COPYRIGHT AND THE EDUCATOR

 

So, you're in the middle of creating your lesson plan.  You've found a video, or music, or a poem or some other interesting "doo dad" that you want to show your students. You're certain that adding this to your lesson will get your students involved, engaged and excited about the lesson. 

OR

You've decided that your students will create a multimedia presentation as part of their assessment for your lesson.  They need to research the subject and incorporate their research into their project. 

OR

You have to create a multimedia presentation for your School Board and want to include music and pictures to "jazz it up" 

OR

You have found a fantastically fun and entertaining role playing computer game that is perfect for teaching or reinforcing content skills in your students.  You purchase a copy and want to load it onto the computers in your room.

 

Before you or your students start copying and pasting away, be sure everyone understands that pesky little thing called COPYRIGHT!!! 

 

Improperly include something that is copyrighted in your lesson or presentation and you could be in for a nasty surprise! (Federal penalties can be up to 5 years in jail and a $250,000 fine)

 

 

http://teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=115381&title=Copyright_Cops

 

 

What is copyright?           

 

The copyright law (title 17, U.S. Code) was enacted to provide authors and creators temporary ownership or exclusive rights to their works for a specified length of time.  This protection was enacted in an effort to encourage new creative and intellectual works.  Copyright owners have the right to do and authorize others to:

• reproduce the work in copies or phonorecords (cassettes, CD’s, vinyl media, etc.);
• 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 (“not including the sounds accompanying a motion picture or other audiovisual work”) to perform the work publicly by means of a digital audio transmission. 

 

Please note: the author or creator of the work may not be the copyright owner.  In many cases, the copyright owner is the publisher. 

 

What can be copyrighted?

 

Most original works expressed in a tangible medium are protected by copyright law. The U.S. Copyright law places copyrightable works in the following categories:

• Literary works
• Musical works, including any accompanying words
• Dramatic works, including any accompanying music
• Pantomimes and choreographic works
• Pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works
• Motion pictures and other audiovisual works
• Sound recordings
• Architectural works 

 

“Tangible” form includes, but is not limited to, paper, CD, hard drive of a computer, web site, pictures.

 

What is NOT copyrighted? 

 

Copyright protection does not extend to the following categories of works; therefore permission is not required for you to use the following:

• Works for which the copyright has expired.
• Works federal government employees produced within the scope of their employment.
• Works clearly and explicitly donated to the public domain.
• Works that have not been fixed in a tangible form of expression (for example, choreographic works that have not been notated or recorded, or spontaneous speeches or performances that have not been written or recorded).
• Titles, names, short phrases, and slogans; familiar symbols or designs; mere variations of typographic ornamentation, lettering, or coloring; mere listings of ingredients or contents.
• Ideas, procedures, methods, systems, processes, concepts, principles, discoveries, or devices, as distinguished from a description, explanation, or illustration.
• Works consisting entirely of information that is common property and contains no original authorship (for example, standard calendars, height and weight charts, tape measures and rulers, and lists or tables taken from public documents or other common sources).  

 

How long are works copyrighted?

 

In general, if the author or creator is known the copyright is in effect for the life of the author/creator plus 70 years.  If the author is unknown or the work was created for a corporation or if the date of the death of a known author is unknown, the copyright is in effect for 120 years from the creation of the work.  Any work originally published in the United States prior to 1923 is NOT copyright protected. 

 

It can be tricky to determine if a copyright is in effect.  Below is a link to a chart detailing the guidelines for when a copyright is expired and the work is considered in the public domain.  

Click to download chart in PDF form 

© 2004-9 Peter B. Hirtle. Last updated 5 January, 2009. Use of this chart is governed by the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License 3.0   In addition, permission is granted for non-profit educational use, including but not limited to reserves and coursepacks made by for-profit copyshops

 

Fair Use

 

Part 1   Part 2 

Works that are copyrighted can be used IF the following guidelines are followed.  These are directly from Section 107 of the copyright law:

 

• quotation of excerpts in a review or criticism for purposes of illustration or comment
• quotation of short passages in a scholarly or technical work, for illustration or clarification of the author’s observations
• use in a parody of some of the content of the work parodied
• summary of an address or article, with brief quotations, in a news report
• reproduction by a library of a portion of a work to replace part of a damaged copy
• reproduction by a teacher or student of a small part of a work to illustrate a lesson
• reproduction of a work in legislative or judicial proceedings or reports
• incidental and fortuitous reproduction, in a newsreel or broadcast, of a work located in the scene of an event being reported 

 

There are four factors you need to take into consideration before copying any work:

1. the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
2. the nature of the copyrighted work;
3. the 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. 

 

If you are certain your use falls in the "fair use" doctrine, you are still limited to how much of the work you can use and how long you can use it.  The "Fair Use" act provides some general guidelines.

GENERAL GUIDELINES (not to be confused with legal descriptions) are:

 

• Text: up to 10 percent or 1,000 words of a copyrighted text may be used, an entire poem may be used if it’s less than 250 words; for longer poems, a limit of 250 words may be used, a chapter of a book or one article in a journal could be use.
• Music and lyrics: Up to 10 percent of a copyrighted composition may be reproduced, but should be limited to 30 seconds of an individual composition.
• Visual images: A photograph or illustration may be used in its entirety but no more than five images by an individual artist or photographer.  Up to 10 percent or a limit of 15 images of a collective work may be copied.
• Films and videos: Up to 10 percent of a copyrighted work or approximately three minutes may be reproduced.  

 

Unsure about whether your use constitutes “fair use”?  The University of Texas has developed a site to assist educators in determining if they are following the rules of Fair Use.  http://www.utsystem.edu/ogc/intellectualproperty/copypol2.htm#test

Nolo.com also provides an explanation of fair use “The ‘Fair Use’ Rule: When Use of Copyrighted Material is Acceptable”.

 

Plagiarism 

 

According to the 1995 Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary, plagiarism is the" unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work".  Plagiarism should not be confused with copyright infringement.  Copyright infringement violates the rights of the author of the original work.  Plagiarism, on the other hand, is taking credit for work that is not yours.  It is an act of fraud.

Plagiarism.org has numerous articles available to assist you and your students in avoiding plagiarism.  Below are links:

Plagiarism.org

What is Plagiarism?

Educational tips on plagiarism prevention

Types of plagiarism

Below is a link from Indiana University:

http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/pamphlets/plagiarism.shtml 

 

Properly citing sources IS A MUST!!! The two most commonly used citing formats are:  1) MLA-Modern Language Association and 2) APA-American Psychological Association.  APA style is most commonly used for works in the social sciences or scientific research, while MLA is normally utilized in the humanities fields.  Radford University in Radford, VA has developed a Comparison of APA and MLA Styles table to assist you in determining the style best suited for you and your students.  There are numerous online guides and citation generators available for both styles.  Below are a few links for you and your students:

Nauset Public Schools Research and Style Manual Grades 1-6

Nauset Public Schools Research and Style Manual Grades 7-12

The Citation Machine

 

In addition, many of the new versions of word processing software (such as Microsoft® Word©) are now including reference tasks to assist users in properly citing sources.

 

Licensing and Software Piracy 

 

Software piracy is defined as the duplication, use or distribution of software without the authority of the copyright owner or the permission of the copyright law. 

 

Types of Software Piracy:

 

• Softlifting:  When a person purchases single-license copy but loads it on several machines
• Unrestricted Client Access:  Copy resides on server where clients are allowed to freely access software
• Hard-disk loading:  When an individual sells computers preloaded with illegal software
• OEM Piracy/Unbundling:  Software shipped with hardware is separated and sold.  (OEM software is not for resale— it's linked to the hardware)
• Commercial Use of Noncommercial software:  Educational editions sold commercially
• Counterfeiting:  Duplication and sale of software as if it were a legitimate copy
• CD-R Piracy:  Making copies of software using CD-R recording technology.  “Making copies for your friends”
• Internet Piracy:   Downloading commercial software from the internet
• Renting:  Renting software for temporary use—Illegal by 1990 Software Rental Amendment Act

 

Unless you have it IN WRITING on the packaging, invoice, web site or a license from the manufacturer  specifically stating their software can be duplicated, installed on multiple computers or accessed by multiple users on a network, DO NOT MAKE COPIES OR ALLOW MULTIPLE USERS SIMULTANEOUS ACCESS TO THE SOFTWARE.

 

TEACH Act

 

 The Technology, Education and Copyright Harmonization Act (TEACH) was signed into effect in 2002.  The TEACH Act is an extension of existing copyright laws for distance learning or digital classroom environments.  The Act allows for the transmission of performances and displays of copyrighted works as part of a course if specific criteria are met.  Below is an excerpt from the American Library Association web site regarding Distance Education and the TEACH Act.

 

• “The benefits of the TEACH Act apply only to a ‘government body or an accredited nonprofit educational institution.’"
• “The educational institution must ‘institute policies regarding copyright.’"
• “The institution must ‘provide informational materials’ regarding copyright. These materials must ‘accurately describe, and promote compliance with, the laws of United States relating to copyright.’"
• “In addition to the general distribution of informational materials, the institution must provide ‘notice to students that materials used in connection with the course may be subject to copyright protection.’"
• “The transmission of content must be made ‘solely for . . . students officially enrolled in the course for which the transmission is made.’"  

 

These institutional guidelines as well as guidelines for Teachers and MTT's, Librarians, and Technology personnel can be accessed at http://www.ala.org/Template.cfm?Section=distanceed&Template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=25939.

 

Web/Wiki Publishing

 

Integrating Web or Wiki Publishing into your lessons puts you and your students into the 21st Century of education.  Just remember, whatever goes on the Internet, is accessible by people all over the world.  This, in itself, may render the defense of “fair use” invalid, since people not enrolled in the class may have access.  They aren’t your students, so it raises the questions as to whether the use of the material constitutes “educational purposes”.

 

Please review the Nolo.com page “Getting Permission to Publish: Ten Tips for Webmasters” BEFORE you begin your project.

 

For more information

 PDF and Text files of the Title 17, U.S. Code     http://www.copyright.gov/title17/

 Taking the Mystery out of Copyright, Library of Congress, http://www.loc.gov/teachers/copyrightmystery/

Copyright for Educators Series from KOCE-TV http://www.koce.org/classroom/copyright.htm