Copyright Information ©

Case Example 1:

Mr. Hamer is tutoring for the functional writing test out of a copyrighted series of workbooks from Houghtin Mifflin. He has 27 students but only 20 books were purchased for his class. The same material is available at the HM web page. He prints enough pages for his kids each morning for the day's class.

Mr. Hamer is violating copyright guidelines by copying the workbooks every morning. It is stated that in “fair use” guidelines, a teacher may copy pieces of works for use within the classroom. It clearly states that teachers should not copy entire workbooks. This teacher is aware that he is 7 books short, and should make arrangements to have these books purchased, or contact Houghtin Mifflin for approval to use the pages off of the website. Just because these pages are available on the website, does not give Mr. Hamer the right to copy and use these pages without permission.

Case Example 2:

Mrs. Urdvardy, a music teacher, downloads MP3 files from the Web and uses them to instruct her students in the various kinds of music. She allows students to copy the files and take them home, listen to them and complete a worksheet.

Mrs. Urdvardy can use MP3 files from the Web to instruct her students in the various kinds of music, if she is careful about how she does this. The fair use guidelines indicate that a teacher can use 10% or 30 seconds of music, whichever is less. Mrs. Urdvardy will also want to be careful about using various artists for her project, as only one piece of work from an artist is allowed. She should try to keep the music clips as short as possible to meet her needs, and use a variety of works to express her point. She is walking on shaky ground by allowing the students to copy the files and take them home. Although this is permissible for distance learning if the student is the only one using the files, she may find it hard to defend that her in class students are distance learners. It may be better for her to allow in class time to complete the worksheets that she is presenting.