Copyright Information
What is Copyright? | Video & Copyright? | Multimedia & Copyright | Software
What
is copyright?
- Copyright protects the works of authors, artists, and composers form being reproduced, performed or disseminated by others without permission.
- The owner of the copyright has the exclusive right to that work. This right can be subject to exceptions depending on the type of work and the type of use made by others.
- Copyright infringement is any violation of the exclusive right. An exception to the rule of copyright infringement is a concept known as "fair use".
- Fair use permits the reproduction of small amounts of copyrighted material for noncommercial or educational purposes, and where copying will have little effect on the value of the original work.
- Examples might be: a quotation of excerpts from a book, poem, or play in a critical review; or a quotation of short passages to illustrate a point.
(Funk and Wagnall's New World Encyclopedia, 1999)
Also visit the 10 Myths about Copyright by Brad Templeton, Internet publisher.
Video and Copyright
With the advent of cable TV and the accessibility of video programs, this section will review copyright and Anne Arundel County Public School's instructional materials guidelines. Bear in mind that all instructional materials, including video, must be approved by a countywide or school based committee. (Please refer to the Anne Arundel County Public School's publication "Procedures for the Evaluation and Selection of Instructional Materials".
It is very tempting to use some of the wonderful programs offered on cable TV, i.e. History Channel, PBS, A & E, NOVA or Discovery. However, some of these programs have copyright restrictions on their use and they are not necessarily approved for use in Anne Arundel County classrooms.
Each cable network has specific rules re: copyright. One rule of thumb:
if they offer the program for sale, then you probably can't tape it and
keep it forever!
 |
Check with your media specialist for a copy of Cable
in the Classroom magazine. This monthly magazine offers Cable
TV educational programming schedules and taping rights. |
The following networks DO NOT endorse any taping even for educational use.
- AMC (American Movie Classics)
- HBO
- TMC (The Movie Channel)
- TNT (Turner Network Television)
Other networks offer taping rights for specific program time blocks (this list isn't comprehensive!)
- A&E Classroom (commercial free) 1 year
- Assignment Discovery ( commercial free;weekdays only) 1 year
- History Classroom (History Channel--commercial free; weekdays only) 1 year; all other History Channel programs subject to 10 day fair use rule, i.e. videotapes must be shown within the first 10 days of broadcast and may be kept for evaluation purposes for no more than 45 days.
*** PBS, A&E, and Discovery taping guidelines vary from program to program. Many of their programs have restricted taping rights for home use only. Please check before assuming it's OK!
*** ABC, CBS, NBC generally follow the standard 10 day, two use rights
for educators.
Multimedia
and Copyright©
The new Digital Millennium Copyright Act set specific guidelines for the development of web pages and other multimedia productions.
- In a nutshell, "fair use", when applied to the Internet becomes less clear. "Fair use" of Internet resources should parallel those of print resources. Educators might make use of some text and graphics in their own classroom but probably lose the interpretation of "fair use" once those text and graphics are distributed out onto any network. This also applies to students.
- As a general rule, educators and students may not safely use others' materials (graphic, text, etc.) when they publish on the web. Request and receive formal permission first. Internet access does not automatically mean that the works can be reused without permission. Copyright is implied and does not need to display the standard copyright notice©.
- Many teachers encourage students to use PowerPoint to present projects. Using this program can inadvertently lead to copyright violations or plagiarism. Students should include a slide of bibliographic citations if information was taken from other print or non-print sources just as they would in a written report. If students use information or images from the Internet, they should also include a slide in the beginning of the PowerPoint presentation that states the following:This presentation was created following the Fair Use Guidelines for Educational Multimedia. Certain materials are included under the fair use exemption of the US Copyright Law. Further use of these materials and this presentation is restricted.
Software
- For teachers and students, the temptation of acquiring "free" software is very enticing. However, most commercial software programs are copyrighted material. Teachers can be role models to their students by not borrowing software or loading copies on more than one computer at a time.
- To answer questions about software piracy and copyright, visit the Software and Information Industry Association site or No Piracy (a site that also provides activities for students).
* * * Check with your library media specialist if you have any further questions about copyright issues or refer to the Anne Arundel County Public School's publication "Print and Non-print Media and the Copyright Law: An Educator's Responsibilities and Rights".
Please note: This page contains hypertext links to independently managed World Wide Web sites that are not affiliated with Anne Arundel County Public Schools. While every effort has been made to evaluate the sites to which we link, we cannot control the content that may appear on these sites or related links.