M. P. Baker Library
Panola College

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.  Document copy available at: http://origin.www.gpoaccess.gov/constitution/pdf2002/011.pdf
Copyrights are granted for the purpose of advancing the public good of furthering knowledge and the arts.
 Copyright owners are given the exclusive rights to their works for a limited time. This is to encourage creative activities, growth in scientific, technological advances and literary works.

U.S.Code: Title 17—Copyrights is available at:
http://www.access.gpo.gov/uscode/title17/title17.html

Fair Use and Libraries

General scope of Copyright. The five fundamental rights that the bill gives to copyright owners—the exclusive rights of reproduction, adaptation, publication, performance, and display are stated generally in Section 106.
These exclusive rights, which comprise the so-called "bundle of rights" that is a copyright, are cumulative and overlap in some cases.

Even if a work is copyrighted, the facts and ideas that are a part of the work may still be used without the permission of the copyright owner. Only the author’s particular expression of these facts and ideas is protected by copyright law (Bielefield and Cheeseman 50). The first-sale doctrine is at the heart of library activities and its roots deep in English common law. The key doctrines of fair use and the fact/idea limitation on an author’s exclusive rights also are crucial to the purpose of copyright clause of the constitution (58).

Educators, librarians, and researchers are free to use the facts and ideas in a work without permission of the copyright owner. However, to copy the copyright owner’s expression without permission, the work must be in the public domain or the use must qualify as “fair use” (69).

What does “fair use” mean? Under Section 107, Minnow and Lipinski posited that it explains when certain uses of copyrighted works are deemed fair and acceptable, e.g., for such purposes as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship and research. The factors are somewhat nebulous by design, as Congress desired to provide a flexible interpretation (27).

Factors in determining “fair use” include:

The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for non profit 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; and
• The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors. The statute according to Crews, gives the framework for answering the extensive variety of questions about clipping materials for websites, or sampling other recordings in a rap-music recording. The admonishment is—be careful not to reach hasty conclusions, such as assuming that all academic uses are “fair” or that all commercial uses are not fair use (51).
Dwayne K. Butler and Kenneth D. Crews prepared a Checklist for Fair Use available at the Indiana University Copyright Management Center--http://copyright.iupui.edu/checklist.pdf

Bielefield and Cheeseman provided ‘Guidelines for educational use’ which include:

Teachers may make single copy for themselves, for research or teaching purposes, including preparation for teaching of:

• a chapter in a book
• an article from a periodical or newspaper
• a short story, short essay, or short poem, whether or not it is from a collective work
• a chart, graph, diagram, drawing, cartoon, or picture from a book, periodical, or newspaper

Teachers and faculty members have certain privileges in regard to making copies for their students. They may make multiple copies (one copy for each pupil) for classroom use if the copying meets three tests, and if the copies carry a notice of copyright. The three tests are for brevity, spontaneity, and cumulative effect.

In regard to single copying for teachers and multiple copies for classroom use, there are further prohibitions, which include:

1. Copies may not be used to create, replace, or substitute for anthologies, compilations, or collective works.
2. Consumable materials including workbooks, exercises, standardized tests, and answer sheets, are prohibited from being copied.
3. Copying must be requested by the classroom teacher and cannot be directed by higher authority.
4. Copying cannot be repeated “with respect to the same item by the same teacher from term to term.”
5. If there is a charge, the student may not be charge more than the actual costs of photocopying.

In general, these guidelines are in effect in school systems across America and in many colleges and universities as well.

Of course, a school system, college, or university should have a copyright policy in place, with the adoption these guidelines.

Panola College copyright policy is available at: http://www.tasb.org/policy/pol/private/183501/index.html

A Copyright Crash Course tutorial is provided below under the Creative Commons license from the UT System:
http://www.utsystem.edu/ogc/intellectualproperty/cprtindx.htm#top

The TEACH Act

The law amends Section 110 of Title 17 which reads:

Limitations on exclusive rights: Exemption of certain performances and displays Notwithstanding the provisions of section 106, the following are not infringements of copyright:

1. performance or display of a work by instructors or pupils in the course of face-to-face teaching activities of a nonprofit education institution, in a classroom or similar place devoted to instruction, unless, in the case of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, the performance, or the display of individual images, is given by means of a copy that was not lawfully made under this title, and that the person responsible for the performance knew or had reason to believe was not lawfully made;
2. except with respect to a work produced or marketed primarily for performance or display as part of mediated instructional activities transmitted via digital networks, or a performance or display that is given by means of copy or phonorecord that is not lawfully made and acquired under this title, and the transmitting government body or accredited nonprofit educational institution knew or had reason to believe was not lawfully made and acquired, the performance of a non-dramatic literary or musical work or reasonable and limited portions of any other work, or display of a work in an amount comparable to that which is typically displayed in the course of a live classroom session, by or in the course of a transmission, if—
   1. the performance or display is made by, at the direction of, or under the actual supervision of an instructor as an integral part of a class session offered as a regular part of the systematic mediated instructional activities of a governmental body or an accredited nonprofit educational institution;
   2. the performance or display is directly related and of material assistance to the teaching content of the transmission;
   3. the transmission is made solely for, and, to the extent technologically feasible, the reception of such transmission is limited to—

1. students officially enrolled in the course for which the transmission is made; or
2. officers or employees of governmental bodies as a part of their official duties or employment; and

4. the transmitting body or institution—

1. institutes policies regarding copyright, provides informational materials to faculty, students, and relevant staff members that accurately describe, and promote compliance with, the laws of the United States relating to copyright, and provides notice to students that materials used in connection with the course may be subject to copyright protection; and
2. in the case of digital transmissions—

1. applies technological measures that reasonably prevent—

1. retention of the work in accessible form by recipients of the transmission from the transmitting body or institution for longer than the class session; and
2. unauthorized further dissemination of the work in accessible form by such recipients to others; and

2. does not engage in conduct that could reasonably be expected to interfere with technological measures used by copyright owners to prevent such retention or unauthorized further dissemination;

Bielefield and Cheeseman comment on this last section re digital transmissions is that ‘It is the responsibility of the transmitting body or institution to apply the necessary technological measures to ensure that copyrighted materials will not be accessible after the last class session. This illustrates the new emphasis placed on the institution’s responsibilities in distance education copyright matters’ (167).

To reiterate, this part of the law insists that the institution or governmental body “provide informational materials to faculty, students, and relevant staff members that accurately describe, and promote compliance with, the laws of the United States relating to copyright” (166).

Source

Bielefield, Arlene, and Lawrence, Cheeseman. Technology and Copyright Law. 2nd ed. New York : Neal-Schuman, 2007.

Crews, Kenneth. Copyright Essentials for Librarians and Educators. Chicago : American Library Association, 2000.

Minow, Mary, and Tomas A. Lipinski. The Library's Legal Answer Book. Chicago : American Library Association, 2003.