Copyright

The two following scenarios reflect real-life situations that all teachers may face sometime in their careers.

• Mr. Jamweimer, the parent of one of our most intellectual students, has paid to download a wonderful computer software program for his little Einstein. Mr. Jamweimer wants "our school" to be the best and sends a copy of the download file to be used by the students on the computers at school. P.S. all of the kids use it and win Nobel prizes in science, literature, physics, chemistry, and playground.

While it is very thoughtful of Mr. Jamweimer to want to advance the education of our student, giving the school a copy of the program is copyright infringement. Mr. Jamewimer has paid to download 1 copy of the software. That payment entitles him to use the software for his own personal use, but does not confer upon him the right to distribute additional copies of the material. If he felt the material would be useful to the student population, he should recommend the school district purchase the program. Purchase of the program by the school district would confer upon them the license to use the software in the school. Until a district license is obtained, the student population cannot use the program, no matter how marvelous.

The above mentioned scenario states that Mr. Jamweimer wants the program to be used on multiple computers in the school. If the program is truly worthy of consideration, his son’s teacher could legitimately obtain a copy of the program and install the program on 1 school computer. This usage would probably be allowed under ‘fair usage’ because it would have limited use and only be used with students in one classroom.

• A teacher in your school (who has a really rowdy bunch of monsters) makes an agreement with them that they learn how to make power point presentations on sports, war, hunting, rock music and such. She lets them get graphics from anywhere on the Internet. Sites such as Sports Illustrated, ESPN. DOD, Rock Music Hall of Fame. They make great presentations and become great kids. What are the copyright implications??

While the materials the students use may be copyrighted, their use of the material falls under ‘fair use’ of the material. What this means is students cannot be held liable of copyright infringement if the materials they use are for the fulfillment of course requirements. Their use of the material is used for presentations utilizing power point within the classroom setting. These presentations are not for publication in print or on the web – this makes them an allowable use. Additionally, they may also be protected under ‘fair use’ as this could be part of self-directed study. If the students choose topics to research on their own, with only minimal teacher guidance and assistance, then the learning is student directed, not teacher directed. This would qualify the graphic and picture for usage under self-directed study. Finally, ‘fair use’ provides for the usage of five pictures or illustrations by one person. If the students are working independently on projects, each student is allowed to place up to five pictures or graphics in his/her own power point presentation. The number of slides could be predetermined by the teacher to ensure no student includes more than five pictures or graphics from the aforementioned websites.