copyright

toc =Copyright and Fair Use=

On this page you find information that relates to copyright that is important to teachers. In particular the principle of "Fair Use" of copyrighted material as it relates to student and teacher use in the classroom.

What is Fair Use?
Fair use is any copying of copyrighted material for a limited purpose, such as to comment or criticize the work. Such a use does not require permission from the holder of the copyright. In the classroom how do we determine what "fair use?" There is not a simple test or chart to determine what is fair use. Section 107 of the Copyright Act established in its language four factors to consider:
 * 1) ** Purpose of the Work ** : Copying and using selected parts of copyrighted works for specific educational purposes qualifies as fair use, especially if the copies are made spontaneously, are used temporarily, and are not part of an anthology.
 * 2) ** Nature of the work ** : For copying paragraphs from a copyrighted source, fair use easily applies. For copying a chapter, fair use may be questionable.
 * 3) ** Proportion/extent of the material used ** : Duplicating excerpts that are short in relation to the entire copyrighted work or segments that do not reflect the "essence" of the work is usually considered fair use.
 * 4) ** The effect on marketability ** : If there will be no reduction in sales because of copying or distribution, the fair use exemption is likely to apply. This is the most important of the four tests for fair us.
 * Before using or copying materials for educational purposes, you should consider the following questions: **
 * 1) ** Will the expression or intent of the author/creator be used? ** Will the particular way words are sequenced or a concept is expressed be used? If the answer is "no," the work may be used by the student or teacher. Simply photocopying the work does use the intent or expression of the author.
 * 2) ** Is the expression/rendering protected by copyright? ** If the answer to the question is "no," the work can be used by the student or teacher. There are some works because of age are in the public domain, or there may be other reasons the work is the public domain.
 * 3) ** Will the use go beyond the fair use? ** If the application falls within one of the exceptions listed for fair use, then the material or work may be used. However, certain limitations still apply. 1

If you answered "yes," to the questions above, you need to get the aurthor's permission to use the work. It is a good idea to teach the students to contact the author for permission even in "fair use settings." You do not by merely citing an author's work relieve yourself of any liability related to copyright law. If you own software, music, books, etc... you do not own the copyright, you must still abide what limitations are placed on the work for copy and use.

Sometimes you need to request permission from the author or the creator of the material. When in doubt it is always best to go ahead and ask permission, not to ask forgiveness. Most of the time for legitimate educational use, the author or creator grants use. If you need a sample letter you can go to the University of Maryland University College library resources.



1. Cathy, Newsome. "A Teacher." //Fair Use and Copyright//. 12/2005. Web. 12 Feb 2010. .

Links on Copyright
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Image Resources

 * [|Flickr's Creative Commons Pool]: Browse through the images provided by Flickr users who have chosen to offer their pictures under a Creative Commons license.
 * [|Flickr Free Use Photos] Photo sharing, no attribution necessary
 * Pics4Learning Great teacher and student picture resource
 * [|Openphoto] Free stock images. Use categories on the right to browse or click on //search// in the top bar
 * [|BurningWell]public domain, high resolution photos
 * [|Photos8] public domain photos
 * [|US Government Photos and Multimedia] Most materials is in the public domain
 * [|Library of Congress Photo Stream on Flickr]
 * [|Wikimedia Commons]
 * [|Pics4Learning] Copyright friendly images for education
 * [|Public Domain Pictures] - high resolution photos and illustrations under public domain license
 * [|Great Images in NASA (GRIN) >]
 * [|Images of American Political History]
 * [|National Library of Medicine: Images from the History of Medicine]
 * [|Selected Civil War Photographs]
 * [|US Air Force Link: Photos and Art]
 * [|US Navy Images]
 * [|US Geological Service Photographic Library]
 * [|US Fish and Wildlife Services Images]

Sound Resources

 * [|Open Music Search] Creative Commons, Open Source, and Public Domain works
 * [|Free Sound Effects and Loops] - Free sound effects and music loops .wav files for download
 * [|Free Music Archive]
 * [|BeatPick]
 * **[|Freesound.org]** Sound samples licensed under the Creative Commons Sampling Plus License
 * [|Open Source Audio] from the Internet Archive
 * [|SoundSnap]
 * [|Incompetech Royalty Free Music]
 * [|Partners in Rhyme: Free Music Loops]
 * [|Free Sounds] Digital Audio Tools, Sound Sample Collections, Open Music Resources
 * [|Wikimedia Commons Sound]
 * Findsounds.com
 * Freeplaymusic.com

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