This is a general list of rules of thumb for the use of copyrighted material in the classroom. For more information, please check the tabs above.
Print Materials:
Distributing Copies
Using Materials Found on the Internet
Using Multimedia
Multimedia works are created by combining copyrighted elements such as movies, music, sounds, graphics, and text. It is recommended that you use only small portions of other people's works.
Suggested limits:
1. May I upload PDFs of articles or book chapters to my online course?
2. May I stream entire movies in my online course?
3. May I embed or link to entire YouTube videos in my online course?
Q: May I upload PDFs of articles of book chapters to my online course?
A: Where did you obtain the PDF?
If you downloaded the work from the Library's electronic resource collection, the terms of the license for that resource will control what can be done with the content. Most of the licenses prohibit reposting materials but you are usually able to link to the work directly from your course website.
If instead, you scanned the article from a unlicensed resource, such as a print book or print journal, you will need to do a fair use analysis.
Q: May I stream entire movies in my online course?
A: Generally speaking, no, not without a streaming license.
Streaming an entire movie does not constitute transmitting the performance of “reasonable and limited portions.” [see Section 110(2) discussion above). Furthermore, if the audiovisual work is an educational work created specifically for online mediated instructional activities or is a pirated copy, it is automatically ineligible for the Section 110(2) exemption. Similarly, this scenario is unlikely to pass the fair use analysis because most of the four factors are not in favor of a fair use finding. Although it is a nonprofit educational use, it is not particularly transformative, the nature of the work is highly creative, the amount used is the entire work, and there may or may not be an effect on the market.
Q: May I embed or link to YouTube videos into my online class?
A: There appears to be minimal risk in this activity, as follows:
There are several broad categories of YouTube videos used for courses. One type of YouTube video is one that may incorporate portions of commercially made movies and music. YouTube has a very sophisticated system in place that automatically and immediately compares every second of every uploaded video with content in its rights management database and applies whatever rule the rights holder has attached to the content. Given the ubiquitous nature of YouTube, it is reasonable to assume that commercial rights holders will have deposited copies of their works in YouTube’s rights management database with accompanying instructions on what to do should any of their material show up in a video. Therefore, it follows that if a video is up for viewing on YouTube, the rights holder has allowed it. Watch this explanatory TED video: Margaret Gould Stewart: How YouTube Thinks About Copyright.
The other type of YouTube video often used is the homemade video. These are the ones you see of students sleeping in class, pets and children doing unusual things, and so forth. It is likely that the photographer, who is automatically the copyright holder, is the same individual who uploaded the film to the YouTube site in the first place - clearly aware that millions of people will view and possibly use or link to it. Based on that, there is likely an implied license to use it.
Using Copyrighted Materials In Your Online Course
The ability to locate, copy, and upload digital materials to an online course makes it much easier to inadvertently infringe the copyright of the content provider. What should you keep in mind while selecting course content and what can you use?
Some ground 'rules'
• Assume all content, regardless of format, publication status, or absence of a copyright notice is copyrighted.
• Proper attribution is necessary. It does not mean you can use any amount of any work as long as attribution is given.
• A nonprofit educational use is not, in and of itself, a fair one.
• Remember that students hold the copyright to works they create for the course. You may need their permission before you use their work.
• Password protecting your course enhances any claim of fair use. It is not, however, permission to upload anything/everything you wish to include.
What Can You Use?
• Use your own original works - as long as you are still the copyright holder or have retained a right to use the work for teaching purposes.
• Use works in the public domain. A quick, but not complete, rule of thumb: if the work was published in the U.S. before 1923, it is in the public domain. However, beginning January 1, 2019, this benchmark -1923- will update to 1924. And each year thereafter, the benchmark year will progress, that is, on January 1, 2020, the benchmark year will be 1925 and so forth.
• Use federal government works [works created by a federal government employee within the scope of their employment]
• Use works pursuant to the Performance and Display Provisions of Section 110(2):
- Performance of reasonable and limited portions of movies and music as long as the work was not specifically created for online mediated educational use.
- Display of text, images, photos, graphs, etc., in an amount comparable to what you would have ordinarily shown in a face-to-face classroom setting.
- Requires access control at the class level and requires reasonable technological efforts to prevent the students from saving, downloading, printing, or otherwise having the work in accessible form after they log out of the class.
- If you are unable to fit within Section 110(2), fair use (Section 107) is available.
• Use works pursuant to Fair Use, Section 107.
The Fair Use Doctrine, or section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act, allows reproduction of copyrighted works under certain circumstances like teaching, criticism and scholarship if, for each use, the four factors of fair use are considered in determining whether the use is fair.
In general, in a face to face classroom situation, a single copy for teaching purposes, including only a small amount of a copyrighted work (e.g. one chapter of a book), is usually acceptable. Multiple copies provided to students should not exceed one copy per student, be used ‘in the moment’ (e.g. the inspiration and the decision to use the material must be close in time), not substitute for purchase of books by students, include a copyright notice, and not include consumable material like work book or test pages.
More information on the four factors of a fair use analysis and the USF Libraries' Fair Use checklist.
This worksheet is offered as a tool to help you determine if your use of copyrighted content is likely to be considered to be a “fair use.”
U.S. Copyright Office overview of applicable laws and guidelines for educators using copyrighted material in their classes.
Digital handout with tips for faculty creating or revising online courses.
Online and face to face classrooms are treated differently by copyright law. However, for both types of classroom setting you can:
Instructors of face to face classes may play a video of any duration, display pictures, play music and perform plays due to an exception in copyright law (U.S. Copyright Act Section 110(1)) as long as 1.) it is a regular part of instructional activities and directly related to teaching content and 2.) no admission charge is collected. Online classes are addressed in more detail in the following section.
Useful Links
Information on requesting permissions to use copyrighted material including a request template.
The Copyright Guide's Open Use Media Resources page can help you find pictures, audio, and video that has been released with an open use license.
Swank K-12 Video Streaming (March Library)
Swank provides streaming access to over 200 feature films and documentaries for educational use. Teachers can easily find and stream movies in the classroom, or they can assign to students for viewing outside of class. Contact us if you need help logging in, and visit our Database Tips and Tricks page for tutorials on using Swank.
The “Technology, Education, and Copyright Harmonization Act,” or “TEACH Act,” added to copyright law as Section 110(2) in 2002, outlines how educators may use copyrighted works in their online classes. It includes a sizeable list of conditions that must all be satisfied in order to adhere to the law, including that the media must be lawfully acquired, part of systematic mediated instruction activities, restricted in access, that only portions of dramatic works can be shown, etc.
This checklist is provided as a tool to track compliance with the TEACH act and help point the way to other legal uses of copyrighted content should your project not fit the TEACH act.
This tool can also help you collect information detailing your educational use and provide you with a summary in PDF format.
If your use does not fit the T.E.A.C.H. Act you can still link to the material. Linking to an image, video, or public website is not copying. While you should still cite and give attribution to the owner of the website, it is not usually required to request permission to link to a publicly available website.
If you are using library licensed content, your use in your class has been pre-negotiated. March Library provides a robust collection of online videos and databases that can be located via the library website.
Books, media, databases, and more available at March Library.
Slide Images
If it was legal to show slide images in class, it is likely legal to show them to students via live video conferencing or in recorded videos. The issue is usually less offline versus online, than a restricted versus an unrestricted audience. As long as your new course video is being shared through course websites limited to the same enrolled students, the legal issues are fairly similar. It is also a good idea to cite any images you use, regardless of their copyright status.
Many instructors routinely post a copy of their slides as a file for students to access after in-person course meetings, which also likely doesn't present any new issues after online course meetings.
In-lecture use of audio or video
Here, the differences between online and in-person teaching can be a bit more complex. Playing audio or video from physical media during an in-person class session is 100% legal under a provision of copyright law called the “Classroom Use Exemption.” However, that exemption doesn’t cover playing the same media online. If you can limit audio and video use for your course to relatively brief clips, you may be able to include those in lecture recordings or live-casts under the copyright provision called fair use. For media use longer than brief clips, you may need to have students independently access the content outside of your lecture videos.
For more in-depth analysis, see The Copyright Implications of Teaching with Videos.
Sharing lecture recordings
The TEACH Act requires that only enrolled students can have access to online course materials. When you are sharing recordings of your lectures, be sure to make them accessible only to your students, such as through the university's Blackboard system. If you choose to upload videos to YouTube, set them to be private or unlisted. However, be aware that videos posted on YouTube may encounter some automated copyright enforcement, such as a takedown notice, or disabling of included audio or video content. These automated enforcement tools are often--incorrect--when they flag audio, video, or images included in instructional videos; they fail to account for fair use.
This content was adapted from a guide by the University of Minnesota Libraries licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License.
Where a digital file of a book, a scan of a book, and a physical copy of a book are usually all considered equivocal copies by Copyright law, the same cannot always be said in the world of 3D printing. Copyright may protect the design of a 3D object, the file that the printer and program use to create the object, and the final object in different ways.
Are you beginning with a scan of a pre-existing object?
Are you beginning with a design file created by someone else?
Are you intending to sell or license your 3D projects?
You will only be able to control the copying, display and dissemination of objects or parts of objects that are protected by copyright.
Your answers to these questions will help you determine whether you need to request permissions from the copyright owner and define what rights you will have as the creator of your 3D printed work.
These are articles and informative sites that explore how copyright applies to 3D printed objects and the process of 3D printing.
Michael Weinberg's white paper that seeks to explain the licensing and copyright status of 3D printed items.
A white paper by Michael Weinberg that explores how copyright is applied to 3D objects.
NPR broadcast and article exploring the emerging questions of copyright in the 3D printing landscape.