|
Copyright Policy Links:
Instructional Use of
Copyrighted Materials
Why Should I Read
These Guidelines?
“Fair
Use”
Copyright
Law and
Electronic Materials
Copyright
Permission
General Information
A Limited Exemption
The Fair Use Statute
(Requires Adobe
Reader) |
|
 |
Copyright Policy
Fair Use
General Information about Fair Use
Copyright law protects certain exclusive rights of copyright
holders for a set period of time, including the following
rights: copying their works, making derivative works, distributing
their works,
and performing their works.
These rights exist from the moment a work is created, whether
or not a copyright notice appears on the work. It is always
best to assume that the provisions of copyright law protect materials
being
used for instructional purposes, unless the materials are explicitly
identified as belonging in the public domain. In using copyrighted
materials for instructional purposes, even under “fair use” guidelines,
it is always wise to acknowledge the copyright owner in a very
clear way. Academic honesty and its negative, plagiarism, are not
issues
of fair use. Academic honesty requires citing others’ ideas.*
A Limited Exemption
Copyright law does allow limited copying, distribution,
and display of copyrighted works without the author's permission,
under certain conditions known as “fair use.”
The Fair Use Statute
The following is the full text of the fair use
statute of the U. S. Copyright Act.
Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976. Limitations
on exclusive rights: Fair Use
Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and
106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by
reproduction
in
copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified in
that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news
reporting,
teaching
(including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship,
or research, is not an infringement of copyright.
But note that the concept of “fair use” provides limited
exemption, and does not encompass wholesale copying and distribution
of copyrighted work for educational or any other purpose, without
permission.
Copyright law does not specify the exact limitations
of fair use. Instead, the law provides four interrelated standards
or tests,
which must be applied in each case to evaluate, whether the
copying or
distributing falls within the limited exemption of fair use.
Here are the four standards:
-
The purpose and character of the use.
Duplicating and distributing selected portions of copyrighted
materials for specific educational purposes falls within
fair use.
-
The nature of the copyrighted work.
The characteristics of the work help determine the application
of fair use. For example, works built on facts and published
materials may have a better claim to fair use than imaginative
and unpublished
works. Commercial audiovisual works and consumable "workbook" materials
are subject to less fair use than many printed materials.
-
The amount and substantiality of the portion used
in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole
Copying extracts that are short relative to the whole work
and distributing copyrighted segments that do not capture
the "essence" of
the work are more likely to be considered within fair use.
-
The effect of use on the potential market for or
value of the work.
If copying or distributing the work does not reduce sales
of the work, then the use may be considered fair. Of the
four
standards, this is arguably the most important test for
fair use.
Further material on Fair Use is available from the library,
which maintains reference sources on copyright and its
current legal
status.
Currently the following Web sites provide up-to-date
and useful information. (Additions
and deletions
will be made as these become inactive or new resources
become available.)
-
Fair-use guidelines from the Consortium for
Educational Technology in University Systems (CETUS)
-
Columbia University Libraries. Copyright Advisory Office.
Kenneth D. Crews, legal consultant on copyright to the American
Library Association, has moved to Columbia University and
the content of the IUPUI site has largely been recreated here.
-
Copyright and fair-use guidelines from Stanford
-
University of Texas System. Crash Course in Copyright
-
U.S. Copyright Office
-
Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States
This table provides a detailed itemization of whether publications are copyrighted or in the public domain depending on their type and/or their publication date.
-
Creative Commons (creating
works in the Public Domain)
-
University System of Georgia
-
© (Copyright)
Primer (University of Maryland)
Tutorial introduction to copyright for the higher education
community which includes a quiz on major concepts.
* For more information on plagiarism see Robert A. Harris. The
Plagiarism Handbook.
(Los Angeles: Pyrczak Publisher, 2001).
‹ ‹ Previous | Next › ›
|
|
