COPYRIGHT AND FAIR USEBY: SAM COLSON

WHAT IS COPYRIGHT?

•Copyright is a federal law that protects original works.

• It applies to published and unpublished works.

• It is an automatic right.

•Registration is only required to enforce the rights.

• The owner has exclusive rights to:

1. Reproduce the work.

2. Display it publicly.

3. Prepare derivative works based on the work.

4. Distribute copies of the work to the public.

WHAT EXCLUSIONS ARE THERE?•Copyright does not apply to works in the public

domain.

This includes:

1. Books

2. Music

3. Slogans and short phrases

4. Unoriginal works

5. Government Forms

IN ADDITION…….

• Stock photo services, creative commons licenses, and public domain images are not subject to fair use.

• Fair use is not the same as free use! It is a legal exception to the rights an owner has for their copyrighted work.

• The purpose of the Fair Use Doctrine is to allow forlimited and reasonable use as long as the use doesn’tinterfere with the owners’ rights.

CAN I HAVE AN EXAMPLE?

You bet!

• Let’s say you want to review a book, piece of technology, or whatever. You’ll need a picture of the actual item. If I’m reviewing the last Harry Potter novel for example, I would want to show the actual book.This: Not this: Now, everyone knows

what I’m reviewing. The owner’s rights are not affected, so it is allowed!

YOUR TURN!!

Now we’re going to give you 3 different scenarios. Your job is to:

• Tell whether it is allowed using the Fair Use guidelines we just discussed.

• If it isn’t allowed, give suggestions as to how the scenario could be improved.

• If it is allowed, tell why.

SCENARIO 1

Mr. Jenkins has a blog that he updates regularly. It is a personal blog about his love of hiking. He wants to have some pictures on it, but he doesn’t have any of his own. He goes on Tumblr and downloads a few pictures that he likes and reposts them on his blog.

• Is this allowed?

•Why or why not?

SCENARIO 1: ANSWER• Is this allowed?

NO!

•Why not?

Tumblr is a website where people can post their pictures. The pictures are copyrighted by the original image takers. Unless you have permission, you cannot copy and take pictures from a photo sharing website.

SCENARIO 2

Mrs. Adams is a classroom teacher. She wants to show her class some of the different books that they are going to read during the upcoming school year. She goes to the publisher’s website and downloads some images of the different book covers for her class to see.

• Is this allowed?

•Why or why not?

SCENARIO 2: ANSWER

• Is this allowed?

Yes!

•Why?

Because the teacher is only using it for brief educational purposes, this constitutes fair use. Since she is not sharing it online or using it merely for decoration, she is allowed to do so.

SCENARIO 3

Mr. Colson teaches 3rd grade. He wants to excite his students about learning. He is a superhero fan, so he wants to decorate his official school blog with different superheroes. He goes to Google images and downloads some pictures of superheroes that are from the official DC and Marvel websites. He then posts them on his school blog.

• Is this allowed?

•Why or why not?

SCENARIO 3: ANSWER

• Is this allowed?

NO!

•Why not?

Google Images does NOT solely consist of all public domain pictures. There are plenty of copyright protected pictures as well. In addition, since Mr. Colson is only making his blog look better, not using the images for any educational purposes, reviewing them, or other critiques, his usage does not fall under the fair use guidelines.