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Q. |
What is "fair use"? |
| A. |
It's what you are allowed by law to photocopy
-- at
the moment of inspiration, when there's not
enough time
to seek permission -- commonly referred to as
"spontaneous
fair use." For example:
- A single chapter (and less than 10% of
the total
work) from a book...but only one
semester.
*Up to nine (9) spontaneous use items
(articles/chapters)
may be submitted as separate
packets. The
same item may not be submitted for any
subsequent
semester as spontaneous use (see Guidelines).
OR
- Up to three articles from a periodical
volume,
submitted as one spontaneous use, as
long
as you have not used these articles for
this class
in any previous semester. This includes
newspapers
OR
- Any combination of the above (1. and 2.)
to total
nine (9) spontaneous use readings, per
course, per
semester.
PLUS
- Your own work - lecture notes, articles,
etc.
- Documents from the U.S. Government
printing office
and other public domain items
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| Q. |
What's this "9" thing? |
| A. |
This number appears in the Agreement on
Guidelines (Begins at the bottom of page 7 in Circular 21 from the
Library of Congress Copyright Office)
which accompanied the Report of the House
Committee
on the Judiciary (House Report No. 94- 1476) at
the
time of the Copyright
Act of 1976. It refers to the number of
spontaneous
uses suggested, per semester. |
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| Q. |
How many articles am I allowed to put into a
reader? |
| A. |
There is no limit to the number of articles in
a reader
as long as permission has been obtained from each
publisher. |
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| Q. |
I've always used these 6 articles;
why can't
I use them this time? |
| A. |
When you use any of the same articles you've
used in
the past, it no longer qualifies as
"spontaneous
use." |
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| Q. |
10% or one chapter -- "whichever is
less"? |
| A. |
If you have a 600 page book which is divided
into 60
chapters of 10 pages each, you should not feel
obligated
to select just one chapter when it is so
obviously a small
amount. So, please select up to 60 pages to copy,
making
the 10% the more important factor. |
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Up through May 1997, the Conference on Fair Use
(CONFU) prepared
final versions of the following proposed educational
fair
use guidelines: Digital Images; Distance Learning;
Multimedia;
Electronic Reserve Systems; Interlibrary Loan and
Document
Delivery; Use of Computer Software in Libraries.
Although
the Proposed guidelines are not yet widely accepted,
the University
Copyright Assistance Office is staying abreast of new
developments
in the digital environments. Please call if you have
specific
questions which are not addressed here.
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| Q. |
I've found a great journal
article on
the Web on a topic related to the course I'm
teaching
now. May I download it to my course web
page? |
| A. |
As soon as you "put
something up"
on the Web, you become a publisher. If you do
not have
time to seek permission and you do not intend
to keep
it up or to use it again, this use would
(should) fall
under spontaneous fair use, one time
only.
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| Q. |
But I want to use it every time I teach this
course.
May I at least provide a link? |
| A. |
Yes. Since the whole concept of the World
Wide Web is
to create a web of knowledge, creating an HREF
link
(the most common type) is precisely what you
should
do...provided there is nothing on your
page to
which the publisher/author of the linked page
would
object. If you have ANY doubt, write for
permission
to link.
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| Q. |
I just printed an article off the internet
to add
to my reader. The internet is public domain,
right? |
| A. |
Wrong. Unless an explicit statement of release
accompanies
the article, please seek permission before
including it
in your reader. Include the full URL in your
bibliographic
citation. This includes The Washington Post
and
the New York Times. |
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| Q. |
I use PowerPoint for my
in-class lectures.
May I add (digitize) charts, graphs and other
pages
from the course textbook to my PowerPoint
presentation?
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| A. |
Yes, as long as you are not
incorporating
more than 10% of the book, and only for one
course and
only one semester. For repeated use,
seek permission
from the publisher of the textbook. It is
helpful if
the textbook in question is the required text
for the
course. This permission is usually free, but
the publisher
wants detailed information about your exact
application. |
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