Professional Documents
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Copyright
Copyright
The fair use guidelines presented in Multimedia Wharf are suggestions, not laws, but
they do set standards accepted by authors, publishers, educators, librarians, attorneys, and
others. These guidelines set standards for both teachers and students on the proper, legal
use of copyrighted materials when creating multimedia presentations. These guidelines
make it possible for educatiors and students to use small portions of copyrighted material in
the creation of multimedia products without permission or payment to the publisher.
Students can use copyrighted works in the performance and display of their multimedia
creations that are made for academic assignments. Faculty can use copyrighted
multimedia works in the production of curriculum material, in the provision of educational
multimedia used for distance learning (given that only those students may access the
material), and/or in demonstrating their multimedia creations at professional symposia and
retaining some in their own portfolios.
Fair use guidelines also outline specific limits in the use of copyrighted multimedia.
The following is a list of some of those specifications:
· Video – up to 10% or 3 minutes, whichever is less
· Text – up to 10% or 1,000 words, whichever is less
· Poems – up to 250 words
o 3 poem limit per poet
o 5 poem limit by different poets in an anthology
· Music – up to 10% or 30 seconds, whichever is less
· Photos/Images – up to 5 works from one author
o Up to 10% or 15 works from one collection, whichever is less
· Database Information – up to 10% or 2,500 fields or cell entries
Faculty can retain multimedia products incorporating the copyrighted works of others for up
to two years for educational use. Any use after two years would require seeking permission
for use. The key to fair use in multimedia is to use the smallest portion necessary of an
educational work to achieve the instructional objective.
There are other specifications involved in multiple copying. Copying must be done at
the initiative of the teacher (at the moment of inspiration.) Only one copy can be made for
each student and no charge can be made to the student except to recover only the cost of
the copying. The copying cannot be done for multiple courses. The same item cannot be
reproduced from term to term. “Consumable works,” such as workbooks and standardized
tests, cannot be copied. Teachers can copy newspapers and periodicals as many times as
they want, as long as copies stay within the word limits outlined by the fair use guidelines.
A teacher may not put copies into collective works, as this violates the copyright holder’s
right to make “derivative works.”
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