Scenario:

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.

Response:

It is wonderful that Mrs. Urdvardy can use the Web as a resource to expose her students to different types of music. According to Fair Use, teachers working for a non-profit school may use small amounts of copyrighted material while teaching in the education setting. Mrs. Urdvardy may download MP3 files of music for educational use. However, there are some Fair Use guidelines she should follow. She may only use up to 10% or 30 seconds of each song, choosing the lesser of the two. She may use this music in a face-to- face teaching situation only. Fair Use does not allow her to copy the files onto tape or CD for her students to use at home. This would be an infringement. She should use the music in direct instruction and then have her students complete the follow-up worksheet assignment in class.

Scenario:

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.

Response:

Poor Mr. Hamer is under the constraints of an unrealistic budget made by a group of people who are not thinking about his students. He is only trying to give his students every opportunity to perform their best on the functional writing test. Unfortunately Mr. Hamer is not following copyright law. Assuming his tutoring is non-profit, Fair Use states that, he may make copies of small portions of text, such as, a chapter from a book, an article from a newspaper, or a short story. He may do so if he is in a bind and does not have time to get permission from the copyright owner, and as long as he destroys the materials after use. Under no circumstances may he make copies from a consumable workbook, which is intended for a single person’s use. Not only is he using the entire essence of the copyrighted material, but he is also causing the company to lose money. Mr. Hamer may be under the misconception that materials presented on the web are not copyrighted but they are. Mr. Hamer should ask his administration to cough up the extra money to buy the students the materials that are needed to complete his course.