Copyright and Fair Use
At the school I work, at the beginning of the year,
the copyright laws are discussed briefly to remind teachers about the laws. As a teacher over the past 13 years I do not
remember very much about what was said about copyright and fair use. This makes me think that as the media
specialist, I need to do a better job of making teachers more aware. One thing I have learned is that copyright
and fair use is definitely not cut and dry.
The following quote helped me understand fair use a little better. Anthony
Falzone says, “If you think about copyright as a series of restrictions, fair
use is a set of exceptions. It protects your right to use copyrighted
material in certain ways and it’s not a trivial little technicality—it’s a
fundamental part of the copyright bargain. We don’t give copyright owners
unlimited control over their content—we preserve a whole variety of uses and
things that people get to do with copyrighted content without permission.
And fair use is really, above all else, a set of factors and considerations
that help us figure out which things we carve out of the copyright monopoly,
and which things we let people do without permission.”
To determine if your proposed work is fair use the following
things must be considered:
Purpose: The purpose and character of the use,
including whether such use is of a commercial nature, or is for nonprofit
education purposes.
Nature: The nature of the copyrighted work.
Amount: The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to
the copyrighted work as a whole.
Effect: The effect of the use upon the potential market for, or value
of, the copyrighted work.
(Retrieved from http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/copyrightinfo/fairuse.html)
Myth: Educators can rely on “Rules of Thumb” for
fair use guidance.
There are no
“Rules of Thumb”. Matter of fact there
is a lot of gray area here. As stated in
the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education, “Fair use
is situational, and context is critical.”
Each case is different and there is not a specific amount of text,
music, or video you can use every time. For
instance, someone using a quote of 250 words from a 300 word poem might be less
fair than a quote of 250 words from a several thousand word article. There are other factors that also come into
play, so there is not a set amount that can be used for it to be called “fair
use”.
Myth: Employing fair use is too much trouble; I don’t want to fill out any forms.
Actually it is really easy and there are no forms to fill
out. If you are claiming “fair use” you
just use the copyrighted material once you have used your professional judgement.
Here is a check list that may be helpful when deciding if a proposed use is considered fair use.
References:
Code of Best Practices in Fair Use
for Media Literacy Education.
(2015). Retrieved from
literacy-education
Inro video: Code of Best Practices in Fair Use
for Media Literacy Education.
(2012). Retrieved from
Understanding Copyright and Fair Use and Other
Educational Uses. (2015). Retrieved from
http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/copyrightinfo/fairuse.html
Heather thanks so much for the checklist in your post regarding fair use! You are absolutely right on the gray areas too! There does seem to be some grey areas in concern to fair use and the “rules of thumb” for guidance. As an ungrad student, I always heard, it’s ok to use this or that as long as you are doing so for ‘educational purposes’, this area seems to be ‘grey’ or ‘flexible’ as well. According to the code of best practices in fair use article, as long as the item occurs within an educational setting, if it were to be challenged they would be more likely to receive special considerations. I believe one of the most important considerations is to ask, why is this item being used? What extend and what for? Just as the article discusses the “four factors”.
ReplyDelete“(judges refer to four types of considerations mentioned in the law: the nature of the use, the nature of the work used, the extent of the use, and its economic effect…”
Which in turn, does still leave plenty of room for considerations, analysis and varying interpretations.
When I worked in secondary education, I don’t remember any thing being taught in PD or mentioned on copyright or fair use either. Now that I work in higher education, on an annually basis we have to review a short ethics training video that very briefly touches the subject.
Thanks for clarifying the fair use in the simple quote; it helps separate it out in a simple form.
I agree with you in that I never really paid much attention when my media specialist reviewed the copyright and fair use policies at the beginning of every year. It really made me think of what I could do differently when I become the media specialist and how I can help, not hinder, teachers when reviewing copyright and fair use policies. The checklist you shared was ideal! It's organized format made it very clear and easier to understand the difference between the two. This would be an excellent resource to use in the media center, to display by the video distribution system, and post in the media center. The checklist is very student, parent, and educator friendly. It definitely helped me make sense out of these two "rules". I'm so glad you shared this.
ReplyDeleteI believe very few of us pay attention to information provided to us in reference to copyright laws. I'm sure most of us believe that just as long as we're not copying the entire book we should be in the clear but this is far from true. I was made aware of a LMS who was adopting an underwater theme in her media center. As a part of that theme she paid a local artist to paint Disney's Little Mermaid, along with several characters from the movie, onto the walls. The design was beautifu but this was discovered and soon afterward she had it removed. It is just best to err on the side of caution when choosing materials with which to work.
ReplyDeleteLove the checklist for fair use. Our stories are very similar. Copyright laws are very briefly discussed in the beginning of the school year by our principal. Our media specialist has not covered this in the past 13 years I have been at my school. Now that I have taken over the media specialist position I need to take an active approach in making copyright laws and acceptable use guidelines a must to discuss for the beginning of the school year. However, as you stated the laws and guidelines are not cut and dry which I feel is why they are briefly discussed and not completely followed. I would like for my next goal to be to come up with a fun and interesting type of training or overview of these procedures to present to my school staff. Thank you for the references and insights. Great post!
ReplyDeleteAs a teacher, I am very thankful for fair use! I am still always skeptical though! Thank you for posting the checklist. You give a very simple definition of both copyright and fair use. I love the quote about fair use being "exceptions." Copyright and fair use policies aren't something that are spoken about much at my school. I am not the media specialist, and quite frankly, becoming the "copyright police" seems like an intimidating role to take on. I think it's important that each teacher know the rules. We are professionals and responsible for knowing and following the guidelines. Copyright/fair use are actually part of my CCSS for Business, and I will probably use the what you posted in my classroom! Thank you!
ReplyDeleteUsing various forms of materials in your classrooms is the responsibility of the teacher and we must make sure that we use fidelity when planning. I also listened to the review of the copyrighting and fair use rules as presented by my media specialist at the beginning of the school year. I can't say I remember the information given to us either. The links you have provided are going to be very useful when I am faced with delivering this same information. The question of how much will be one which I will be prepared to answer. I am grateful to you for providing links and helpful questions for added support and study.
ReplyDeleteUsing various forms of materials in your classrooms is the responsibility of the teacher and we must make sure that we use fidelity when planning. I also listened to the review of the copyrighting and fair use rules as presented by my media specialist at the beginning of the school year. I can't say I remember the information given to us either. The links you have provided are going to be very useful when I am faced with delivering this same information. The question of how much will be one which I will be prepared to answer. I am grateful to you for providing links and helpful questions for added support and study.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your post. To ensure that these policies work effectively, your library should have procedures in place to explain how the policies will be implemented. The procedures typically derive from the policies. Most policies come from the board of education or other governing entity and provide the why of library/fair use management, but the procedures to carry out these policies, or the how-to-dos are typically developed by the school librarian or district library coordinator. Uncovering certain myths that are related to fair use was great input on this topic because often misunderstood. Overall, as media specialist we have to ensure that we have all communicated in every way possible, via web, handouts, orientation, emails, etc. Point blank school librarians must have clear policies and procedures and follow them consistently so that the library program runs smoothly. The same goes for copyright and multimedia policies. The breakdown you have is great! I have to use it in my school. Great post.
ReplyDeleteHeather, your post was simple and very informative. Your opening statement about how you don’t remember much of what was said at the annual copyright in-service is probably true for the majority of teachers. That is why I can appreciate the fact that you included a link to a copyright checklist and you also listed factors to consider when thinking of fair use. I will revert back to four part consideration of purpose, nature, amount, and effect when considering copyright and fair use in my own school or educational environment. The Myth Busters are great as well, because they allowed me to familiarize an everyday example with the actual roles of what is right or wrong. In our school district the media specialist is responsible for providing this information and the simple format that you have presented in your posting has allowed me to understand the information better, which in return will allow me to convey the information in an informative and attentive way to teachers during the year. I say during the year because this is actually a lot of information to comprehend and maybe if the same information is presented in slightly different ways throughout the year at staff meetings, then teachers will also gain a better understanding that way.
ReplyDeleteI must admit that when reading about “Fair Use,” I was so excited that I could use other works without feeling guilty that I was ready to copy any and everything that could be used in education. But then I realized that “Fair Use” has guidelines, and those guidelines are not that clear. But I want it black and white, so I go on a search, but time and time again I see the same thing - copyright and fair use is not cut and dry. So imagine my excitement when I pulled up the Fair Use Checklist. I printed it immediately, it truly is a great start to understanding “Fair Use”.
ReplyDelete