Media and Copyright Law

General Information

At times, instructors may be asked to provide instructional materials to the Disabilities Resource Center (DRC) staff to have content made more accessible. In order for content to be converted to more accessible formats, the media must be used in accordance with relevant copyright laws. Otherwise, our contracted providers will be unable to convert the media. The following section (and video) reviews the most relevant aspects of copyright law concerning educators.

About Fair Use and Copyright Law

It's impossible to separate a discussion of educational media from copyright. Unless you are only intending to use media that is wholly scripted, filmed, and scored by you, you'll likely be tapping into other creators of varying degrees of professionalism. Regardless of whether the media you use was created in a cubicle with a webcam or on a huge studio lot with the latest IMAX cameras, all creators have claim to their creations and own the copyright of their work.

This does not mean these creations are necessarily off-limits, but there are criteria that must be met in order to use another's work under fair-use. In this age of desktop publishing and smartphone videographers it is more important than ever to know your rights for the material you create and the rights of other makers as you look to incorporate into your teaching. The following video (approximately 6 min. 30 sec) elaborates on "Fair Use."

In this module we’ll introduce you to the basic details of copyright, what fair use is and the conditions that must be met in order for it to apply. Finally, at the end of this module, we’ll look at the Creative Commons licensing and open resources. Our hope is that you use this information to evaluate the resources you intend to use and not only work within the constraints of the law, but model best practices to our students. In some instances, it may mean not using certain resources, in other instances you may have a clear rationale and are willing to challenge copyright holders for wielding their copyright like a bludgeon.

No one really wants to talk about copyright except for copyright lawyers. And even copyright lawyers are going to avoid making declarative statements about what is and is not permitted for teachers to do with copyrighted material. Figuring copyright out is a complicated and intimidating process. Hundreds of books have been written on the topic. Librarians and lawyers could spend careers parsing the nuances and implications of copyright law. Even though Copyright law might be the one law and order spinoff that doesn’t get made. If you’re hoping to master the topic of fair use and copyright within an hour, you will be sadly disappointed. However, if you take the time to work through this module, I believe that you’ll be equipped with a framework to help you make decisions about most uses.

First, we need to talk a little bit about technology. Much of copyright law was crafted without a real understanding of the path technology was taking. The nature of making analogue copies. I made some awesome mix tapes (Peter Quill unwrapping the tape from his mom) in my day, and I don’t think the record companies were too worried about the impact of my one cassette on artist sales. It took a long time to put them together, the quality was always a step or two down from the CD source material, and I simply didn’t have access to any type of distribution infrastructure that would allow me to stare my tape with more than a few friends.

The Internet has changed all of that. Digital media can be copied perfectly, effortlessly, and it can be shared with the rest of the world with the click of a button. And, once it goes up on the Internet it can be easily found by consumers and producers alike.

Using copyrighted material legally is referred to as ‘fair use.’ Fair use acknowledges that the work is the property of an individual or corporation, but allows for certain uses as long as its use satisfies one or more of four basic criteria. Now, there are no quantifiable metrics that definitively determine whether a particular application qualifies as fair use. However, the more criteria you can satisfy, the more confident you can be in invoking ‘fair use’.

The first criteria to consider is intent or purpose. Why are you using this material? Does the copyrighted work you are using contribute to the learning and scholarship of your students? In what way is it meeting this criteria? What specific lessons are you attempting to teach through the particular use of this work? If you’re looking to show a movie in class to pass the time, you may be in violation of copyright, but if you have a strong pedagogical rationale for using the work, you may be in the clear.

The second criteria has to do with the quantity of a work that is copied or appropriated. Is copying a chapter of a book fair use? Obviously, when you copy the entire text you’re taking advantage of another person’s intellectual property, but a few pages? There is actual way to quantify how much of a given work can be used, no agreed upon percentage.

The third criteria has to do with the nature of the work. Simply put, facts cannot be copyrighted. This applies more to scholarly and technical works than creative expressions. For example, the height of the Burj Khalifa would not be copyrighted even if you found that information in a copyrighted book. 

The fourth criteria for fair use refers to economic impact. Does your use of the copyrighted work in some way affect the copyright holder’s ability to profit off of their intellectual property? For example, uploading an entire film to YouTube could conceivably impact box office returns. (I’m a bootlegger baby! Or Kramer Bootlegger) However, if you could demonstrate that your use of the material will have no appreciable impact on potential profits, you may have grounds for fair use. 

Even though these criteria can be used as justification for fair use, the only way to be really certain if the use of a particular work in a particular circumstance constitutes fair use is to have it decided in a court of law. (Footage of Gavel falling). It’s important to note that citing your sources does not indemnify you. However, it’s good practice and it models for students the expected behaviors.

We’ve thought a lot about the content we’ve incorporated into this video and we strongly feel that it adheres to the criteria for fair use that we’ve outlined. That’s not to say that this video won’t get flagged by YouTube’s algorithm. Sophisticated bots are scouring the net for any possible infraction and opportunity to monetize their intellectual copyright. The context of the use is not considered, only that it was used. A number of years ago, Adele’s ‘Rolling in the Deep’ came on the radio and my son started dancing to it. I grabbed my camera and quickly shot some footage of his choreography. There was no intent to monetize either his dancing or Adele’s catchy tune. However, as soon as I posted it online, I received a notice from YouTube indicating that I was in violation of copyright. It was my first interaction with YouTube and my initial reaction was to pull down the violating content. It scared me away from sharing something that I thought others would enjoy. We should be making decisions based on an understanding of the law and a knowledge of what our students need.

If you get to the end of this module and still feel overwhelmed by the prospect of working with copyrighted material, always remember that you can create your own content fairly easily and then you’ll be the one who owns the copyright. (insert maniacal laugh from Count Olaf)