Dziorny, Gail

LS 521 SP02

March 22, 2002

 

Copyright

 

            In scenario 1, the teacher has a rowdy bunch of students who make a power point presentation, complete with graphics. According to the ‘Fair use Guidelines for Educational Multimedia’ students are allowed to “create educational multimedia projects containing copyrighted material to use their projects for educational uses in the course for which they were created.” The students are required to credit the source, display the copyright notice, and provide copyright ownership information. They must state on the opening screen and on any accompanying print material a notice that certain materials are included under the fair use exemption of the U. S. Copyright Law. No more than two copies of the project may be made and online instructional projects may be used only over a secure network for a period of 15 days after initial use. Students may not make their own copies and projects cannot be replicated or distributed. As for the graphics, a limit of 5 photographs or illustrations by one person and no more than 15 images or 10 percent, whichever is less, of the photographs or illustrations from a single published work. If these guidelines are followed, this activity is allowed.

 

            In scene 4, you find an outstanding World Wide Web site and you want your page to contain some of the wonderfulness of the site on your own page. Myth # 3 addresses this issue-since I’m using a small portion of the original work, I don’t need permission. The courts have consistently held that you cannot escape liability by showing how much of a work you did not take. The courts look at the purpose of the work, the nature of the work, the amount and importance of the portions used in relation to the whole and the effect of the use on the potential market. Even if the copy is small, it might be important, and therefore a copyright infringement. This activity, therefore, may or may not be allowed, depending on the criteria mentioned above.