Fair Use Guidelines
What is “fair use†as it relates to copyrighted materials in higher education?
For something to be fair use in education it must be used with a non profit institution. Four conditions apply, purpose, factual, small, and does not disrupt the monetary compensation of the original source.
The term fair use came into use when the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976. In education for nonprofit organizations. There is some latitude for instructors to use material that support a course in the event it adds value to the course. For profit institutions do not fall under the fair use act and would require direct permission from the copyright holder to use any resources are elements that are not owned by institution.
Fair use is the right to use portions of copyrighted materials without permission for purposes of education, commentary, or parody. This applies to higher education in that we as educators can use these copyrighted materials in an educational setting for educational purposes without specific permission.
The explanation of Fair Use seems to apply to not-for-profit educational institutions, but the spirit of the law appears to have a two-fold consequence. While protecting the copyright owners intellectual property rights the primary focus is to prevent a for-profit use of the materials (by the instructor or institution presumably). However, if material is used by a student rather than an instructor in the process of completing an assignment - there appears to be some ambiguity.
If a student at a for-profit institution were in a class that teaches Photoshop and had an assignment - would it be okay for that student to find an electronic image on the World Wide Web and manipulate that image for the assignment?
In this scenario, there were enough changes made to the image that the original photographer would not recognize the image after the Photoshop editing. Secondly, the student had no intention of using the image for anything other than obtaining a grade for the assignment. It was not to be sold, or used directly to get a job as a photo-retouch artist. Would this situation constitute Fair Use?
Robert,
"there were enough changes made to the image that the original photographer would not recognize the image after the Photoshop editing." This is the problematic part. The student had edited the photo so much as to take the value away from it. so, they would need to ask permission to use it since they had alerted it.
Renee Shaffer
“Fair use†is the act that allows accredited non-profit education institutions the use of certain copyrighted materials as long as the use of the material is minimal and does not affect the copyright holder from being able to make profit off that specific copyrighted material in question.
Lawrence,
Yes, good work. Just make sure that everyone is on board when using the term "minimal". What is minimal to one person may not be to the copyright holder.
Renee Shaffer
Fair use, is a defense for using copyrighted material. Basically, you are justified in using small portions of the material as long as it is for a nonprofit organization and that the portion used is not the essence of the original. Also, usage of the material should not degrade the value of purchasing the entirety of the original..
Fair use, is a defense for using copyrighted material. Basically, you are justified in using small portions of the material as long as it is for a nonprofit organization and that the portion used is not the essence of the original. Also, usage of the material should not degrade the value of purchasing the entirety of the original..
One of the most important concepts about fair use is that an instructor can use certain copyrighted materials if this use is minimal, and does not deny the copyright holder the ability to make money or a sale
Harley,
A defense, yes, but one that the user really needs to be aware of before using the copyrighted materials, don't you think?
Renee Shaffer
Many of my students have asked about commercials which feature the image of a competitive brand. Explaining to them that it is fair use as long as the product is not misrepresented, is helpful to their understanding that there are different forms of fair use.
Fair use is intended for students to gain use to educational materials, yet without infringing on an authors gains
When in doubt ask ask ask permission.
Though fair use and the Teach Act applies to nonprofit, my argument would be to some how find a definition and understanding for how for-profit teachers can make good use of information. It seems to be an obvious answer - but nonprofit organizations are also profitable .
When copyright laws were set in the 70's it was to protect the creator. I am not sure how the artist would feel knowing that his or her work is being altered. This would seem to me -- to be a reason for permissions.
