DISTRICT COPYRIGHT GUIDANCE
As the Lexington City school district embarks on greater digital access to instructional resources and academic content, copyright protection and lawful management of copyrights within an educational setting has become an important topic of discussion and concern. Gone are the days when copyright was limited to requests submitted through the copy shop, plagiarism guidelines for students, and the selection of music and playwright agreements in the fine arts department. Today’s educator is interested in following the law as it relates to Fair Use, online publishing, and what constitutes fairness for educational purposes. This white paper is an attempt to offer some guidance and resources to teachers and support staff facing copyright considerations in their work.
The U.S. Copyright Office was created by Congress as part of the Library of Congress in 1897. In 2011, the Copyright Office employed 450 employees who processed more than 700,000 registration claims.
CONSTITUTIONAL PROTECTION: The Constitutional Provision Respecting Copyright. The Congress shall have
Power…to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and
Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries. –United States Constitution, Article 1,
Section 8
THE LAW: The Copyright Law of 1976 was enacted in 1976, as Pub. L. No. 94-553, 90 Stat. 2541, in chapters 1 through 8 and 10 through 12 of title 17 of the United States Code.
DEFINITION: Copyright is the legal right granted to an author, a composer, a playwright, a publisher, or a distributor to exclusive publication, production, sale, or distribution of a literary, musical, dramatic, or artistic work. Copyright laws are designed to protect a creator’s right to be compensated and to control how his or her work is used. (Merriam-Webster)
PURPOSE: Copyright is a form of legal protection given to content creators through the assignment of specific rights to works that qualify for protection. In the United States, copyright protection exists from the time the work is created in a fixed, tangible form of expression. The copyright in the work of authorship immediately becomes the property of the author who created the work. A qualifying work is the expression, not the idea. In the U.S., registration of domestic works is required in order to sue for infringement. However, an author does not have to register a work, announce that the work is copyright protected, or display the copyright symbol to enjoy copyright protection. All he or she must do is create an original work in tangible form. Copyright law exists to foster creativity and spur the distribution of new and original works. Generally, unless your situation meets one of the exceptions outlined in the Copyright Law, you must get explicit permission from the copyright holder before you can lawfully reuse, reproduce or redistribute a copyright-protected work – even within the walls of your institution.
Section 110 of Copyright Law deals with use of materials in an educational setting.
FAIR USE: Fair use is primarily intended to allow the use of copyright-protected works for commentary, parody, news reporting, research and education. However, not all uses in an academic context are automatically considered fair use. According to the Copyright Law of 1976, the factors to be considered for Fair Use include (1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit education 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 potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.
CONFU: The Conference on Fair Use was established by the U.S. Department of Commerce to bring together copyright owners and user interests to discuss fair use issues that new technologies raise and to develop guidelines for fair use by librarians and educators. After two and a half years, the conference could not reach consensus. In 1996, the Consortium of College and University Media Centers (CCUMC) convened to draft a set of fair use guidelines. These guidelines, while not legally binding, are a great resource to follow.
Many institutions have adopted a policy of “when in doubt, obtain permission.” However, in education, the volume of work cited, referenced, used in research or reporting, can be tremendous. Likewise, one would not want to discourage students from board-based research and consideration of works that are copyrighted, where students seek use for education rather than commercial gain.
In the past, teachers found themselves confined to a classroom and felt generally safe about calling fair use decisions. In a digital world, however, teachers no longer operate behind closed doors and must become knowledgeable practitioners of fair use. It is important that all staff who post online content or recommend online content for posting understand the importance of only citing works that have permission or fall within the guidelines for fair use or public domain.
We intend to be in compliance with the law as it relates to Copyright and Fair Use. Likewise, we wish to model practices for students that abide by the law and give consideration to those who create works worthy of citing or including in one’s research, writing, or study. As good (digital) citizens, we appreciate that it is in good taste to ask for permission to post or quote the work of others. It is unlikely a teacher will end up in court over an infringement - unless such infringement interferes with the owner’s potential income. Teachers should know how to ask for permission and should teach students to ask before using any material that might be in question.
Most digital resources predate copyright law, but we all know that the internet is not in the public domain – so fair use would apply. In Education World (cited below), you’ll see this – “as a general rule, a good way to determine whether a multimedia resource is copyright protected or in the public domain is to relate it as closely as possible to a print resource.” Use caution with posting or copying links to sites with descriptions; downloading graphs, logos, fonts, photographs, or illustrations; using information from a site and making it sound like it is your own; bypassing advertising to “deep link” a site; or simply copying a site’s html code. Keep in mind that works cited on a site may not have all the proper permissions, so question your sources.
Software use and licensing should be handled on a case-by-case basis, in coordination with administration and district technical staff.
http://www.copyright.com/content/dam/cc3/marketing/documents/pdfs/Using-CourseManagement-Systems.pdf
Anyone can call the copyright office toll free at 1-877-476-0778. Contact information is also available via email on the copyright.gov website.
Chapter 1000 of copyright law covers Websites and Website Content. Read the full text at http://www.copyright.com/content/dam/cc3/marketing/documents/pdfs/Using-Course-Managementhttp://www.copyright.com/content/dam/cc3/marketing/documents/pdfs/Using-Course-Management-Systems.pdfSystems.pdf .
It seems that teachers must look at copyright from two angles. First, to make sure students understand the importance and implications of non-compliance with the law and the spirit of the law that protects original work. Second, the teacher must also abide by Fair Use under the law and model due diligence for students, while protecting themselves and the school district. In addition to this paper, a list of examples, indicating what might be permissible and what might be in question, is available as a guide for the classroom. While copyright is a sometimes vague and elusive target, it is expected that teachers in the Lexington City Schools will make every effort to be acquainted with the law, to become a practitioner who upholds and models lawful behavior, and who questions use or misuse of copyright with others who work for the district, as well as students. The greatest defense for a possible infringement is to (1) always refrain from situations where you might limit potential financial gain of a copyright holder (2) keep your cited works, either online or in print, to a minimum quantity and update them regularly (3) add a disclaimer to your online resources indicating that you either have permission, are seeking permission, or are only using cited sources for educational purposes under Fair Use.