Copyright
A Best Practices Guide
What is copyright?
Copyrighted material is owned by the author and protected by United States law. The law provides for the author to control the reproduction of material, distribution, adaptation, public performance, public display, and digital transmission.
What is Fair Use?
The term 'Fair Use' refers to the legality of using short excerpts from copyrighted material without having permission from the author when a work is being used for teaching, reviewing, or news reporting.
Books
Making a single copy of a chapter, short story, short essay, short poem, chart, graph, diagram, cartoon, or picture to use for teaching is permitted.
Poetry
A poem that is less than 250 words and is not on more than 2 pages of a book can be copied for classroom use.
Articles, Stories, and Essays
Can be copied provided that it is less than 2,500 words
Art prints and /or graphic materials from magazines
You may copy one graphic per periodical provided that the material does not explicitly state that it is copyrighted.
CDs and DVDs
May be used in classrooms. Making copies is prohibited.
Magazines
Permission is granted to make multiple copies of a chart, graphic, diagram, cartoon, picture, or article provided the following criteria are upheld: no more than 250 words for poetry and no more than 2,500 words for articles.
Works Cited
Simpson, C. (2010). Copyright for schools. (fifth ed.). Santa Barbara, CA: Linworth.