Copyright Defined

Copyright is the legal protection provided to a creator for his or her work - books, videos, magazine articles, paintings, illustrations and cartoons, even e-mail messages.

Rights of the Owner

The copyright holder has the right to reproduce the work in copies, make derivative or modifications of the work, distribute the work to the public, as well as publicly perform or display the work.

Fair Use

Fair Use provides certain rights to educators. Each of the following four factors must be considered in determining Fair Use: purpose and character of the use, nature of the copyrighted work, amount and substantiality of the material used, and the effect of the use on the potential market.

Fair Use Test

Brevity - the relative amount copied, should be brief. Spontaneity - the inspiration and decision did not allow time to write for copyright permission. Cumulative effect - the combination of small uses that amount collectively to such a proportion that economic is done.

Guidelines for Classroom Copy

Poetry - a complete poem, if less than 250 words or an excerpt of not more than 250 words. Article, story, essay - less than 2,500 words, if complete: 1,000 words or 10%, if an excerpt. Chart, graph, diagram, drawing, cartoon, or picture - 1 per book or periodical. Picture books - 2 published pages or less than 10 of a work.

Rights of the Educator - Audiovisual Materials

Educators can display a perform audiovisual materials if all these conditions are met:

• Shown as a part of an instructional lesson and written into the lesson plan
• Shown by students, instructors or guest lecturers
• Shown in a classroom or other school location devoted to instruction
• Shown in a face-to-face setting
• Shown only to students or educators
• Shown, using a legitimate copy

Multimedia Guidelines

The guidelines specify limits on the use of the copyrighted materials for multimedia productions. Typical portion limits are as follow:

• Motion media - up to 10% or three minutes, whichever is less
• Text - up 10% or 1,000 words, whichever is less
• Music - up to 10% or 30 seconds, whichever is less, of the music and lyrics
• Photos and images - up to five works from an author; up to 10% or 15 works, whichever is less, from a collection

Video

Off-air recordings - may be freely taped from regular broadcast channels (but not from those which charge a fee), following these guidelines:

• Made only at the request of and used by individual teachers
• Retained for a period not to exceed the first 45 consecutive calendar days after the recording
• Used only once by individual teachers in the course of relevant teaching activities (and repeated once, only when instructional reinforcement is necessary)
• Used only for teacher evaluation purposes after the first 10 days
• Copy right notice is included
  Rented or purchased videos:
• Must be used in face-to-face teaching
• Used only in the classroom or similar place of instruction
• May not be sued for recreational entertainment