Fair Use is the right of educators to use materials for educational purposes.

The safest course is always to get permission from the copyright owner before using copyrighted material. The Copyright Office cannot give this permission.

For one of the best sites for questions on copyright and fair use, please visit the University of Maryland University College website.

 

Basically, teachers may make or have a single copy of any of the following:

1. a chapter from a book;
2. a newspaper or periodical article;
3. a short story, short essay, or short poem;
4. a graph, diagram, chart, drawing, cartoon or picture from a book, periodical or newspaper.

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Photocopies for classroom use are also permitted in the following conditions:

1. The number of copies does not exceed the number of students in the class.
2. The copying is at the "inspiration" of an individual teacher, and the need to use the copy for teaching effectiveness is so immediate that requesting permission to copy would be unreasonable and lose the effect of the "teachable moment."
3. The teacher limits the number of instances in which multiple copying takes place for the class to nine times per term.
4. A notice of copyright is included in each copy.

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Libraries are permitted to exercise special rights beyond those stated in fair use. Included in these rights is permission:

1. to archive damaged, stolen or lost works
2. to make copies for patrons of the library and
3. to make copies for patrons of other libraries through interlibrary loan.

You may use 10% of a total work for a project to stay under copyright. For example, a song that is 3 minutes and 45 seconds long is 225 seconds long, so you could use 22.5 seconds of that song without infringing on copyright.

USE OF VIDEOS:

Only those videos purchased through school supply sources may be used in classrooms. Videos purchased or rented by individuals for home use (i.e. purchased or rented from Blockbuster, Amazon.com, or Target) may NOT be used in the classroom. This is a violation of copyright law.

Charges for videos by school supply sources cover the cost of the copyright fees, purchases by individuals do not.

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Harper Collins Permissions

 

http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/publications/2013/copyright_for_librarians