COPYRIGHT

LAW Copyright is the legal protection of an authors rights regarding their fixed media creations (i.e. writings, musical compositions, videos, photographs). In the United States, copyright law protects the author against the unlawful copying, distribution, or adaptation of their own original work. This means that only the author of a creative work may:
Reproduce or distribute their work Create anything based on the original work Display or perform the work publicly

If anyone but the author does these things, its called copyright infringement and it is punishable by law. FAIR USE Copyright law does not prohibit all forms of reuse, however. Sometimes you can copy or reuse a portion of someone elses work. This is known as fair use. Fair use means that someone may copy or reuse part of someone elses original work without the authors permission in certain circumstances. This includes things like quoting someones work and citing them as the author. Legally, you can determine if you are violating copyright law by asking yourself the following questions:
Is the original work creative? Are you reusing it for commercial reasons? Are you changing the work in any way? How much of the original work do you want to use? Who are you sharing it with? Are you going to affect the market of the original work?

As an educator, it is important to properly cite your sources when you use someone elses language, images, or other media. Making a photocopy of a page from a textbook for your students is different that photocopying many chapters. At that point, you are effecting the market for the textbook by providing so much of its content to your students for free. PUBLIC DOMAIN Public domain resources are not protected by copyright law. This includes works for which the copyright period has expired (all works created before 1923, for example) and government publications.

Sources for the information on this handout: http://www.copyright.gov/title17/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain

EXAMPLES OF FAIR USE IN THE CLASSROOM: Copying a paragraph or two from a textbook for your students Taking ideas from another teachers lesson plans Quoting a resource and listing the source of the quote Purchasing an educational video and playing it for your students Using public domain resources and open educational resources (you have the authors permission to copy and reuse their work) EXAMPLES OF COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT IN THE CLASSROOM: Copying whole chapters from a textbook for your students Packaging someone elses lesson plans as your own for personal gain Quoting resources without acknowledging the original author Purchasing an educational video and making copies for other teachers Altering or embellishing another authors or artists original work