Are educators in these scenarios adhering to Fair Use guidelines?
| Scenario 1 A middle school science class studying ocean ecosystems must gather material for multimedia projects. The teacher downloads pictures and information on marine life from various commercial and noncommercial sites to store in a folder for students to access. |
| Scenario 2 A media specialist transfers an educational film to videotape and then burns it to a DVD because the district has decided it will no longer support its 16mm projectors. |
| Scenario 3 A teacher gets clip art and music from popular file-sharing sites, then creates a lesson plan and posts it on the school Web site to share with other teachers. This is permissible. |
| Scenario 4 A student snaps in half a CD-ROM the teacher really needed for her next class. The teacher decides to make a back-up copy of all her crucial disks so it never happens again. This is permissible. |
*Scenarios 1, 3, 4 - © 2002 Halldavidson.net, Hall Davidson - Reproduced with permission for educational purposes. Also available at http://www.techlearning.com/db_area/archives/TL/2002/10/copyright.html
** Scenario 2
Johnson, D. & Simpson, C. (2005) Are you the copy cop? Why copyright violations happen in schools and how to prevent them. Learning and leading with technology, 32(7), 14-20 . Retrieved July 13, 2005, from database: InfoTrac.
Extension Activity:
Take the Copyright Quiz
Resources:
Two resources from the Hall Davidson Website
Classroom Copyright Chart for Teachers
Copyright Scenarios Checklist for Administrators
http://copyscape.com
http://creativecommons.org/
