You can copy (and use!) as much as you want, for any purpose, absolutely free...

...April Fools!!

The only thing easier than breaking copyright law is rationalizing it. As Johnson and Simpson note (“Are You the Copy Cop?”), with the simple toggling of a few keys and the murmuring of a few soothing justifications from the menu below*, any teacher can “borrow” someone else’s work and not feel so bad about doing so. The siren call of all that compelling, funny, resonant, relevant, insightful, bracing, but copyrighted content seemingly at your beck and call can make you feel like Jean Valjean standing outside a bake shop. So tempting, so necessary, so excusable…

Yet because our attitudes and behaviors disproportionately influence our students we educators should take the stonier and steeper path rather than the one of least resistance when it comes to copyrighted material. Like the early days of recycling when many felt it was too onerous and the overall impact too trivial, following copyright law is actually not all that hard and the cumulative effect of thousands of people doing the right thing can add up. When you finish that can of soda in front of your class, you take care to toss it in the aluminum bin rather than the paper only can, right? Thus and so with copyright. If we want to live in a world that encourages creativity and shows respect for the rights of authors, we need to model the actions that can bring this about.

Having said it’s not that difficult to do right by the fabled holders of the circled c, the burden of proof lies heavy on my shoulders. Here are some basics to know:
• The very act of creating something in reproducible form is legally the same as stamping the © on it.
• Attribution is hugely important. To present an unattributed idea as your own is plagiarism and it can—and does—come back to haunt people regularly
• Historically, the trend is for material to take longer and longer to become public domain. The current public-domain standards of life of the author + 70 years or 100 years for company-owned intellectual property extends back further than many people realize.
• Keep that annoying quote you hear on customer service recordings (“Pay attention to the following menu options as they may have recently changed”) in mind when thinking about copyright law. Copyright law can fluctuate and not always in your favor.
• Good faith and due diligence matter. Proving that you took reasonable measures to educate your students (or staff if you are an administrator) on the steps they need to take to avoid infringement do not go unnoticed in court. (See Johnson and Simpson’s discussion of educating repro staff, scanning for software licenses, etc.)
• Likewise, flagrancy matters. Though copyright law is notoriously subject to legislative change and judicial review, there are established gradations. The more you stray from light gray areas to darker regions, the more your actions are likely to draw attention and steep penalties.
• Play with the bulls and you get the horns: Big companies are vigilant protectors of © so when in doubt, go without that Starbuck logo or Disney clip.
• You can take a load off your mind and conscience by using vetted resources such as Creative Commons, subscription-based media sites (AMICO), or scholarly sites that track public domain material (Langram, Langram, and Bull 26).

Have all these bulleted points cowed you into the hellish fallback position of relying only clip art and your own creativity?...


Fear not. That’s why Fair Use was established. According to this excellent primer, fair use is
“a legal principle that seeks to balance the rights of copyright owners with the needs of those who wish to make use of portions of existing copyrighted works in creating new works.” If a work is reproduced for the purposes of “comment, news reporting, teaching
…, scholarship, or research,” the copyright may not be infringed, particularly if the user has carefully weighed…

(1) the purpose and character of use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes, (2) the nature of the copyrighted work, (3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole, and (4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work (Section 107 of 1976 Copyright Law).

With respect to books and periodicals, fair use is as cut and dried as anything about copyright is going to be. See the guidelines here.

Multimedia fair use is by its nature more complex and apt to evolve with changes in technology. These guidelines are a helpful reference, especially the caveat that “the more one exceeds [them], the greater the risk of copyright infringement and liability unless permission is obtained” and this warning: “In those cases where the guidelines state that “permission is required” or that permission must be sought, it is believed that fair use would rarely, if ever, apply in the absence of such permission.”

Because multimedia technology is such a great way to reach the 21st-century student and because they will be such active consumers and producers of media-infused work, it is crucial for all teachers to be conversant in these basics and model them in the classroom. Did I say this wasn’t that hard!?

*
Menu of typical rationalizations
I’m doing it for the children
I'm fighting the power of corporate media/Uncle Walt will never miss this
It’s not really stealing
Everyone else is doing it
No good deed goes unpunished
It’s impossible to wade through the legal gray areas anyway
I understand this just well enough to get myself in trouble