Five Things to Know About Fair Use in the Classroom

Five Things to Know About Fair Use in the Classroom

Jennifer Noble

I have put together a list of five things to remember about copyright and fair use that will help teachers in their classrooms. Since I anticipate that, as teachers, we will primarily be focused on using other people’s works to benefit our students’ learning, I narrowed these principles to focus on fair use.

1.Reproducing copyrighted material for nonprofit educational purposes is permissible. However, teachers must follow other guidelines of fair use.

2.Giving the author credit for their work does not give you permission to share their work and use it for your own purposes. If the rules of fair use do not give you permission to use the work, crediting the author is not a loophole.

3.In most cases, the less of a work you use for your own purposes, the more likely it is covered by fair use guidelines. Using the copyrighted material for educational purposes does not give educators free reign of authors’ works. There are limits on what is allowed to be used.

4.Sometimes it is necessary to gain permission from the owner of the copyrighted material. Teachers can utilize the services of the Copyright Office to find out who holds the copyright for specific works and find out how to contact the owner for permission to use their work.

5.Copyrighted material becomes “public domain” after a certain point of time. This varies slightly according to who owns the copyright, etc. However, if the work was published prior to 1923, it is safe to view the work as “public domain” and allowable to copy or imitate the work without permission. (Ex. Painting in the style of a famous artist, putting different words to the song of a famous composer.)

Though these guidelines will help you decide what you can and cannot use, it is always important to be 100% sure your use of a material is allowed. To figure this out, you can consult online resources. Remember, it is better to be safe than sorry!

It is my opinion that basic information about copyrighted material is appropriate and even important to introduce to students at a young age. With plagiarism at such high levels, I think introducing the topic to elementary students could be a way to help students feel a sense of pride in their own work and respect the work of others.