The increased availability of copyright material from a variety of multimedia sources has complicated the understanding of fair use guidelines for copyrighted words, images, music, moving pictures, and computer generated materials. Teachers may have a difficult time understanding these limitations for their own teaching and research projects, but they may have an even more difficult time explaining these rules to students. However, it is increasingly imperative that faculty have a firm grasp of the changing nature of fair use guidelines in a multimedia culture.
This entry should serve as an introductory source for acquiring an understanding of the rules governing educational use of copyrighted material.
The basic rules governing educational use of copyrighted material are fourfold: (1) the purpose of the use must be educational in nature (but there is two-year limit on how long multimedia can be used without requiring permission), (2) the work being used should be published for public accessibility; (3) the amount of copyright material must be a limited portion; (4) the academic use of the work should not affect the commercial value of the copyrighted source.
These general guidelines are, however, not specific enough to protect faculty and students in all situations. In order to provide further guidance and to forestall waiting for courts to define the limitations, the National Information Infrastructure Working Group on Intellectual Property Rights developed in 1994 the Fair Use Guidelines for Educational Multimedia and is creating Educational Fair Use Guidelines for Digital Images.
A full copy of these guidelines can be obtained from the Reference Desk of McConnell Library, the Faculty Development Center, or on the World Wide Web (see list below). However, a few basic points need emphasis. The use of materials is most liberal in faculty presentations for classes and student presentations for a specific course. If a faculty member uses materials for more than two years or over distance learning venues, the rules become more restrictive. The number of copies of multimedia presentations is also strictly limited.
The restrictions on the portion of a copyrighted work being used are quite specific, for instance no more than 30 seconds of music, lyrics, or music video or 3 minutes of motion media. Photographs and illustrations are also severely limited in the number of images by one artist or from one source. The attribution and acknowledgment of these visual images must often accompany the presentation; a citation at the end of the scholar's work is not always sufficient. Materials downloaded from the Internet are more difficult to control, especially since sometimes copyrighted materials are illegally available.
A number of sources for obtaining information on fair use of copyrighted materials are
available on the World Wide Web. A three page list is available upon request, but a few of
the basic ones are listed below:
U.S. Copyright Office
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