Copyright, Fair Use, and the Education Dilemma

mkilman@mail.ucf.eduTelephone: (407) 823-2527

What is Copyright?

The United States Copyright office provides a description of the Copyright Law (Title 17 of the United States Code)* in their Circular 1. The Copyright Office has posted a summary* of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act*. The durations of copyrights as set by the Sonny Bono Term Extension* act have been posted in a table prepared by Laura N. Gasaway, Director of the Law Library and Professor of Law at the University of North Carolina.

*Use of Adobe Acrobat Reader required to view PDF file.

Back to Top

What are the "Classroom" exemptions?

Section 110* of the Copyright Law contains exemptions that allow nonprofit education institutions some limited rights to use copyrighted materials in face-to-face classroom settings and also some more restricted rights to transmit some types of copyrights works.

NEW - The "Technology, Education, and Copyright Harmonization Act", commonly referred to as the TEACH Act* completely revises Section 110(2) of the Copyright Law to address use of copyrighted material for distance education. The ALA and the University of Texas have posted information regarding this important new legislation.

*Use of Adobe Acrobat Reader required to view PDF file.

Back to Top

What is the "Fair Use" exemption?

Section 107* of the Copyright Law allows for the use of copyrighted works without the permission of the copyright owner(s) for scholarly research, educational, and other purposes.

In an attempt to aid in understanding and following "Fair Use" law, the University of Texas' has posted Fair Use of Copyrighted Materials and the Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis' has posted a Checklist for Fair Use.

*Use of Adobe Acrobat Reader required to view PDF file.

Back to Top

Some Guidelines to the Exemptions:

• The U.S. Copyright Office Circular 21 "Reproduction of Copyrighted Works by Educators and Librarians"* provides guidelines on Fair Use drawn from various Senate and House Reports.
• Various education, publishing, broadcast, government, and private organizations assisted in the development of and have endorsed the "Fair Use Guidelines for Educational Multimedia" from the Consortium of College and University Media Centers.
• CETUS (Consortium for Educational Technology for University Systems) has posted the electronic version of their pamphlet Fair Use of Copyrighted Works.
• The University of Texas' Office of General Counsel has posted the CONFU: Conference on Fair Use proposed guidelines for Fair Use for Educational Multimedia, Distance Learning, and Digital Images. However, a consensus of the CONFU participants could not be reached on the above guidelines and none were formerly adopted by CONFU.
• Adoption and use of guidelines is not universal, see Kenneth Crews' "The Law of Fair Use and the Illusion of Fair-Use Guidelines".

*Use of Adobe Acrobat Reader required to view PDF file.

Back to Top

Selected Print Materials:

Copyright Basics	U.S. Documents	LC 3.4/2:1/999
Copyright Permission and Libel Handbook	General Collection	KF2994 .J37 1998
Copyright Primer for Librarians and Educators	Reference	Z649.F35 R44 1987
Copyright Sampler	General Collection	KF3030.1.Z9 C66
Digital Millennium Copyright Act	U.S. Documents	AE 2.110:105-304

For Online Resources see:

Copyright Resources

Back to Top

For questions or comments regarding the contents of this page, please contact:

Marcus Kilman
Telephone: (407) 823-2527
e-mail: mkilman@mail.ucf.edu

Back to Top

Created April, 2000

Updated 19 July 2010