Fair Use Guideline Questions

(Week 13 Post)

What are the four questions related to the fair use guidelines should teachers ask before using copyrighted materials?

The first and foremost question is the question of the use of the material. Copyrighted material must not be reproduced for commercial needs or to be made a profit from. And obviously, if a teacher is copying a textbook or other scholastic media, it must be for educational purposes. Also, it must be distributed in the school and to the students or other teachers as well.

The second question a teacher must ask is what type of work it is. Is the work factual in nature? Let me give you an example. Textbooks are updated all the time. When Harvard, one of the nation’s top leading universities was first established, it was educating its scholars at the time that the sun was revolving around the earth. Obviously, we now know that that is not true. What if Harvard never updated its textbooks? It would be teaching outdated material. Along the lines of what type of work is being used, does it hold potential for creativity and use for imagination?

Another question that must be called into play is how much of the work does the teacher intend on using? Say it is a pamphlet. Does the teacher plan on using the entire pamphlet? Or is it an excerpt from that pamphlet?

Lastly, what impact does this copyrighted material have on the market for that work? Let us use my example for the pamphlet. Say the teacher uses the entire pamphlet and photocopies it. And say the teacher has 125 students. The teacher thus essentially robs the company out of 125 pamphlets. The company loses that money. To be fair, the teacher should have bought those pamphlets.

I know teachers are on a tight budget, and it doesn’t make sense for them to spend so much money on scholastic material, especially when they keep cutting EEF money. What teachers do need to understand, though, is that they cannot break copyright laws and abuse them in the school.