrighted workfictional or factual, the degree of creativity

• Amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole• Effect of the use upon the market(current and potential) for, or value of, the copyrighted work•Transformative use such as parody

You tube video on fair use

Examples of Fair Use

• Reproduction by a teacher or student of a small part of a work to illustrate a lesson

• Quotation of short passages in a scholarly or technical work

• Class studying an artist using samples to critique and analyze his/her work

• Making a collage for a school project• Manipulating an image to learn Photoshop or

other software.

Not fair use

• Using a copyrighted image in a multimedia presentation to the class, and posting that presentation to the web.

• An English class giving a public performance of a play as they just studied

• A teacher copying 11 out of 24 pages in an instructional book when it was used in subsequent semesters without permission from the copyright holder

OTHER COPYRIGHT CONSIDERATIONS

The Classroom Use Exemption

• You must be in a classroom ("or similar place devoted to instruction").

• Be there in person, engaged in face-to-face teaching activities.

• Be at a nonprofit educational institution. If above conditions are met, instructors and students have broad rights to perform or display any works such as movies and music for their students (provided copies are legitimate).

Multimedia Considerations

• Are the uses for educational purposes in a non-profit educational institution ?• Have portion limitations been adhered to ?• Up to 10% or 1,000 words of a copyrighted text work. • Up to 10%, but not more than 30 seconds, of music and lyrics from an individual

musical work.• Up to 10% or three minutes, of a copyrighted motion media work.• No more than 5 images by the same artist, 10% or 15 images from a published

collective work.• Up to 10% or 2,500 fields or cell entries from a copyrighted database

• Have the appropriate sources been credited and copyright notice displayed?

•Is it fair use?

Take Note !

• The fair use of copyrighted material in multimedia projects lasts for two years only. After two years, obtain permission before using the project again (Lehman, 1998, p. 53).• Only two copies of an educational multimedia project may be made, only one of which may be placed on reserve.

Someone else’s Words

• You can use a short piece (quotation) from someone else's work, but it cannot be the most important or identifiable part of the whole work.

• Use quotation marks around the words and acknowledge the source.

• Up to 10% or 1000 words, of a copyrighted work consisting of text material may be reproduced or incorporated as part of an educational multimedia project

Musical score

• Up to 10% of the music from a musical work may be reproduced or otherwise incorporated as a part of a multimedia project

• A single copy of a sound recording may be made for the purpose of constructing aural exercises or examinations

• Any alterations to a musical work shall not change the basic melody or the fundamental character of the work.

• Include the copyright notice which appears on the printed copy.

Off-air Recording

• Only programs broadcast to the general public may be recorded .

• The classroom teacher should ask the school to record it (home recording may be permitted)

• The recording may not be altered in any way and the copyright notice must be included

• The recording may be shown during the 10 consecutive school days and later on for evaluation purposes only. Destroy tape 45 calendar days later.

• Note: These guidelines are not the law, fair use conditions still need to be applied

Licensing

Licensing is also known as getting permission• Determine if permission is needed.• Identify the owner.• Identify the rights needed as it relates to

exclusivity, term, and territory• Contact the owner and negotiate whether

payment is required.• Permission agreement should be in writing

and should clearly describe the scope of what you are being permitted to do

Posting to a Website-Guidelines

• Assume all works are protected by copyright unless otherwise stated

• Read click-wrap agreements for terms and conditions.

• Remove any unauthorized material immediately

• Investigate claims promptly• When in doubt, seek written permissionNote: You do not need permission for a regular

word link to another website’s home page

Conclusion

You have Rights but when in Doubt,

Seek Permission !

Bibliography

Copyright Education User Rights, Section 107 Music Video - YouTube [Video]. (n.d.). In YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. Retrieved October 3, 2011, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tWhKeb-fUQ

Copyright Overview. (2009). Purdue University Libraries. Retrieved October 3, 2011, from http://www.lib.purdue.edu/uco/CopyrightBasics/index.html

Copyright Law: Chapter 5. (n.d.). U.S. Copyright Office. Retrieved October 3, 2011, from http://copyright.gov/title17/92chap5.html

The Copyright Crash Course. (2007). Copyright Crash Course. Retrieved October 3, 2011, from http://copyright.lib.utexas.edu/

PACA: Document Library - Copyright Education: PowerPoint Presentation. (n.d.). PACA: Picture Archive Council of America. Retrieved October 3, 2011, from http://www.pacaoffice.org/copyrightPresentation.shtml