What is Fair Use and How Does it Apply to Education?
Fair use is defined or summarized as “permitting the public to use copyrighted materials for certain purposes without obtaining prior consent from the owner” (Waxer & Baum, 2006, p. 42). Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976 identifies four factors that must all be considered for a copyrighted work to be considered fair use in any setting (Dabbagh & Bannan-Ritland, 2005). Section 107 reads, “the fair use of a copyrighted work…for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not infringement” (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, 2003, p. 123).The description clearly states that educators can use copyrighted items under the fair use guidelines provided those guidelines, or criteria, are met.“Section 107 does not grant educators wholesale permission to use copyrighted materials simply because they work in schools or colleges. Only a fair use is legal, and fair use cannot be determined until the four essential criteria have been considered” (Simonson, et al, 2003, p. 123).
The four criteria from Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976 are listed by Wilson (2003):
The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes
The nature of the copyrighted work
The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole
The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work (p. 105).
Additional to these four criteria, a set of guidelines that apply to items specifically for Classroom Use known as the CONTU guidelines have been established. These guidelines “specify that copying for classroom use should meet the criteria of brevity, spontaneity, and lack of cumulative effect” (Waxer & Baum, 2006, p. 57). The authors explain these guidelines and how they apply to teaching as (Waxer & Baum, 2006):
Brevity: the teacher does not copy a significant amount
Spontaneity: the teacher does not have the time to plan ahead and seek permissions to use the work
Lack of cumulative effect: the teacher does not use the same materials over and over (same class year after year) (p.57).
The 1998 Conference of Fair Use (CONFU) gave the following “safe harbor” guidelines for educators and students who “want to digitize analog images or to create multimedia work for classroom use, self-study, or remote instruction” (Waxer & Baum, 2006, p. 57). The guidelines provide limits on use and state that educators and students may use (Draves, 2007):
10% [but not more than] 1000 words of copyrighted text
Up to 10% but not more than 30 seconds of a musical work [such as music, lyrics, or music video]
10% or three minutes of a [movie]
An entire photograph but no more than five images by the same creator [and no more than 10% or 15 images of a collective work]
Up to 10% or 2500 fields from a database [or data table] ( p. 56).
Examples of Fair Use in an Educational Setting:
Comparing pieces of literature
Citing works for research, scholarship, academic papers, or presentations
Creating a parody of a skit, story, song, or video
Providing an example, fact, definition, or piece of data
Sharing excerpts, or selected chapters of a book
Showing an excerpt or section of a video or movie
Key reminders:
Understanding both the guidelines for fair use and those of CONTU can help educators determine acceptable use of copyrighted items in their classrooms and with their students.
Understanding copyright and fair use as it applies to classrooms, including face-to-face, hybrid and online, is important for both teachers and students.
Modeling appropriate use of copyright is part of an educators responsibility.
Copyrighted materials used under fair use must be for educational and scholarly purposes, as part of a learning activity and not part of a commercial product that will be distributed.
What is Fair Use and How Does it Apply to Education?
Fair use is defined or summarized as “permitting the public to use copyrighted materials for certain purposes without obtaining prior consent from the owner” (Waxer & Baum, 2006, p. 42). Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976 identifies four factors that must all be considered for a copyrighted work to be considered fair use in any setting (Dabbagh & Bannan-Ritland, 2005). Section 107 reads, “the fair use of a copyrighted work…for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not infringement” (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, 2003, p. 123).The description clearly states that educators can use copyrighted items under the fair use guidelines provided those guidelines, or criteria, are met.“Section 107 does not grant educators wholesale permission to use copyrighted materials simply because they work in schools or colleges. Only a fair use is legal, and fair use cannot be determined until the four essential criteria have been considered” (Simonson, et al, 2003, p. 123).
The four criteria from Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976 are listed by Wilson (2003):
Additional to these four criteria, a set of guidelines that apply to items specifically for Classroom Use known as the CONTU guidelines have been established. These guidelines “specify that copying for classroom use should meet the criteria of brevity, spontaneity, and lack of cumulative effect” (Waxer & Baum, 2006, p. 57). The authors explain these guidelines and how they apply to teaching as (Waxer & Baum, 2006):
The 1998 Conference of Fair Use (CONFU) gave the following “safe harbor” guidelines for educators and students who “want to digitize analog images or to create multimedia work for classroom use, self-study, or remote instruction” (Waxer & Baum, 2006, p. 57). The guidelines provide limits on use and state that educators and students may use (Draves, 2007):
Examples of Fair Use in an Educational Setting:
Key reminders: