The owner of the local video store supports the school by donating one DVD rental-free to the school every Friday. The video is shown in the multi-purpose room to reward students with perfect attendance that week. It does improve attendance. This falls under “fair use”.
Copyright violation. Materials received without compensation in an educational setting must be used for instructional purposes, not for entertainment or reward.
A teacher buys a single-user program with department money and puts it on the Local Area Network (LAN). It is frequently used by several teachers at the same time. This is done in violation of a written district policy against using single-user programs on the LAN. After two years, the software company takes action against the individual teacher. The district is also liable.
True. The school district is liable for any copyright violations committed by its staff. In addition to establishing and disseminating copyright policies, districts are responsible for strictly enforcing the policies.
On her home VCR, a history teacher taped the original ABC news report of Nixon leaving the White House after resigning. She uses the entire news program every year in her classroom. This is fair use.
False. Schools are allowed to retain broadcast tapes for 45 days. Additionally, she should only use the portion of the tape relevant to her lesson.
A school purchases a single copy of a math program and installs it on the server so it can be accessed by classrooms throughout the school and also on the stand-alone computers in the portables. The policy is that only one class can use it at a time and the policy is religiously enforced. Permissible.
True. Software may be installed on multiple machines and distributed to users through a network if only one machine at a time uses the program. Refer to the program license for specific permissions.
Purchasing a computer program is the same as licensing it.
False. Depending on the software type (freeware, shareware, commercial, etc.), different stipulations will exist. Refer to license documentation to determine specific boundaries of use.
A teacher rents Gone With the Wind to show the burning of Atlanta scene to her class while studying the Civil War. This is fair use.
True. The teacher legally acquires the tape and is using a relevant portion of the video for instructional purposes.
Copyrighted material used without permission in multimedia projects may remain in the student's portfolio forever.
True. The work may stay in the student's portfolio as long as the student does not publicly distribute it.
Asking for permission is key to fair use protection in education.
False. Fair use permits limited use of copyrighted material without acquiring permission from the creator.
Using a legal copy of an off-line Web Browser, a district technology specialist downloads and caches educational and non-educational web pages for school Internet trainings. This is fair use.
True. The content is used for educational, non-commercial purposes.
A science teacher asks the school librarian to record a great episode of Reading Rainbow on its original broadcast on 3/02. He figures on using it for years. His students digitize parts for a multimedia class project. This is okay.
The librarian may record it for instructional purposes, but the teacher may not keep the tape for more than a year.
A student finds a photo online dramatizing a pre-Columbian Viking landing in America. Since the school symbol is the Viking, he posts this photo on the school web page. It links back to the original website. This is fair use.
False. The student did not acquire permission from the creator. The photo is not being used for part of a project or instructional purposes.
A student doing a multimedia report copies the video of Kennedy's "We shall go to the moon" speech from the CD-ROM version of Groliers Encyclopedia. Her teacher posts the project on the school LAN. This is fair use.
True. The teacher is not sharing the report publicly.
A school purchases a typing tutorial program and houses it in the library. It is checked out to students to take home. By enforced policy, the homes erase the program at the end of the two week checkout period. Permissible?
True. However, the school is making itself liable to infringement. This policy would be difficult for schools to enforce.
A student building a multimedia art project uses copyrighted images of Frank Lloyd Wright buildings downloaded from the web. He submits this project to her state’s Student Multimedia Festival (and others) honoring classroom work and wins the $1,000 prize for the school. This is permissible under fair use.
True. The student is originally using it for education purposes. Honoring classwork through monetary prizes is not considered commercial use.
The teacher of the winning multimedia project mentioned above shows it at an art conference for educators. It cost $50 to attend the conference and the teacher is awarded free attendance because he is a presenter. This is fair use.
True, because the project is being extended to another instructional purpose.
A high school sells a student video yearbook made by volunteers for $25 to raise money for equipment for the school. They use popular music clips. The money all goes to the school. The songs are fully listed in the credits. Fair use.
False. The yearbook is not created for instructional purposes.
A school can only afford one copy of KidPix. It loads this onto the library computer and all students and all classes have access to it all day. The teachers copy and install KidPix Player on their classroom computers to evaluate the student work. This is permissible.
True. KidPix Player is a free program that allows users to view projects made with KidPix. The full version of KidPix is used by one user at a time.
A teacher creates his own grading program. He transfers to another school and forgets to delete the program from the network. Everyone at his old school copies and uses the program. He sues the school and wins. He is likely to receive a significant monetary reward.
False. The teacher will not receive a monetary award because he did not intend to sell the software. Therefore, he lost no potential income.
An elementary school transcribes the lyrics from the album CATS for the school mini-musical. There is no admission charge. Fair use applies.
False. The school did not obtain permission to redistribute private material. The school should obtain performance rights through legal avenues.
An enterprising media aid tapes 60 Minutes every week in case teachers need it. This is fair use.
False. Schools can only tape broadcasts upon the requests of teachers.
Glynn County School System Copyright Policy
The documentation covers legal use of intellectual property by both teachers and students throughout the Glynn County Schools System. The policy places emphasis on the media specialist as the enforcer of copyright policy within his or her school. The document reiterates that "fair use" is not clearly defined but proposes general guidelines for students and teachers to follow. "Fair use" does not imply unlimited use and should not result in a production that would deprive a producer of a potential income.
As outlined in the Student Code of Conduct, students should source information in the format determined by the teacher. Use of intellectual work without attribution is plagiarism, the document states. Teachers should refer to the Copyright and Fair Use Guidelines to determine how they may use print, photos, videos, music, and software in their instruction. Teachers should pay special attention to usage duration and situational permissions to ensure proper use of intellectual property.