Policy Brief-Copyright, TEACH act, and Fair Use in Schools

Copyright

The protection the government gives to inventors, creators and artists for their tangable evidence of their idea is called copyright. It protects; Print/Text, Films, Movies, Pictures, Images, Music and Sounds. The reason we have copyright laws is so that an individual can earn money from their work and get paid by others for using it. Copyright originally only lasted 14 years, but has been extended to the originators life plus 70 years after that it becomes public domain.

Public Domain

Other works that are public domain are any works published in the U.S. before 1923. Some works published in U.S. in 1923 through 1963 had 28 years of copyright but you need to check to see if it was renewed. Works published in the U.S. in 1964 through 1977 enjoy an automatic copyright renewal which protects the work for 95 years.

works published in 1978 or later are protected by copyright for the life of the author plus 70 years and a day, and this also applies to unpublished works. Works published by the U.S. Federal Government regardless of publication date are automatically public domain. Materials that are in the Public Domain are free to use in any capacity. Some websites host photos and videos and request users to acknowledge the source, link to a source or cite the source. Users should read carefully to know the exact requirements.

Fair Use

Citizens felt that it was important to keep works available to others in order to generate new ideas through education. Teachers and schools have a right to this material. There are several ways to use Copyrighted works legally. The first is to pay the owner for the use of the work. This would be done for producing a school play and charging admission for the show. The use of the work is limited. Another way to legally use copyrighted materials is to get the owner’s written permission to use it. The most common way teachers and schools exercise their right to this material is by standing behind the legally defensible Fair Use Act which was created to make it easier for teachers and schools to excersize their rights.

"Fair use" protects both the owner of copyrighted material from financial damage and the rights of the public to limited use of copyrighted material. Fair Use allows limited use of copyrighted material without requiring permission from the rights holders. There are four factors to be considered in determining whether or not a particular use is fair:

1. The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;



2. The nature of the copyrighted work;



3. The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and



4. The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

The TEACH Act

The Technology, Education, and Copyright Harmonization Act (TEACH ACT) expands the scope of educators' rights to perform and display works and to make the copies integral to such performances and displays for digital distance education, making the rights closer to those we have in face-to-face teaching. But there is still a considerable gap between what the statute authorizes for face-to-face teaching and for distance education. In general the same 4 factors apply for the TEACH ACT. Unfortunately there are more prerequisites to fullfil in using the TEACH act as a legally defensible position, and it is specific for use in remote classrooms especially distance education. Even with the “22 (!) prerequisites we may be optimistic that, together with fair use, this new statute will achieve Congress' goal of facilitating the use of digital technologies in distance education.” For a handy checklist go to http://www.utsystem.edu/ogc/IntellectualProperty/Teachact.htm for use when you have a question about copyright infringement.





References:

Heller, James S. (2002) Copyright, fair use and for-profit sector. Business Service Industry, BNET Business Network. Retrieved on 11 July 2008 from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FWE/is_5_6/ai_85880884



FindLaw Lawyer Directory. ( 2008) Chart: Fair Use or Public Domain? Retrieved on 10 July 2008 from http://smallbusiness.findlaw.com/copyright/copyright-using/public-domain-vs-fairuse.html



Hoffman, Ivan, (2006). ARTICLES ABOUT CORPORATE TRAINING AND ONLINE EDUCATION. Retrieved on July 11, 2008 from http://www.ivanhoffman.com/protected2.html



Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). (2002). Fair Use Frequently Asked Questions (and Answers). Available online at Retrieved on July 10, 2008 from http://w2.eff.org/IP/eff_fair_use_faq.php

The University of Texas, Intellectual Property; Copyright Crash course. Retrieved on July 12, 2008 from http://www.utsystem.edu/ogc/IntellectualProperty/Teachact.htm