William Kritsonis, School Law, Ch 2 Copyright Law

1
Copyright Laws in the Public SchoolWilliam
Allan Kritsonis, PhD
2
What is copyright?

• Copyright gives authors and publishers the legal
  right to control the reproduction of their work

3
The Law

• The Federal Copyright Law is expressed in 17 USC
  101 ET. Seq. This law provides a copyright the
  moment something is put in tangible form.
• The copyright affixes to the work the moment it
  is written on paper, saved on disk, painted on
  canvas, recorded on tape, or exposed to film.

4
1976 Revisions to the Lawand its effects on
teachers

• The 1976 revised copyright law does not prohibit
  teachers from duplicating copyrighted material
  for classroom use.
• Teachers may make a single copy for scholarly use
  for class preparation.
• Teachers may make multiple copies for classroom
  use.

5

• Teachers may copy a chapter from a book, a
  newspaper, magazine, a short story or a poem or
  chart, graph, diagram, cartoon, picture, and the
  like if the following conditions are met.

6
Conditions for Teachers

• The copying is at the instance and inspiration of
  the teacher.
• There is not sufficient time prior to use to
  request permission from the publisher.
• The copying is only for one course in the school.
• Each copy includes a notice of copyright as it
  appears in the book or periodical.

7
Complying with Copyright Guidelines School
Personnel May

• Make multiple copies for classroom use of the
  following
• 250 words or less of a poem
• Complete prose works if lt2500 words
• Excerpts of prose not exceeding 10
• One chart, graph, diagram from a book
• Up to 2 pages or 10 of a text

8
Complying with Copyright GuidelinesSchool
personnel May Not

• Copy consumables such as workbooks or
  standardized test.
• Copy items for use from term to term
• Copy more than one poem, article, or essay by the
  same author, nor more than two excerpts from a
  collection.

9
Fair Use Clauses

• Fair Use, as defined in the law, has certain
  aspects that apply to everyone and others that
  apply only to certain classes of use, such as in
  nonprofit schools.
• Fair use is considered when copied materials are
  intended for the promotion of knowledge and
  scholarship.

10
Conditional Rights of Fair Use

• The purpose and character of the use, including
  whether such use is of a commercial nature, or is
  for nonprofit educational purposes.
• The nature of the copyrighted work.
• The amount and substantiality of the portion used
  in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole.
• The effect of the use upon the potential market
  for or value of the copyrighted work.

11
What is it called when violations occur?

• Innocent infringement
• Standard Infringement
• Willful Infringement

12
Innocent Infringement

• Unknowingly breaking copyright law
• Example A teacher reads in a journal that an
  item has fallen into public domain and makes
  copies. In truth, the journal confused two items
  of similar titles.

13
Standard Infringement

• Disregard to portions of the copyright
• Example A librarian makes copies of an article
  for a class many months in advance without making
  any attempt to contact the copyright holder to
  obtain permission.

14
Willful Infringement

• Direct intent to take advantage of copyright
  owner
• Example A principal asks permission to reproduce
  copies of a journal article for the faculty and
  is denied. He makes the copies anyway without a
  reasonable basis to believe he did not need
  permission.

15
Liability in the Public School

• Liability falls upon the individual who has
  infringed the copyright.
• Technology Specialists and Librarians are held
  liable if acts of copyright infringements are
  known by them.
• Principals are liable if it occurs on their
  campuses for they are the leaders of the building.

16
Copyright Myths

• Ten big copyright myths are explained at
• www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html