Copyright Assignment

Group members Jonathan Sandoval, Jamie Reeder & Andrea Welch

Background Beach to find out a little history of copyright and fair use, and why
they are important to educators.

Going back to the medieval times in Europe to the last 200 years of American history
authors, creators and publishers have been trying to figure out a way to control their works
and protect their livelihood in a legal manner. This is how copyright came to be. A copyright
is defined as the exclusive right of a creator to reproduce, distribute, perform, display, sell
or rent their creations. There are several forms of expression that copyrights can protect.
Here are just some of the examples of what copyrights can protect poetry, computer
programs, artwork, music – written or recorded, animations, movies, web sites and
photography. There are also things that copyrights do not protect such as ideas, titles,
names, short phrases, mere facts and logos and slogans (protected by trademarks.) This
Copyright Act gives 5 rights to a copyright owner they are as follows:
1) The right to reproduce the copyrighted work.
2) The right to prepare derivative works based upon the original(s).
3) The right to distribute copies of the work.
4) The right to perform the work publicly.
5) The right to display the work publicly.

As educators and teachers we are able to use copyrighted work by the Fair Use concept.
This concept has evolved over the years. The lawmakers and courts have tried to balance
out the rights of copyright holders with society’s interest in making copies in some limited
circumstances. “Fair Use” carries a concept that copying is allowed only for the purposes of
criticism, news reporting, teaching and scholarly research. Although the “Fair Use” concept
is used, Congress has still refused to lock a definition of the fair use doctrine in law. It does
provide basic criteria to determine what use was “fair”. Congress does protect the rights of
copyright owners but educators at non-profit educational institutions may use “small”
portions of copyrighted works for systematic instruction.

Teacher Connection
I feel as a future educator the copyright laws are important to know and are definitely
applicable in classrooms of today. When assigning research papers or essays to students we
must remind them that some pieces of work can only be copied for educational purposes or
can be criticized. Having a good understanding of the copyright law also will help us as
future educators when we are able to copy things for teaching purposes and when we can
copy things for criticism. Also making copies of work that we may pass out in a classroom
can also be another way of how knowing about copyright laws can apply in school.

Multimedia Wharf to find out about your fair use privileges in the creation of
multimedia.
Multimedia is also known as hypermedia. Multimedia is defined as the integration of text,
graphics, audio and video into a computer based environment. One point of view of
copyright issues that uses multimedia is the inclusion of others’ work into a multimedia
program, which violates the copyright holder’s right to creating derivative works. But from
another perspective an educator is exercising the fair use privileges to use small portions of
relevant work to create an teaching objective. The Fair Use Guidelines for Educational
Multimedia are as follows:
• Students may incorporate others’ works into their multimedia projects and perform and
display them for academic purposes
• Faculty and staff may use other works for multimedia products using copyrighted works
to be accessible to students at a distance (distant learning), knowing that only those
students may access the material.
• Faculty may incorporate others’ work into their multimedia creations to produce
curriculum materials.
• Staff may demonstrate their multimedia creations at professional conferences and keep
them in their portfolios.
Staff and faculty may use the multimedia products that have copyrighted works of others
for a period of 2 years for educational use after that they must seek permission.
Finally, the key is to use the smallest portion necessary of educational work to achieve
the instructional objective.

Teacher Connection
This can be applied to me as a future teacher because technology and multimedia is used
more often today then ever before. Multimedia is used in the education field on a daily
basis, which proves to be a very important component in the classroom. The concept of
multimedia copyright is important to know especially when giving a PowerPoint presentation
and lectures you must know this concept. Some important keys that helps are that you can
only used copyrighted materials in your multimedia for a period of 2 years after that you
must get permission from the copyright owner. Another important point is to use the
smallest portion necessary for your multimedia project for educational purposes.

Single Copy Inlet defines “fair use” as how much copyrighted materials can be copied for
non-profit educational purposes without seeking the permission or making payment to the
author or publisher. 1976 Copyright Act does not define “fairuse” but there have been some
guidelines put in place by the House of Representatives. Single Copy Inlet says that the
guidelines are as follows:
• A chapter from a book.
• An article from a periodical or newspaper
• A short story
• A short essay
• A short poem
• A chart, graph, diagram, drawing cartoon or picture from a
• Book
• Periodical
• Newspaper
As an extension of the classroom a teacher can make a selection of items to be put on
reserve at the library. Students are allowed to make single copies of these items but are
held to the copyright laws. Libraries are also allowed to make single copies requested by a
teacher for the reserve room. Some other issues addressed on Single Copy Inlet include
“Electronic Reserves” this is where an instructor places work on a web page or adds a hyper
link to an article for coursework. This topic is controversial since it’s not clear if it is fairuse.
Another topic is “Coursepacks” this is where teachers select readings for students to use in
their coursework. Single Copy Inlet states that Kinko’s paid out two million dollars in
damages to publishers for making coursepacks of copyrighted materials. Some solutions to
this would be consulting a college attorney, placing these coursepacks on reserve at the
library, copying should be done in a non-profit educational setting.
Teacher Connection: I know in my time at Cal State I have had professors use e-reserve
and coursepacks. I am curious what Cal State’s policy is on this topic. This site has been
helpful because it gives me a better idea of what is legal. It does give me a better idea but I
keep in mind that these are “guidelines” they are not set in stone. In my experience I have
found coursepacks valuable and I have referred back to those readings several times for
other classes. If I choose to use course packs in my teaching I will be sure to check district
policy regarding this.

Cove of Multiple Copies

Some guidelines (not laws) for making multiple copies in the classroom include
• Limit of 2,500 words for an article
• A poem is 250 word limit
• For a longer poem, an excerpt of no more than 250 words might be used
• No more than one chart, diagram, cartoon or picture from a book, periodical or
newspaper
Cove of Multiple Copies states that copying must be done at the initiative of the teacher,
only one copy for student and the student must not be charged. The copying should be
done for only one course for one term. Other guidelines state that no more than one work
should be copied from one author, no more than three authors are copied from a single
collective work, no more than nine instances of multiple copying can happen during a single
term. You cannot copy workbooks or standardized tests. Basically the idea behind multiple
copies is that is should be done spontaneously and it should be necessary to your
educational objective.
Teacher Connection Multiple copies sounds to me like the “if you abuse it you loose it”
idea. It should not be something that is consistently violated. I wouldn’t want to make
monthly lesson plans around it but if you find some material that is necessary for a lesson
then it’s ok for a one-time use. I know this site will be helpful for me to refer back
frequently during my first few years of teaching.