Park falls school district

© fair use guidelines

 

Fair Use Guidelines for Multimedia Productions

 

SCENARIO/QUESTION:

 

In creating a classroom video, what guidelines do students need to adhere to that will ensure they are following fair use guidelines?

 

DEFINITION OF EDUCATIONAL MULTIMEDIA PROJECTS:    

 

According to Multimedia Fair Use Guidelines (CCUMC) from the University of Texas System, “educational multimedia projects…incorporate students’ or educators’ original material, such as course notes or commentary, together with various copyrighted media formats including but not limited to, motion media, music, text material, graphics, illustrations, photographs and digital software which are combined into an integrated presentation.”

 

EXAMPLES OF EDUCATIONAL MULTIMEDIA PRESENTATIONS:

 

  1. PowerPoint presentation
  2. Video created for a class assignment

 

SCENARIO ANSWER:

  1. The Digital Millennium Act of 1998 basically says that all created works set down in physical form are copyrighted, whether or not they include the © symbol.
  2. “Students may incorporate portions of lawfully acquired copyrighted works when producing their own educational multimedia projects for a specific course.”

3.      “Uses of educational multimedia projects created under these guidelines are subject to the Time, Portion, Copying and Distribution Limitations...”  See chart.

4.      “Students may perform and display their own educational multimedia projects…for educational uses in the course for which they were created and may use them in their own portfolios as examples of their academic work for later personal uses such as job and graduate school interviews.”

5.      “Educators and students must seek individual permissions (licenses) before using copyrighted works in educational multimedia projects for commercial reproduction and distribution.”

6.      “Even for educational uses, educators and students must seek individual permissions for all copyrighted works incorporated in their personally created educational multimedia projects before replicating or distributing beyond the limitations listed [above].”

7.      “Educators and students may not use their personally created educational multimedia projects over electronic networks, [except as described above,] without obtaining permissions for all copyrighted works incorporated in the program.”

8.      “Educators and students are advised to exercise caution in using digital material downloaded from the Internet in producing their own educational multimedia projects, because there is a mix of works protected by copyright and works in the public domain on the network. Access to works on the Internet does not automatically mean that these can be reproduced and reused without permission or royalty payment and, furthermore, some copyrighted works may have been posted to the Internet without authorization of the copyright holder.”

9.      “Educators and students are reminded to credit the sources and display the copyright notice © and copyright ownership information if this is shown in the original source, for all works incorporated as part of the educational multimedia projects prepared by educators and students, including those prepared under fair use. Crediting the source must adequately identify the source of the work, giving a full bibliographic description where available (including author, title, publisher, and place and date of publication). The copyright ownership information includes the copyright notice (©, year of first publication and name of the copyright holder). The credit and copyright notice information may be combined and shown in a separate section of the educational multimedia project (e.g. credit section) except for images incorporated into the project... In such cases, the copyright notice and the name of the creator of the image must be incorporated into the image when, and to the extent, such information is reasonably available; credit and copyright notice information is considered "incorporated" if it is attached to the image file and appears on the screen when the image is viewed. In those cases when displaying source credits and copyright ownership information on the screen with the image would be mutually exclusive with an instructional objective (e.g. during examinations in which the source credits and/or copyright information would be relevant to the examination questions), those images may be displayed without such information being simultaneously displayed on the screen. In such cases, this information should be linked to the image in a manner compatible with such instructional objectives.”

10.  “Educators and students are advised that they must include on the opening screen of their multimedia program and any accompanying print material a notice that certain materials are included under the fair use exemption of the U.S. Copyright Law and have been prepared according to the multimedia fair use guidelines and are restricted from further use.”

11.  “Educators and students are advised to note that if there is a possibility that their own educational multimedia project incorporating copyrighted works under fair use could later result in broader dissemination, whether or not as commercial product, it is strongly recommended that they take steps to obtain permissions during the development process for all copyrighted portions rather than waiting until after completion of the project.”

12.  “Educators and students may make alterations in the portions of the copyrighted works they incorporate as part of an educational multimedia project only if the alterations support specific instructional objectives. Educators and students are advised to note that alterations have been made.”

 

“Fair Use Guidelines for Educational Multimedia.” University of Texas System. 

 

            6 August 2001. University of Texas System.  30 March 2007. 

 

http://utsystem.edu/ogc/intellectualproperty/ccmcguid.htm#6

 

(Bolded sections are the committee’s emphasis and not in the original document.)

 

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS:

 

  1. Post fair use guidelines chart in all classrooms.
  2. As part of any multimedia project, discuss fair use with students and how that affects the gathering and displaying of information.
  3. Require students to put the information in #10 above as the first slide or opening sequence of their production.
  4. As you assess a student’s project, include a section for whether or not they properly used copyrighted materials.

 

POSSIBLE CONSEQUENCES:

 

  1. If we do not require our students to do this, they may not be adequately prepared when teachers in their college or technical school classes do.
  2. There is a $500 to $150,000 penalty per infringement plus attorney fees, and “willful infringement means that you knew you were infringing and you did it anyway.  Ignorance of the law, though, is no excuse.  If you don’t know that are infringing, you still will be liable for damages.” (http://www.utsystem.edu/ogc/intellectualproperty/copypol2.htm; http://www.nolo.com/index.cfm)
  3. In addition to the civil penalties noted above, the infringement could be deemed as a criminal offense punishable by a fine or imprisonment. (http://www.nolo.com/index.cfm)
  4. The infringement is a violation of Park Falls School District’s revised copyright policy, adopted in April 2007, which states that all employees and students “will comply with copyright regulations as identified in the U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, United States Code, Sect. 101, et seq and the Technology, Education and Copyright Harmonization Act Amendments of 2002), the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, and Section 107 of the 1976 Copyright Law (Limitations on Exclusive Rights: Fair Use). This policy and Fair Use Guidelines will be posted at all District copy machines and computer printers and in all District computer labs.  Materials in all print and media forms may not be unlawfully duplicated or used within the District.  Any employees or students who use copyrighted material illegally will be responsible for their own actions and the consequences thereof.

 

 

ACTION TAKEN BY DISTRICT:

 

  1. The copyright policy and fair use guideline charts are posted in all computer labs.
  2. This document is distributed and explained to all District staff members at the beginning of the school year.
  3. This document with the other copyright scenarios addressed the District Copyright Committee is posted on the library websites for easy reference.

 

Date:    _July 11, 2007

 

Entry # _5_