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Copyright Issues |
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There are many copyright issues that teachers need to know to keep in compliance of the law. Educators used to claim since it was for education they could use it. That is not the case anymore. While I don't claim to be a copyright expert here are just a few issues that many teachers who create websites, presentations, and/or digital stories need to be aware of that I have researched. I am not a lawyer, therefore:
When in doubt, get permission or don't use it.
Copyright slider tool - determine if you need to get permission.
1. "Why can't I just claim 'Fair Use'?"
It is not that simple anymore. Fair use does allow you to use a limited amount of copyrighted material for educational purposes. But ask yourself these questions:
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How much do I want to use?
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Will it deprive the author of money they would have made?
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Is there a non-profit educational purpose to the material I want to use?
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Did the unlicensed use “transform” the material taken from the copyrighted work by using it for a different purpose than that of the original, or did it just repeat the work for the same intent and value as the original?
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Was the material taken appropriate in kind and amount, considering the nature of the copyrighted work and of the use?
If you can honestly answer YES, more than likely fair use is on your side.
This is a great site that lines out the Guidelines of Fair use in an classroom setting.
2. "I found a picture on the Internet. Can I use it if there is not a copyright symbol?
Not everything on the Internet is Free. In fact even if there isn't a © symbol it is still under copyright. Look for a terms of use section of the website. It will tell you if you can use the images from the site. When in doubt write a letter or email to the contact information on the website. Put "permission to use" in the subject line.
3. "How much text, music, or video can I use?"
THERE IS DEBATE ABOUT THIS ISSUE. - While most agree and teach the rules below, it may not necessarily be true. In fact, no where in the law are these rules. I would not treat them as absolute rules, but more a rule of thumb to go by when using material for education.
For text you can use up to 10% or up to 1000 words, whichever is less.
For video you can use 10% or up to 3 minutes, whichever is less.
For music you can use up to
10% but nor more than 30 seconds of an individual piece of music.
(For a song 2 min. 30 seconds, that is 15 seconds (not 23 seconds). 10% of
150 seconds...)
4. "I want to put my student project (web page, presentation, digital story...) on a web site. Can I do that?"
While technically you can that may not be a good idea. Many times students can use copyrighted material for their student projects for school. But when that project is uploaded to the web it now can be seen by an audience outside of the confines of the classroom. Therefore it no longer falls under the definition of fair use. If the student created everything about the project (pictures, video and music), then by all means post it, but make sure to get a Creative Commons License.
Great links describing other copyright issues:
TeacherTube's Copyright page
US Copyright Office
- get it straight from the source
Cyberbee
Copyright and Fair Use Guidelines for Teachers - also a PDF chart you
can download
The Copyright Website
Funny Video about Copyright - Click to download or stream the Fair(y)
Use tale
For intellectual work you create, get a Creative Commons License It's free. It gives you the freedom to let the world know specifically what they can do with the work you create.
Always credit your source:
Noodletools
Citation machine
EasyBib
This page was last updated on
02/27/2009
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.