Background Beach by Cindy Moren

Copyright is the right of a creator to reproduce and distribute their own work. They can
sell it or rent it out if they prefer. Copyrights include any form of expression, however it
does not include ideas, titles, names, short phrases, facts, logos and slogans. Their are
rights for educators that allow them to reproduce copyrighted material because of Fair
Use. However, fair use contradicts the idea of a copyright, so it is considered
controversial. Because of this discrepancy, Congress defined what fair use is. Congress
did not make it law, therefore in 1976 the Copyright Act was invented which consisted of
four provisions by which copyrighted material can be used in non-profit educational
settings. The four provisions are: "The purpose and character of the use..., nature of the
copyrighted material, the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the
copyrighted work as a whole, and the effect of use upon the potential market for or
value of the copyrighted work." The purpose and character of the use refers to whether
the copyrighted work is going to be used for a commercial nature or an educational
setting. Nature of the copyrighted work is a factor that looks to see what the initial intent
of the work was for. Amount and substantiality pretty much states to not use anymore
then what is necessary. Effect upon potential market refers to the finances that the
owner may or may not receive due to the use of the material. "Fair use is almost always
a short excerpt and almost always attributed. (One should not use more of the work
than is necessary to make the commentary.) It should not harm the commercial value of
the work -- in the sense of people no longer needing to buy it (which is another reason
why reproduction of the entire work is generally forbidden.)" If it is fair use or
infringement is up to the courts. There is a fine line between the fair use and
infringement because fair use is a way for non-profit organizations to use other people's
work.

As an educator this is important to know. Educators need to know what is legal to show
and distribute in their class. Thankfully because of fair use it is easier for educators to
reproduce products to use in class. Educators still need to know their limitations,
however, because they can still have issues with what is fair use and what is
infringement. This is important because if could get the non-profit institution and the
educator in trouble if the educator does not know their limitations. There are regulations
in place to help educators distribute copyrighted material to their students, but there
there are also regulations and laws that limit the use of copyrighted material. Educators
need to be aware of what they are able to distribute to their students.

Audio Visual Lagoon by Cindy Moren

An audio-visual (AV) work is still a form of expression and is a form of copyrighted

material. AV is "a composed sequence" of pictures and/or sound. Typically an AV work is
incorporated into a multimedia work. Some examples of AVs are videos, 35mm slides,
filmstrips and 16mm movies. AV works fall under the performance and display section of
the copyright act. An AV can be considered both fair use and performance and display
under the Copyright Act. It is important to know which category an AV falls under. Fair
use is used when an educator uses an AV as an instructional tool. Performance and
display covers when an educator presents an AV work to students. The passing of the
TEACH Act has helped to enable the digital transmission of AV works under certain
circumstances where before it was only possible for face-to-face transmission of AV
works. For face-to-face teaching, there are only four criteria to follow with the use of AV
copyrighted material. They are: the purpose is curricular, it is in a face-to-face setting,
the AV work must meet instructional objective, and the AV copy must be lawfully made.
This means that it is unlawful to play movies in the class as rewards for good behavior.
When creating a multimedia work the four criteria in the 1976 Copyright Act should be
followed, especially when thinking about using any portion of a copyrighted AV work.
Also avoid using the essence of the creative work you are referencing. Always refer to
the Copyright act when thinking of using any portions of any work that is not yours. It is
unlawful to use a whole work that is not your own, even an AV work you have copied
into another format unless you get the written consent of the copyright holder. It is
possible to distribute AV information face-to-face or via digital transmission because of
the Copyright Act and the TEACH Act.

Educators are allowed to use copyrighted Audio Visual in their own multimedia
presentations to help with teaching. As an educator, one needs to know that it is
possible to use these, but there are still limitations (as with everything else). Using a
whole AV that is not your own is illegal and can hinder teaching positions. One needs to
comply to the Copyright Act and the TEACH Act when using copyrighted AV material. It
is also important for an educator to know the distinctions between the reasons they are
able to use an AV (fair use vs. performance and display). Each reason has their own
regulations as to what can be used and how.

Single Copying Inlet by Louise Fell

This article is talking about the fair use practice and how teachers are allowed to make a
single copy of different types of material. It means that they can make a single copy of
such things as a chapter of a book, a short poem, story or essay, or by taking an image
such as a graph or cartoon from a book, periodical or newspaper. In this it means that
they can provide one student with a copy of this, but they cannot provide all students
with a copy of the article. However, the teacher can give the student a copy and then
the student can go and make a copy, so as long as the student returns the original and
then the teacher passes this on, there would be no problem, as the teacher has kept
their role of not copying more than one copy and the copyright issue is then passed on
to the student. The reason why there had not been any problems with copyright for fair-
use if because in the 1976 Copyright Act there was nothing about the fair-use policy and
therefore the House of Representatives had to make the guidelines to limit teachers to a
one copy policy. Electronic Reserves is the area where this becomes an issue and is an
area which is being talked about now, because it is only like the teacher making one
copy of it and then making it available to all the students in one place. There is now talk
about college's supporting the teachers in creating a "coursepack" in which they would
take precautions so they would not get reported for copyright infringement and the
college would then provide the information for the students and no one could then get
into trouble for them taking their books, etc. without their permission. The teachers are
therefore limited in what they can do with different articles and documents, and
therefore are limited what they can provide the students.

In the classroom, this would mean that you would have to have a printed copy (from the
publisher) for each student which would be a waste of a book if it was for one short
essay and for one poem, and it would be costly for the school, so therefore it would be
easier to copy the text for the students and then they could just use it. The course packs
would be a good idea as it would mean that the basic things would be there for students
and for the teacher at all times. They could then just update it every year and they could
provide the materials for all students at a lower cost, especially if they do not have to
buy a dozen books, of which they use one story out of each book.

DistEd Point by Louise Fell

This article talks about Distance Education and the way that it is used, especially in
higher education i.e. College and University. The documents that are used in these
courses, are often copyrighted and subject to the "fair use" policy. The article then goes
on to talk about the TEACH Act, which limited the way in which the distance education
course could work. They limited it to non-profit organizations, students enrolled on the
course, and then limited the materials that they could use to a short period of time,
whilst the students were taking the class and then only if the resources were being used
in a "reasonable and limited" way. By doing this, teachers no longer have to ask for
copyright permission, if the documents are being used for a short period of time. There
are other limitations to this as well, such as the fact that the resources have to be
digitalized and if they are not, then the teacher can make a digital copy, but the same
"limited and reasonable" use rule is applicable. The teacher has a lot of policies placed
on them , bust so too do the institutions. They have to present the materials which are
being used by the students in all their courses and they all have to give the students
notice that there may be a breach of copyright. It is a very slippy slope and many
teachers experiment and see how far they can push the barrier when they are doing this,
and as well the rules and boundaries are not set out very clear so there is always a
chance that they are going to be broken but it is up to the teachers, the administrators,
Information Technology specialists, and other sepecialists within the school to learn the
boudaries and to follow them closely.

In the classroom this would mean that you have to be careful if you were going to use
any sources which were copyrighted to teach the course. However it does mean that
students can gain access to the resources that they need and they can further their
education and they can also participate and take classes which they would otherwise be
unable to take. If the teacher can put all the resources in one place then it means that it
easier for the students to learn and they can also participate more in the classroom. It
also makes resources available to those students who would otherwise not be able to
gain access to them. It is a valuable tool to use in the classroom, however it is also a
fine line between the right way to use the copyrighted material and the wrong way to
use the material which all teachers should familiarize themselves so they do not step
across the line between right and wrong. This is different from face-to-face teaching as
there are different rules which are applied, as they are teaching face-to-face and they
are then subjected to the single copy rule which I discussed before.