Following Intellectual Property Guidelines

This lesson focuses on identifying and using course materials that do not violate copyright laws. All materials are either copyright protected or are in the public domain and can be used freely. There are some provisions for education that allow copyrighted material to be used and specific guidelines for using materials in distance education. This section will help you distinguish between copyrighted and public domain materials and whether or not you can use certain copyrighted materials in your course.

CFCC Course Essentials

6.1 The tools and media support the learning objectives, and are appropriately chosen to deliver the content of the course.

Lesson Objectives

After completing this lesson, learners will be able to:

• Determine copyright status of works.
• State the basic provisions of the TEACH Act.
• Locate materials that are in the public domain.
• Search the Creative Commons database
• Determine if materials can be used according to Fair Use laws (the four factors).

What to Do?

Effective online instructors know how to use course materials according to intellectual property guidelines. Materials should not violate copyright laws. A work created since 1978 is considered automatically protected from the moment of its creation. There are some exceptions and limited amounts of materials can sometimes be legally used for educational purposes. Instructors should should be able to determine if materials are in the public domain or if fair use guidelines and the TEACH Act permit use of certain materials.

Why Do It?

It is important that instructors respect intellectual property rights since any illegal use of copyrighted work can result in liability.

How to Do It?

• Follow your institution's Intellectual Property policies.
• Inquire about licensed materials as licensing rules will supercede other guidelines, including public domain and fair use.
• See UNC's Copyright Tutorial for a quick overview of Copyright, Public Domain, Fair Use, and the TEACH Act. This will give you a good idea about which materials are protected by copyright and how you might be able to use copyrighted materials in teaching. The last section provides you with some example scenarios of situations you will likely encounter in your teaching.
• Remember that a work (fixed in tangible form) created since 1978 is considered automatically protected from the moment of its creation. Review the U.S. Copyright Office's Copyright Basics publication for details on who can claim a copyright and on what is and what isn't protected. For instance, titles, names, short phrases, slogans, ideas, processes, and discoveries are some categories that are not protected by copyright. Literary, musical, dramatic, graphic, sound recordings, and architectural works are some categories that are protected.
• Use public domain images, audio, recordings, etc. in course materials. Remember that materials are either protected by copyright or in the public domain and can be used freely for any purpose. Materials in the public domain include:
  • Works of the U.S. Federal Government
  • Works where the term of copyright has expired (see chart from Cornell)
  • Works whose author failed to satisfy statutory formalities to perfect the copyright or
  • Work that has been assigned by the copyright holder to the public domain.
• Use Creative Commons works. Some copyrighted materials are licensed under Creative Commons, which permits works to be used, and frequently allows derivative works to be made. Read and follow the specific guidelines provided by the author. You can easily search the Creative Commons database for relevant content.
• Read TEACH Act Policies at North Carolina State's TEACH Act Toolkit. The TEACH Act, passed in 2002, says it is not copyright infringement for teachers and students at an accredited, nonprofit educational institution to transmit performances and displays of copyrighted works as part of a course if certain conditions are met. If these conditions are not or cannot be met, use of the material will have to qualify as a fair use or permission from the copyright holder(s) must be obtained. You might find the TEACH Act checklist to be helpful; make sure you understand all items. It's important to note several of the TEACH Act requirements are related to ensuring that materials are distributed outside of your cyber classroom. For example, "reception limited to students enrolled in course", "reasonable downstream controls instituted", and "warning notice to students present on work" (sample notice: "The materials on this course Web site are only for the use of students enrolled in this course for purposes associated with this course and may not be retained or further disseminated."). Materials should be in a password protected environment (or otherwise protected from persons other than students accessing them).
• Fair use allows limited use of copyrighted materials for certain situations. While there are no set rules for fair use, there are four factors that are considered in making determinations: Purpose and Character of the Use, Nature of the Copyrighted Work, Amount and Substantiality, and Effect on the Potential Market for the Copyrighted Work. Study the "four factors" of Fair Use. Read more about what each of these factors entails at the Benedict.com's Fair Use page. Remember that these four items are weighed in determining whether use of materials constitutes fair use. You might find the Fair Use Visualizer from Benedict.com to be useful in making such determinations. Plus, it's fun to use!
• Consult with your college's library regarding eReserves.
• Provide links to online materials rather than copying them to the course management system.
• Make sure the students follow copyright laws when posting materials from other sources to the course Web site or their own Web pages. Remember that the rules are different for items placed in a password-protected learning environment than for public viewing over the Internet.
• Any use of copyrighted materials in course packets requires permission from the copyright holder unless these items are in the public domain or fall under the definition of "fair use".

Now that you have learned about different copyright exemptions and types of licensing, here is a summary of guidelines to follow when determining if you can use a work in your course:

1. Does your school own a license for the material?
   If yes, refer to the license for use; this license controls the use of these materials, even when the work in in public domain or falls under the TEACH Act.
   If the answer is "no", proceed to the next step.
2. Is the material in public domain?
   If yes, you can use the work.
   If the answer is "no", proceed to the next step.
3. Does the material hold a Creative Commons license?
   If yes, you can use the work, provided you abide by the license provisions.
   If the answer is "no", proceed to the next step.
4. Is your use covered by TEACH Act?
   If yes, use the material (pay attention to guidelines about types and amounts that can be used).
   If the answer is "no", proceed to the next step.
5. Will your use likely be covered under Fair Use?
   If yes (remember there are no definitive answers with Fair Use, just a weighing of the four factors), then you can likely use the work.
   If the answer is "no", proceed to the next step.
6. Can you obtain permission from the copyright holder?
   If yes, then use the material and retain documentation of permission.
   If the answer is "no", either contact the Copyright Clearance Center and pay a licensing fee for use or do not use the material.
   If a work is an "orphan work", make a good faith effort to obtain permission.

After identifying material that you can legitimately use for your course, it is important to cite sources correctly. Use the discipline-appropriate format (APA, MLA, etc.). Remember to model the behavior you expect from students. The most common style guides used are APA and MLA and both give specific information about summarizing or paraphrasing and quoting from a source. The Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) has an online guide to help with both APA Style and MLA Style.

Credits

Portions of this lesson were adapted from Liz Stover's Best Practices for Distance Learning.

References for this lesson:

Crews, K.D. (2002). New copyright law for distance education: The meaning and importance of the TEACH Act. Retrieved July 26, 2006, from American Library Association Web site: http://www.ala.org/ala/washoff/WOissues/copyrightb/distanceed/distanceeducation.htm#newc

Ragan, L. (2007, August 27). Best Practices in Online Teaching - Pulling it All Together - Introduction. Retrieved from the Connexions Web site: http://cnx.org/content/m15044/1.4/

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