Copyright & Fair Use
What is Copyright?
According to the United States Copyright Office website, copyright is
a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States (title
17, U. S. Code) to the authors of “original works of authorship,”
including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other
intellectual works. This protection is available to both published and
unpublished works. Section 106 of the 1976 Copyright Act generally gives
the owner of copyright the exclusive right to do and to authorize others
to do the following:
• To reproduce the work
• To prepare derivative works based upon the work
• To distribute copies (including by transmission through the
internet) of the work to the public by sale or other transfer of
ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending
• To perform the work publicly, in the case of literary, musical,
dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and motion pictures
and other audiovisual works
• To display the work publicly, in the case of literary, musical,
dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and pictorial,
graphic, or sculptural works, including the individual images of a
motion picture or other audiovisual work
• In the case of sound recordings, to perform the work publicly by
means of a digital audio transmission.
What is Fair Use?
According to the United States Copyright Office, fair use means that
copyrighted material can legally be used in reasonable and limited
quantities if it is for educational purposes and not intended for
re-publishing or profit. These guidelines allow for certain copyrighted
material to be used without permission of the owner of the copyright.
Fair use guidelines set specific percentages of work that are allowable
but only when used for face-to-face instruction or educational projects.
The U.S. Copyright Office notes on its website that the distinction
between ‘fair use’ and infringement may be unclear because there is no
specific number of words, lines, or notes that may safely be taken
without permission. Four factors should be considered in determining
whether or not a particular use is fair:
1. The purpose and character of the
use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for
nonprofit educational purposes
2. The nature of the copyrighted work
3. Amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the
copyrighted work as a whole
4. The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of
the copyrighted work.
Fair Use in Education - Copying Guidelines
The purpose of the following guidelines, which appear in the US
Copyright Office Circular 21 along with guidelines for music, images,
and other information formats, is to state the minimum standards of
educational fair use under Section 107 of H.R. 2223. The parties agree
that the conditions determining the extent of permissible copying for
educational purposes may change in the future; that certain types of
copying permitted under these guidelines may not be permissible in the
future; and conversely that in the future other types of copying may not
permitted under these guidelines may be permissible under revised
guidelines.
Moreover, the following statement of guidelines is not intended to limit
the types of copying permitted under the standards of fair use under
judicial decision and which are stated in Section 107 of the Copyright
Revision Bill. There may be instances in which copying which does not
fall within the guidelines stated below may nonetheless be permitted
under the criteria of fair use.
I. SINGLE COPYING FOR TEACHERS
A single copy may be made of any of the following or any part thereof by
or for any faculty or staff member at his or her individual request:
A. A chapter from a book;
B. An article from a periodical or newspaper;
C. A short story, short essay or short poem, whether or not from a
collective work;
D. A chart, graph, diagram, drawing, cartoon or picture from a book,
periodical, or newspaper.
II. MULTIPLE COPIES FOR CLASSROOM USE
Multiple copies (not to exceed in any event more than one copy per student
in a course) may be made by or for the faculty giving the course for
classroom use or discussion, provided that:
A. The copying meets the following
tests of brevity and spontaneity as defined below; and,
B. Meets the cumulative effect test as defined below; and,
C. Each copy includes a notice of copyright
Definitions
Brevity
(i) Poetry: (a) A complete poem
if less than 250 words and if printed on not more than two pages
or, (b) from a longer poem, an excerpt of not more than 250
words.
(ii) Prose: (a) Either a complete article, story or essay of
less than 2,500 words, or (b) an excerpt from any prose work of
not more than 1,000 words or 10% of the work, whichever is less,
but in any event a minimum of 500 words.
[Each of the numerical limits stated in "i" and "ii" above may
be expanded to permit the completion of an unfinished line of a
poem or of an unfinished prose paragragh.]
(iii) Illustration: One chart, graph, diagram, drawing, cartoon
or picture per book or per periodical issue.
(iv) "Special" works: Certain works in poetry, prose or in
"poetic prose" which often combine language with illustrations
and which are intended sometimes for children and at other times
for a more general audience fall short of 2,500 words in their
entirety. Paragraph "ii" above notwithstanding such "special
works" may not be reproduced in their entirety; however, an
excerpt comprising not more than two of the published pages of
such special work and containing not more than 10% of the words
found in the text thereof, may be reproduced.
Spontaneity
(i) The copying is at the
instance and inspiration of the individual teacher, and
(ii) The inspiration and decision to use the work and the moment
of its use for maximum teaching effectiveness are so close in
time that it would be unreasonable to expect a timely reply to a
request for permission.
Cumulative Effect
(i) The copying of the material
is for only one course in the school in which the copies are
made.
(ii) Not more than one short poem, article, story, essay or two
excerpts may be copied from the same author, nor more than three
from the same collective work or periodical volume during one
class term.
(iii) There shall not be more than nine instances of such
multiple copying for one course during one class term.
[The limitations stated in "ii" and "iii" above shall not apply
to current news periodicals and newspapers and current news
sections of other periodicals.]
III. PROHIBITIONS AS TO I AND II ABOVE
Notwithstanding any of the above, the following shall be
prohibited:
A. Copying may not be used to
create or to replace or substitute for anthologies, compilations or
collective works. A prohibited replacement or substitution occurs
regardless of whether copies of various works or excerpts therefrom
are accumulated or are reproduced and used separately.
B. There shall be no copying of or from works intended to be
"consumable" in the course of study or of teaching. These include
workbooks, exercises, standardized tests and test booklets and
answer sheets and like consumable material.
C. Copying shall not:
1. substitute for the purchase
of books, publisher's reprints or periodicals;
2. be directed by higher authority; or
3. be repeated with respect to the same item by the same teacher
from term to term.
D. No charge may be made to the
student beyond the actual cost of the photocopying.
What is Public Domain?
The
Copyright Clearance Center posts on its webpage that the legal concept of
the public domain as it applies to copyright law should not be confused with
the fact that a work may be publicly available, such as information found in
books or periodicals, or on the Internet. The public domain comprises all
those works that are either no longer protected by copyright or never were.
Essentially, all works first published in the United States prior to 1923
are considered to be in the public domain in the United States, as are works
published between 1923 and 1963 on which copyright registrations were not
renewed. Materials created since 1989, other than those created by the U.S.
federal government, are presumptively protected by copyright. Therefore, the
likelihood that materials of greatest interest are in the public domain is
low. In addition, you must also consider other forms of legal protection,
such as trademark or patent protection, before reusing third-party content.
Public domain materials generally fall into one of
four categories:
1. Generic information, such as facts, numbers and ideas.
2. Works whose copyrights have lapsed due to the passage of time or
the failure of the copyright holder to renew a registration (a
requirement that applies to works created before 1978).
3. Works created prior to March 1989 that failed to include a proper
notice of copyright.
4. Works created by the U.S. federal government.
Also, in rare instances, works may be "dedicated" (donated) to the
public domain.
Useful Websites
United States
Copyright Office
Copyright Basics
Fair Use
Circular 21 - Reproduction of
Copyrighted Works by Educators and Librarians
Library of Congress
How to Understand
Copyright Restrictions
Copyright Clearance
Center
Copyright Basics
Copyright Clearance
Center
The Campus Guide to Copyright
Compliance
Association of American
Publishers
Questions & Answers on Copyright for the Campus Community
National Association
of College Stores
Questions and Answers on Copyright
for the Campus Community
Guidelines for Classroom Copying With
Respect to Books and Periodicals
Stanford University Libraries
Copyright & Fair Use
Cathy Newsome
A Teacher's Guide to Fair Use and Copyright
University of Maryland Library
Copyright and Fair Use
in the Classroom, on the Internet, and the World Wide Web
Arizona State University
Libraries
Copyright and Fair Use for Teachers
University of St. Francis
A Visit to
Copyright Bay
Penn State Pennsylvania
College of Technology Copyright
Copyright and
Fair Use Guidelines for Teachers (Chart)
Baltimore County Public
Schools
Fair Use Guidelines for Teachers & Students (Chart)
Wakefield Middle School
Fair Use Chart for Teachers
(Chart)
Reference Books
The Copyright Handbook
Reference Stacks KF2995 .F53 2006
Intellectual Property Law in Cyberspace
Reference Stacks KF3095 .A77 2000
Patent Trademark and Copyright Laws
Reference Stacks KF3091.9 .P37 2008
Selected Stack Books
The Digital Dilemma: Intellectual Property in the Information Age
South Stacks KF2979 .D54 2000
Getting Permission: How to License & Clear Copyrighted
Materials Online & Off
South Stacks KF3002 . Z9S75 2004
Intellectual Property: The Law of Trademarks, Copyright, Patents,
and Trade Secrets
South Stacks KF2980 .B678 2005
Finding More Information In Magazines, Journals, and Newspapers
To find articles on copyright and fair use, use one of the databases
listed below. These databases usually provide full-text articles on
almost every topic. Remote access to the library databases requires
login via
MyLibrary.
EBSCOhost
Facts.com
Proquest Newspapers
LG 04/08
Web Author:
Lorraine Gersitz
(lgersitz@cerritos.edu)
Disclaimer
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