Introduction

Navigating Copyright in Digital Media

As online components to our courses become more and more prevalent, we are able to access a wealth of information that we may want to share with our students, but how do we ensure that everything that we want to use in our class is okay to use? Copyright law has some vague aspects, but if you stick to these basic rules, you can avoid some headaches and keep everything above board.

Navigating Copyright in Digital Media

Copyright: The Basics

Contrary to what some people may believe, using materials for your online or in-person classes is not a free-for-all under the Free Use policy. So, what exactly does fair use cover? A document may be fair use if:

  • It is in the public domain. Largely, this is for works published before 1923, or is a work published between 1923 and 1977 that did not give proper notice of copyright. Project Gutenberg is a completely free database that provides access to over 70,000 eBooks, focusing on now-public-domain resources.
  • The work was published from 1978 through the present and the author has been deceased for more than 70 years. For example, “Go! Set A Watchman” by Harper Lee, published in 2015, will be in the public domain starting on February 19, 2086, 70 years after her death.
  • The work has corporate authorship, was created from 1978 to the present, and has been published for 95 years or was created 120 years ago, whichever is shorter.
  • If it was made by a non-profit group that expressly stated it would be available for classroom or public use.

As educators, you have some special provisions. Some things to consider with your course materials are the following:

  • The purpose and character of use: It should be non-commercial and transformative, meaning that it was used to create something new.
  • Nature of the work: Factual works are more likely to qualify as usable than creative works, and published works are preferable over unpublished works.
  • Amount and substantiality of portion used: Small quantities should be used (described below), and the amount is appropriate for its educational purpose. For example, you do not provide 10 pages of a book when only a couple of pages are necessary for an assignment.
  • Effect of the use upon the potential market: Use does not decrease the monetary value of the work, a similar product is not used by the copyright holder, and there is not a licensing mechanism.

It is also always better to provide a link to the resource rather than downloading it and uploading it to your Canvas page. This way, there will be no confusion over the ownership of the work and you can steer clear of copyright violations.

Lastly, if you pulled an article, chapter, or video from a textbook or textbook company and are no longer using that textbook, you are no longer allowed to use that resource.

In addition to these guidelines, you should also adhere to the rules below.

Copyright: The Confusing

  • Single Copying for Teachers: A single chapter from a book, an article from a periodical or newspaper, a short story, short essay, or short poem, a graphic from a book, periodical, or newspaper is allowed.
  • Multiple Copies for Classroom Use: It is allowed if copying meets the tests of brevity AND spontaneity (both discussed below), is used only for one class, you only copy one work from the same author, only three from the same collective work or periodical are used throughout the semester, and there are only nine instances of multiple copying throughout the term. *

Definitions of Brevity

  • Poetry: Complete poems that are fewer than 250 words and only printed on 2 pages or fewer are allowed. For a longer poem, an excerpt may be used if it is a maximum of 250 words.
  • Prose: It is acceptable if the complete article, story, or essay is shorter than 2,500 words, or for an excerpt, it must not be more than 1,000 words or 10% of the total length of the work, whichever is shorter.
  • Illustration: One chart, graph, diagram, drawing, cartoon, or picture per book or periodical issue is allowed.

Definitions of Spontaneity

  • Copying is done by and the decision of an individual teacher.
  • The time between the decision to use the material and the date of the class is so short that the teacher does not have time to request permission and receive a timely reply.

*Exceptions

  • Copying shall not be used to replace anthologies, compilations, or collective works.
  • Copied works cannot be “consumable,” meaning workbooks, exercises, tests, etc.
  • It shall not substitute the purchase of books, reprints, or periodicals.
  • The same item cannot be used by the same teacher from term to term.
  • You cannot charge students for the cost of copying.

For more information on copyright laws for educators, you can access the Reproduction of Copyrighted Works by Educators and Librarians .pdf.

Copyright: The Solutions

This all can be a lot to remember, but you will always have access to fair use materials! These are works that fall within fair-use guidelines, were published with expressed permission to be used in classrooms, or were published specifically to be fair use. One of the most common public domain sources is YouTube. While you cannot personally download any of the videos without infringing on the channel’s copyright, you are always welcome to link the videos in your class. The only thing that you have to be aware of is if the video is a pirated video. If it is pirated, the publisher of the video and the channel name are most likely going to be different and the video may have low quality resolution, may not fully fill the screen, or more recently, it may have a split screen with some other video playing at the same time as the video. If you ever have a question about a source, always feel free to contact the SSIT’s with Faulkner Online and they will do whatever they can to help you.

If you want some free stock photos that won’t give you a computer virus, we recommend either Unsplash or Pexels. Both of these websites offer images that can be downloaded for free and are uploaded by creators specifically for other people to use. While their licenses are very similar, they are not identical, so be sure to double check it before using those photos.

For some older print resources, you can look at HathiTrust Digital Library. While these would not be the most up-to-date sources, they would offer a historical perspective on various topics and it is a great way to give students easy-to-access texts. For more current resources, you can link an article through Google Scholar or allow them to use one the databases through the Nichols Library. The Nichols Library has digital services that can even help students who are not on campus access our materials.

If you do not like what you see on any of these websites, you are certainly able to look for resources on your own, just be very careful because some free-to-download materials may give your computer a virus. If you ever have a question about a website, do not download anything or give them any personal information! If you need help finding a resource, please contact the Nichols Library or one of the SSIT’s so that they can help you safely find something that would work for your class.

References

American University. (2010). What Faculty Need to Know About Copyright for Teaching. American University. https://www.american.edu/library/documents/upload/copyright_for_teaching.pdf

United States Copyright Office. (2014, August). Reproduction of Copyrighted Works by Educators and Librarians. Copyright.gov. https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ21.pdf