Partner A, make a copy of this sheet and title it What Is Fair Use- Your name & partners name

and share with your partner.

Definition: Fair use is the right to use portions of copyrighted materials without permission for
purposes of education, commentary, or parody. - See more at:
http://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/academic-and-educational-permissions/non-
coursepack/#sthash.N9bxtVXi.dpuf

For each item below, work with your partner to decide if it falls within fair use or not based on
these Academic and Educational Guidelines. Record your answers and reasons for your
answers on the document. Be prepared to defend your answer.

1. A teacher does a unit on poetry. He photocopies and distributes to each student a 20
line poem by a contemporary poet. He chooses a different poem by the same poet to
distribute on four consecutive Mondays during the unit.
Not Fair Use: This is illegal because teachers are only allowed to use a photocopy of one
poem per author and it must be less than 250 words.


2. A teacher makes 10 copies of one chapter out of a book to give to student partners to
read.
Fair Use: The same document was produced for the entire class and it is less than 10% of the
work.

3. A teacher records a PBS history video and plays it for the class a week later.
Fair Use: this is legal because it is shown within the first ten days. After ten days has passed,
the teacher must evaluate the validity of a video within the teaching curriculum and then obtain
the rights to show it.

4. A student buys a CD on iTunes. One of the songs relates to a Justice theme they are
learning about in school, so they make a copy of the song on a CD and give to the
teacher to play to the class.
Fair Use: This is legal because a student may make a single recording of a performance of
copyrighted music for evaluation and the educational institution or individual teacher may keep a
copy

5. A school administrator decides that all students in the 6th grade at her school should be
exposed to texts from diverse cultural perspectives. She asks teachers to make a
photocopy pack for every student in their classroom that includes 10 poems, each
written by a person from a different world culture.
Not Fair Use: This is illegal because it was initiated by a school administrator. In order for the
photocopied pack to be fair use the decision must be made by the teacher and not a higher
authority.