Copyright and Fair Use in Education
Copyright issues become easier to violate with the development of the Internet and the easy access to digital media. One common sense rule to follow is to always credit your sources and to continue to teach students about plagiarism. Remember anything printed, be it hard copy or digital is copyrighted, whether it is officially filed with the copyright office or not.
Then enters the issue of fair use and copyright. A website that explains these murky issues fairly well is http://www.utsystem.edu/OGC/IntellectualProperty/copypol2.htm
Possibly a most helpful section from this website, relative to fair use, discusses what they call the “Four Factors Fair Use Test”, while still not giving specific guidelines but certainly something that can help you gauge the use of the work. The four questions listed below have qualifying characteristic under each question are from this listed website.
These four factors are:
1.What is the character of the use?
Example: If it is nonprofit or educational then it tends to fall in the realms of fair use. If it is for critical review you need to consider would you be doing this in an educational setting or in a commercial setting? If it is for commercial purposes then fair use would not apply and you should obtain permission to use the work.
2. What is the nature of the work to be used?
Example: Is it fact? Then fair use would be applicable. Is it a mixture of fact and imagination? Then how much is fiction? The fiction is created by someone and thus copyrighted. So which way do you go with this. If it is fiction, then the item is someone’s intellectual property.
3. How much of the work will you use?
Example: A small amount is often considered fair. Whereas a large amount would not be allowed. There are even guidelines that suggest a 10% rule (Baird & Hallett, 1999) such as 10 percent of 1000 words which ever is less.
4. What effect would this use have on the market for the original or for permissions if the use were widespread?
Example: If the first three answers tip towards fair use then I would consider using it under the appropriate amounts guideline. If the original were out of print and other wise unavailable I would use it if it tipped toward the fair use considerations. But if it could take away from the sales of the original the fair use is not applicable.
What you can use in the online classes versus face to face becomes more questionable because you don’t have complete control of your audience.
An advantage of the Internet is that you can reference any website, pointing your students to the material without violating any copyright issues.
In summary, be mindful of copyrights and fair use. Give credit where credit is due. Be as knowledgeable as possible. Consider if it were your material that was being distributed, what would you want to happen? If in doubt don’t use it.
Other articles to reference:
“Copyright Concerns in the Age of Distance Education.”
ERIC Digest.
Such non-print works can be reproduced for the purposes of distance education, but Baird & Hallett (1999) direct faculty to the Fair Use Guidelines created
www.ericdigests.org/2001-3/copyright.htm
“Fair Use Guidelines For Educational Multimedia”
www.utsystem.edu/OGC/IntellectualProperty/ccmcguid.htm
Tags: Copyright
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November 20, 2009 at 6:37 pm
In a time when I am wondering about the future of “common sense,” it is nice to read “One common sense rule to follow is to always credit your sources and to continue to teach students about plagiarism.” This just makes sense to me!
I will offer that as I have presented on the issues of copyright in education/technology, the question does come up a lot about whether we can use copyrighted material in the “online” classroom. Here is what I believe; if we use the materials in the same way we would in a traditional classroom (following those guidelines), we can use them in our “online course” as long as they exist behind the classroom security (e.g., user must be officially enrolled and have a password). It is always a good idea to get written permission when possible.
Great job on this!