Copyright in the Digital Age

No doubt you've seen copyrighted material used in many situations. Sometimes it's OK. Those times when it is we call Fair Use. There are special situations in which using copyrighted material may be necessary so some legal protections have been created so people can make this work. Here's the catch: Fair Use is determined on a case-by-case basis so it would be difficult to say that something is okay in every circumstance. What this page will try to do is provide you with some guidelines so that you can make your own educated decision when using copyrighted material.

Let's get a few myths out of the way first:

1. If I only use ten seconds of a song it's okay. False. There is actually no distinction relating to a fraction or percentage of copyrighted material. It either falls under Fair Use guidelines or it doesn't.

2. If I am not making any money off of it then I can use it. False. This has nothing to do with the legal use of copyrighted material.

3. If something doesn't say Copyrighted then it is free to use. False. Pretty much everything created is copyrighted unless the owner moves to put it in the Public Domain or attaches a Creative Commons license to it.

4. As long as I password protect the image/video/song then I can use it. False. While this is one factor in determining Fair Use sometimes, it is not a protection in itself.

5. It is legal to copy a work if you give the copyright holder credit and provide a citation. False. Just giving someone credit is not enough to protect you.

Five items is good enough for now. You might think that this is so restrictive that you're wondering if it's ever okay to use copyrighted material. It is. You probably see it happen in school every single day. The best way to protect yourself is to get permission from the copyright holder to use something. In that case, go nuts and use it how you told the person you would. There are other protections as well and as mentioned previously, they're called Fair Use. Here's when and how you can use or make reproductions of copyrighted material:

1. Criticism/comment/news reporting- You are free to use a work if you are critiquing the work. In this case you've changed the intended purpose of the image/video/song/etc.

2. Teaching/scholarship/research- This means that if what you are using is tied to an educational objective and it's only being used for your teaching/learning in class you have some protection. This may seem like it's wide open to do whatever you want as long as it's in school but that is not the case. There are some factors to consider here as well:

A. Is it for nonprofit educational purposes;

B. The nature of the copyrighted work (for instance, if it's a worksheet that is copyrighted then making copies for your class would be illegal unless you own multiple copies or have permission.)

C. How much of the material you are using. This one is kind of vague, but if you make a copy of a whole book for a class instead of just an excerpt or a chapter then you're probably breaking the law.

D. The effect on the market for the copyright holder. If in any way these copies will harm the ability of the copyright holder to make money then you're probably not protected. (This kind of goes along with item B.)

3. Quotations/excerpts for the purposes of review, illustration or comment. Ever watch someone review a movie and play clips of it to show what they're talking about? That's OK.

4. Parody. If you've ever seen an episode of the Daily Show or The Colbert Report you might wonder how they get away with playing clips of copyrighted material every night. The answer is, as long as they making fun of it and using the clip to illustrate their point or show how ridiculous something is then it's OK. Comedians have about as much protections under Fair Use as teachers and students do.

5. Reproducing a portion of a work to replace a damaged copy. Libraries may need to do this for some of their books that get damaged. 

Sometimes you can use materials and you don't even need to worry about Fair Use. Here's a handout that gives you some circumstances when you don't need to worry about it.

The bottom line is, that there really is no clear rule that applies all of the time. Each circumstance is separate and needs to be judged on its own.