By: Carla Ramdat
SLM 521

October, 2004

Introduction: Here are 2 scenarios of cases with teachers and students using the Internet to import images or other web materials for their projects. I will be identifying what's allowable and what’s not according to the copyright laws.

Situation 1:
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. She recommends 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?

According to the Fair Use Guidelines for Multimedia Projects, the copyright implications relating to this activity are:

ü Students can use these pictures in a project but it must be only up to 5 photographs or illustrations and no more than 15 images.

ü The project must be for educational purposes only… to be able to use these materials from any websites.

ü They must credit the sources and display the copyrighted notice.

ü They must also provide copyright ownership information.

Click here to read more details about the copyright laws.

Another important point is that the teacher should check with the media specialists to see if the websites she has recommended i.e., Sports Illustrated, ESPN, DOD and Rock Music Hall of Fame are allowable by the school for the students to visit . Some of these sites might be blocked since a few may contain unsuitable material for school-aged students.

Situation #5

You find an outstanding World Wide Web site on the Internet and want your web page to contain some of the glittering wonderfulness of this site. You download and use part of the web page.

According to the Fair Use Guidelines for Multimedia Projects, for educators, the copyright implications relating to this activity are:

ü These images may be displayed for educational purposes

ü Images can be compiled for display on the institution’s secure electronic network to students enrolled in a course given by that educator (for classroom use)

ü Images can be used with lectures, workshops or presentations in their field

ü Educators also must credit the sources, display the copyright notice, and provide copyright ownership information.

Click here to read more information regarding the laws for downloading digital images and here to see the guidelines related to downloading/importing other materials from websites.