Fair Use
This article is reprinted with permission from iSafe from the iEducator Times, November 2007
Many teachers have heard the term fair use and believe it means that it gives them open-ended permission so they can legally use items for educational purposes. In truth, the doctrine of fair use was created to allow the use of copyrighted works for criticism and commentary, parody, news reporting, research and scholarship, and classroom instruction. However, the guiding idea behind fair use is that by using the work, one is not diverting income from the creator. While the Conference on Fair Use (CONFU) attempted to develop guidelines everyone could agree upon, nothing was firmly decided. As a result, the digital fair use guidelines can be particularly blurry. Four primary guidelines can be used to determine whether one is operating fairly under the doctrine of fair use: 1. The purpose and character of the use(commercial vs. nonprofit educational).
2. The nature of the copyrighted work (fact vs. fiction; published vs. unpublished).3. The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole (how much will be used without permission; as educators, you may be able to make a copy of something for students one time, but using the same thing repetitively isn’t fair use).
4. The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work (will the creator lose money?).
Still confused? Some true-to-life situations may help better explain various concepts of the fair use doctrine. You have edited together video footage of major news events throughout the year as part of a school project. This includes very short clips from news shows on NBC, CNN, etc. The project turned out so good that school administrators want to use it as an intro to the video yearbook they are selling. Is this allowed under fair use? NO Why? While this started as a school project, you cannot use other people’s work to make money. By including the project in a video yearbook and selling it, the video clips are no longer fair use. As part of a school project your students are compiling a PowerPoint of this school year’s activities. They are scanning in photos and making a slide show with music. The students would like to use the song, “I Will Remember You” by Sarah McLachlan, as the background music for their slide show. You own the CD, so you put the entire track behind your creation.
Is this allowed under fair use? NO Why? Fair use provides that you can use a portion of a song—less then 30 seconds—not the entire song. If you limited it, you would probably be OK.
Your students created an awesome multimedia project on the solar system using graphics found on NASA’s Web site. You would like to post their projects on the school Web site as an example to others.
Is this allowed under fair use? YES Why? Most government materials are free of copyright. If you were to check the NASA Web site, it gives permission to use materials freely (except for commercial promotional use). There are some exceptions to this rule and it is always best to check with the government organization first. Again, the difference between fair use and infringement can often be fuzzy. If you have any doubt, get permission from the copyright owner beforehand. For more information, go to www.iSafe.org
Copyright, Important News | 
Karen Vitek | November 28, 2007
