Fair Use & Copyright

13.August.2007 07:36 Filed in: Workshops | Instruction
copyright
Under the Fair Use provisions of U.S. Copyright law, students can use quite a bit of copyright material within typical projects. Of course, should be taught to cite this material, and likewise, this also provides a teachable moment to help students understand that they cannot take the same liberties for most purposes throughout the rest of their lives--an important lesson in a world in which intellectual property is sacred due to its value in our Information Age. The four major factors that are considered in determining fair use are:

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; and

4. the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

Often times, people are given rules of thumb, such as “x number of lines can be used from an author’s work” or that one can “use x number of seconds from a song.” The fact is that Copyright law and Fair Use are not that simple and concrete. As a result, educated decisions must be made about what is and is not appropriate.

For more information on Fair Use and Copyright, visit the Fair Use website from OurMedia, as well as the links on that page.