Copyright Tips for Faculty and Students

Common Terms | Common Questions | Useful Guides | Further Reading

Faculty and students frequently have questions about copyright and how it affects teaching and learning. There are many resources available to help faculty and students remain compliant with copyright laws. It is illegal for anyone to violate any of the rights provided by the copyright law to the owner of copyright. But these rights are not unlimited; there are some exemptions, most famously –“fair use.” However, all uses of copyrighted materials do not automatically qualify under the “fair use” exemption in an educational setting.

Common Terms

COPYRIGHT
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 This protection is available to both published and unpublished works. In other words, if you create an original work of literature, music or art you are that work is protected by current copyright laws.

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:

• Reproduce the work in copies or phonorecords;
• Prepare derivative works based upon the work;
• Distribute copies or phonorecords of the work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending;
• Perform the work publicly, in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and motion pictures and other audiovisual works;
• 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; and
• In the case of sound recordings*, perform the work publicly by means of a digital audio transmission.

Sections of the 1976 Copyright Act state the exemptions to these rights. The major exemption of interest to faculty and students is the doctrine of “fair use.”

FAIR USE
Defined in section 107 of the 1976 Copyright Act, “fair use” is a limitation on standard copyright law. Fair use is described by the U.S. Copyright Office as use of copyrighted work for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research.

Four factors should be considered carefully when trying to determine whehter use of a copyrighted item is a “fair use.”

Factor 1: the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
Factor 2: the nature of the copyrighted work;
Factor 3: amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
Factor 4: the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

There are several websites available that more clearly explain the process you can use to determine if using a work is possible under ‘fair use.’ One of the best tools to help work through determining ‘fair use’ is a CHECKLIST available from Indiana University’s Copyright Management Center.

Common Questions

If I use it for teaching my class, isn’t everything permissible as ‘fair use’?

No. “Fair use” doesn’t always apply. Read more at Questions & Answers on Copyright for the Campus Community, Q&A #6

Can make a recording of this television program for showing to my class?

In a face to face classroom, this may be within fair use guidelines – as expressed in the TEACH Act of 2002 which is section 110 of the copyright law. It gets more complicated for distance educations courses. Read more

I don’t see a copyright statement on this workbook! Is this workbook is copyrighted?

It could be! Don’t assume that works without a copyright notice aren’t protected. Read more

I’ve found great problem sets in this textbook, but I don’t want to make my students buy the whole thing. I just want to photocopy the problem sets from this text for my class’ assignment. Can I copy them and put them on College Reserves at the library?

No. There are rules about copying workbooks and similar copyrighted works. They are referred to in copyright law as "consumables."

Useful guides for your desk
The following two resources, available online and in pamphlet form, target the academic community.

Know Your Copy Rights from the Association of Research Libraries

Questions & Answers on Copyright for the Campus Community
The library has a limited number of printed copies of this available for faculty. Call or email librarian Teresa Morris for more information.

Further Reading

Copyright Management Center

Three universities - Indiana University, Purdue University and Indianapolis University have collaborated to produce this website concerning copyright. Includes a very useful checklist for fair use exemptions for educational use of materials.

Fair Use Check List from Indiana University

When you are planning to use copyrighted material under the fair use exemptions, it is important to document how your usage qualifies. You can fill out this checklist online and print it out to keep with your class materials as documentation.

U.S. Copyright Office

United States government agency concerned with copyright laws and regulations. Information is available here about fair use exemption for educational uses.

Teach Act (Section 110 of the Copyright law)

The actual text of US CODE: Title 17, Section 110 describing limitations and exemptions for certain kinds of public performances and displays in the classroom and by distance education. North Carolina State University Library has a wonderful glossary to help navigate the text of this law.

Copyright Information Center at Cornell University

A useful collection of websites, tools and information about copyright how copyright interacts with the educational systems.

Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States

Cornell University website, with chart explaining the length of time (term) an item is covered by copyright laws.

Additional websites and articles

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