Copyright Overview
By
Linda G. Cornette
Note: I am not a lawyer and my knowledge is based on my experience as an educator, media specialist, and as the chairperson of the Ohio Educational Library Media Association Copyright and Intellectual Freedom Division

Copyright and You, Why Bother?

1. The Creator of a work owns the rights of: Reproduction, Adaptation, Distribution, Public performance, and Public display.
2. "Fair-Use" guidelines for Educational use consist of four factors: Purpose, Nature, Amount, and Effect.
3. Copyright law applies to all formats once in a tangible form.
4. Copyright enforcement is becoming more aggressive.
5. "Bounty hunters" are making a living by reporting violations.
6. The FBI is entering schools unannounced with warrants using a program known as SP Audit in response to reports of copyright violation.
7. Out-of-court settlements following SPA Audits are often in the hundred thousand dollar range.
8. The burden of proving fair use falls to the educator making use of the material.
9. Permission from the creator can override any limitations imposed by the law or guidelines. E-mail links built into websites make this a simple process.

Video

1. A video of an off-the-air broadcast must be shown within the first 10 school days of the original broadcast and erased within 45 days.
2. Librarians may not copy an off-the-air broadcast in anticipation of a teacher requesting it.
3. You may show a video labeled "for home use only" if the use is for face-to-face instruction.

Printed Material

1. No copying of consumable works.
2. The same teacher cannot copy an item from term to term.
3. Copying shall not be from top down (e.g. a principal making copies of an article for distribution to teachers).

World Wide Web

1. Web based material is copyright protected, just like print and audiovisual materials, copyright notification is not required.
2. The more creative the site (less factual) the less that can be used without prior permission.
3. Web page use requires a display of the material. Display to an individual is expected, but display to a public group (your class) is not. Teachers in class may use small portions of web documents if there is not sufficient time to secure permission.
4. If you capture the entire web site, you are taking 100 percent. Since web pages are often creative in design and content (the character of the use), the likelihood for ruling of fair use declines significantly.
5. Large chunks of images, documents, and web sites should not be taken without prior consent. Watch for web sites granting educational use.
6. There is greater latitude for student use of copyrighted materials, which also allows the use of modest portions of web documents as long as the copies they make belong to them.
logos, and photos you use.
7. For photos you need the permission of photographer and permission from any recognizable person in the photograph.

Electronic Mail, Newsgroups, and Discussion List Information

1. The author of an e-mail owns the content of the message. As a recipient you may not make copies or distribute the message without permission of the sender.
2. A message posted to a newsgroup or a discussion list, implies a decision to "publish" the work. Once a work is published there is more latitude to use portions of that work within the fair use exemption. This latitude may be negated by noting in the posting a request that the material not be distributed beyond the list.

Computer Software

1. The purchase of software is governed by a license agreement as well as by copyright law.
2. an archival or "backup" copy of a program is permitted, but if the ownership is transferred or sold the "backup" is to be destroyed.
3. A single user copy means just that. The program may not be placed on more than one machine.
4. Although some particular pieces of software can operate in a networked environment, there is still the need to acquire a network and site license to do so.
5. Two forms of software may be freely copied without any licenses or agreements: "public domain" and "shareware."
6. Copyright owners have the sole right to control, rental, lease, or lending of their software. However, the law does provide an exemption for nonprofit libraries provided that a warning of copyright is affixed to each package.

Multimedia Projects

1. Students may perform and display multimedia projects they have created for educational uses for which they were created. The project may also be placed in a portfolio as an example of their work for job and graduate school interviews.
2. Educators may use their educational multimedia projects for face-to-face instruction and to assign to students for direct self-study. The self-study must be provided on a network where a pin or password is required for access and technology prevents the making of copies.
3. Educators may also use their own multimedia projects in presentations to their peers at workshops and conferences.
4. Educators may also retain educational multimedia projects they have produced in their portfolios.

Educational Multimedia projects are subject to Time, Portion, Copying, and Distribution limitations

1. Educational multimedia projects incorporating copyrighted works may be kept for a term of two years after the first instructional use in a class. Additional use requires permission for each copyrighted portion.
2. This time limitation does not apply to students as long as they keep ownership of their project.
3. Portion limitations vary depending on the media used:
Motion media: up to 10 percent or 3 minutes, whichever is less
Music: up to 10 percent but no more than 30 seconds
Illustration or photograph: may be used in its entirety, but no more than 5 images by an artist
Published collective work: up to 10 percent or 15 images, whichever is less


The following resources have also been used in preparing this brief overview:

Simpson, Carol Mann. Copyright for Schools: A Practical Guide, 2nd ed. Worthington, Ohio: Linworth Publishing, Inc., 1997.

Bruwelheide, Janis H. The Copyright Primer for Librarians and Educators, 2nd ed. Chicago, Illinois: American Library Association and Washington D.C.: National Education Association, 1995.

Valiparaiso Community Schools. Copyright: A Quick Reference to Frequently Asked Questions, 1997.


Permission granted to reproduce for not-for-profit educational use.

What is plagiarism?

Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary defines plagiarism as an act or instance of plagiarizing. Plagiarizing is 1) to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one’s own; 2) to use (a created production) without crediting the source; 3) to commit literary theft; 4) present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source. "Ideas or words" of another includes both written or spoken materials from whole papers to sentences, and it also includes statistics, art work, lab results, etc. "Another" could be anyone from a professional whose works are published in a book, magazine, encyclopedia, or journal to a fellow student at UAHS or elsewhere. "Ideas or words" of another can also be from a source that you discover on the World Wide Web or from a paper-writing "service," which offers to sell written papers for a fee. Plagiarizing, whether it is done intentionally or out of carelessness, is a serious offense. To avoid plagiarizing see the section in Writer’s Inc: A Student Handbook for Writing and Learning entitled: "Giving Proper Credit."

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