Teachers and Copyright

Copyright is a law that protects creators as soon as their creation is in a "tangible" form.

"Tangible"? Huh?

You have to be able to touch, see,
or hear the work.
Books, Poems, Photographs,
Musical Recordings, Performances, Sculptures, etc are
all protected the moment they are created.

Says who?

The US Copyright Act of 1976.

This Act gives copyright holders certain "rights" to protect their work from infringement.

The Copy-Rights:

• The right to reproduce their work
• The right to create new adaptations
• The right to distribute copies
• The right to publicly perform or display their work

Is there a time limit?

Yes!
The general rule of thumb is;
Copyright lasts 70 years after the year the creator passed away.

But wait!

There is something called "Public Domain". Anything from the public domain is no longer under copyright protection, and is free to use! (Usually because it is older, created before 1923)

So I can't copy, perform, adapt, or distribute anything newer than 1923? Why not?

You can use anything you (or your school) have purchased rights to! The purpose of the Copyright Act was to protect the creators of works and to promote new ideas, something our whole culture benefits from!

So, what can teachers do?

In a word: ASK.
Teachers do have more leeway with Copyright regulations than the general public. But, just to be sure, before you use something in your classroom - make sure you ask permission from the copyright holder!

There is text built in to the Copyright Act that speak about "Fair Use". It gives the pubic the right to do limited things with copyrighted work for the use of criticism, news commentary, and education among other things.

Oh, so we're cool since we're teaching, right?

NOPE.

Whether or not something is considered "Fair Use" is up to a judge. In a court. Who could send you to jail. They are asked to consider four criteria when deciding whether what you did falls under "Fair Use" or "Copyright Infringement".
(To avoid the judge, just ASK PERMISSION beforehand!)

Fair Use Criteria

• The purpose of the use.
• The nature of the copyrighted work.
• The amount and importance of the section being used, and how much of the whole it makes up.
• The market effect of the act - how does what you did affect the ability of the copyrighted work to make money?

So, how can I protect myself?

We can;

• Make copies for students as long as we think about the 10% rule - no more than 10% of the total work.
• Play 30 seconds worth of songs that we do not own, or 10% of the piece, whichever is shorter
• Show a movie for educational purposes - not entertainment

We can not;

• Copy whole books for students.
• Make CDs for students to practice from.
• Copy pages from consumable workbooks.

Check out http://www.melaniewiscount.com/mwiscount_cpopyright_fairuse_WQ/documents/co... for a more in-depth look t what is considered "Fair Use" in education and what is not.

Just remember;
If it's not yours and you want to copy, display, perform, recreate, or add on to it,
ASK PERMISSION!

www.copyright.com
Would be a great place to start.

Or, check out
The Copyright Handbook:
What Every Writer Needs to Know
by Stephen Fishman
12th Edition

References

• Fishman, S. (2014) The Copyright Handbook: What every writer needs to know. California. NOLO.
• www.copyright.com
• www.melaniewiscount.com