Fair Use in Education

Notes: As educators, we need to understand the implications of fair use in our own practices and as it applies to our students' projects. Otherwise, we might find ourselves on the wrong end of a lawsuit. And let's face it, we don't make nearly enough money in our field to afford something like that. Jason B. Ohler (2013) coined the acronym "UOPS" (Using Other People's Stuff), pronounced "YOU-ops," as a means for discussing fair use in layman's terms (p. 246).

Notes: This presentation will cover (1) what is protected under copyright law, (2) what copyrighted material may be used by educators under fair use, (3) the four-factor test used to determine if a particular use of copyrighted material is covered under fair use, (4) the creative commons license, (5) unprotected works, and (6) free media resources for educators.

 

Notes: Copyright law prohibits certain uses of another person's creative work, and basically any original creative work produced in tangible form is protected under US copyright law, without it even having to be registered or marked, to include "poetry, movies, CD-ROMs, video games, videos, plays, paintings, sheet music, recorded music performances, novels, software code, sculptures, photographs, choreography, and architectural designs" (Stim, "Copyright Basics," n.d.). However, neither the facts nor the underlying creative ideas of a copyrighted work are covered under copyright law, as long as the borrower of the facts or ideas puts them into his or her owns words. (Stim, "Copyright Basics," n.d.). 

Notes: In general...

• Works published after 1977: 70 years after the death of the author
• Works published after 1922 but before 1978: 95 years after the publication date
• Works published before 1923: in the public domain and, therefore, not under copyright (Stim, "Copyright Basics," n.d.)

Notes: Fair use is the legal use of copyrighted material for a limited number of purposes, including commentary, criticism, and parody (Stim, "What is Fair Use?" n.d). The 1961 Report of the Register of Copyrights on the General Revision of the U.S. Copyright Law lists several uses that courts have ruled as fair use. Among the examples of fair use listed, the following three would to apply to educators :

1. "quotation of excerpts in a review or criticism for purposes of illustration or comment"
2. "quotation of short passages in a scholarly or technical work, for illustration or clarification of the author's observations"
3. "reproduction by a teacher or student of a small part of a work to illustrate a lesson" (as cited in U.S. Copyright Office, n.d., para. 5)

Notes: Use these four factors to help determine whether or not your intended use is fair use.

• Factor 1: Acceptable uses include criticism, commentary, news reporting, parody, repurposing, nonprofit, educational, and personal use (when not restricted by licensing).
• Factor 2: Factual material and published material is more likely to be acceptable for fair use than is imaginative material and unpublished material.
• Factor 3: Acceptable is a small amount (e.g., one chapter or 10%) or just enough for your transformative purpose.
• Factor 4: If licensing is involved, the intended use must not be such that your product would make it unnecessary for an audience to purchase the original. (Harper, 2012)

 

Notes: Creative Commons "enables the sharing and use of creativity and knowledge through free legal tools" (Creative Commons, n.d.). It effect, a Creative Commons license specifies exactly which uses are acceptable as registered by the creator. File sharing and media sites that support Creative Commons licensing by displaying which uses of the material are acceptable to the creator include Flickr, YouTube, Google Images, Wikimedia Commons, Open Clipart Library, and others. Essentially, the Creative Commons license makes it easier for borrowers of material to determines exactly which permissions the creator has set.

Notes: Unprotected works include works that lack originality/creativity (such as compilations of facts and figures; e.g., the phone book), works in the public domain (e.g., works published before 1933 or whose copyright has expired), U.S. Government works, facts, ideas, processes, methods, and systems (Harper, 2012).

Notes: "Wikimedia Commons is a media file repository making available public domain and freely-licensed educational media content (images, sound and video clips) to everyone" (Wikimedia Commons, 2014). The site is set up similar to Wikipedia and contains "22,899,549 files and 117,791 media collections" (Wikimedia Commons, 2014) available for free download.

Notes: Use common sense. But when in doubt, ask your school district's legal representative. Respect other people's work, and always do the right thing—even when no one is looking.

Links

Fair Use of Copyrighted Material
Copyright Basics
What is Fair Use
Fair Use
Wikimedia Commons
Creative Commons