Fair Use

Section 107 of the Copyright Act permits the making of multiple copies for classroom use. Such educational copying is one of the six examples of uses which do not require the payment of a royalty or the permission of the copyright owners provided that the circumstances of the use are fair as assessed by the four factors in Section 107 of the Copyright Act, the text of which follows:

Not withstanding the provisions of Section 106, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use in copies, phonorecords or by any other means specified by the section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is fair use the factors to be considered shall include:

1. The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;the nature of the copyrighted work;
2. the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
3. the effect of the use upon the potential market for and value of the copyrighted work.

The creation of multimedia works, like the creation of any text, often requires the use of works created by others. Under the CopyrightAct of 1976, copyright owners have the exclusive right to produce, prepare derivative works, rent or lend their creations. This same act also provides an exemption called fair use which places a limit on these exclusive rights so that copyrighted works can be used, without permission, to promote free speech, learning, research and discussion (i.e. noncommercial educational activities). 

It is important to remember that the determination of an infringing (illegal) use or a fair use of a copyrighted work is made on a case by case basis and on factual circumstances and by the courts. You, the user are obliged to make a reasonable and good faith attempt to apply fair use and to determine the lawful uses of copyrighted materials. We can not do that for you.

The fair use exemption is quite vague so a group of of institutions, publishers, authors, and educators convened to agree (not all agreed in the end) on an interpretation of fair use for students and educators. Note, these are guidelines and are not legally binding and exceeding the limits and proportions outlined below does not mean you are infringing copyright. However, these folks agreed that not exceeding these limits provides a safe-harbor.

FILM / VIDEO (MOTION MEDIA)

Proportion: 10%

Limits: Up to 3 minutes from a work

TEXT

Proportion: 10%

Limits: Up to 1000 Words

POETRY

Proportion: Entire Poem if 250 words or less

Limits: Up to 250 words

Additional Guidelines: If from anthology, limit 3 from one poet or 5 poems total

MUSIC, LYRICS OR MUSIC VIDEO

Proportion: 10%

Limits: 30 seconds maximum

Additional Guidelines: No change in melody or fundamental character of work.

PHOTOS / ILLUSTRATIONS

Proportion: Complete photo

Limits: Up to five from one artist

COLLECTED WORK

Proportion: 10%

Limits: Up to 15 images

Additional Guidelines: Max 15 from a single collected work

DATABASE (NUMERICAL DATA SETS)

Proportion: 10%

Limits: Up to 2500 fields or cell entries

Additional Guidelines: Cell entry is row by columnintersect (spreadsheet). Field item is single item of information.

Above information compiled from the University of Indiana and the University of Tenessee