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Open Educational Resources (OER): Copyright for Faculty

This guide is maintained by JCSU librarians to assist faculty with OER initiatives and sources to locate OER materials. If you have questions or comments, please contact Jessica Best at jbest@jcsu.edu.

Introduction to Copyright

What is Copyright?

For most people understanding U.S. Copyright law is challenging and often frustrating. The complexities of understanding your rights as a copyright owner, as a user of third-party works, even as an educator, and especially in a digital environment take time and effort. Laws pertaining to copyright changes over time, and the purpose of copyright "to promote the progress of science and the useful arts" (U.S. Constitution S8, c8) sometimes seems lost, especially for those who are not legal experts.

About Copyright

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) has created a brochure to aid faculty in making copyright decisions. 

Know Your Copy Rights Chart

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 Generic License.

 

The Four Factors of Fair Use

What is Fair Use?

Fair use is an exception to the exclusive protection of copyright under American law. It permits certain limited uses without permission from the author or owner. The law's Fair Use Doctrine addresses educators' need to make copies and share copies of materials with their students. Use the four-factor test to determine fair use of a copyrighted work. Depending on the circumstances, copying may be considered "fair" for purposes such as teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research.

To determine whether a specific use under one of these categories is "fair," courts are required to consider the following factors:

  1. Purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
  2. Nature of the copyrighted work;
  3. Amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole (is it long or short in length, that is, are you copying the entire work, as you might with an image, or just part as you might with a long novel);
  4. Effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

17 U.S. Code § 107 spells out four factors to determine if a use is fair. You must weigh each of these factors, no single factor is decisive. The ALA's fair use analysis tool will assist you with weighing the factors and will email you your choices so you'll have a record.

Amount and Substantiality of Fair Use

Good Practices for Fair Use Amounts

  • A chapter from a book (never copy entire books).
  • An article from a periodical or newspaper.
  • A short story, essay or poem
  • A chart, drawing, picture.

*Remember, the Fair Use Doctrine does not cover you if you take the "heart" of the work.

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