"Copyright and Fair Use SR"

1. A teacher gets clip art and music from popular file-sharing sites, then creates a lesson plan and posts it on the school Web site to share with other teachers. This is permissible.

False. Legitimately acquired material can be used in classrooms. However, under the current law, no teacher can redistribute such material over the Net or any other medium. You can use it, but you can't spread it around.

-This is a little confusing because people use clip art ALL the time and I never see anything really going against it. I feel like there would be a warning as you added clip art to your page asking you what you plan to do with the project that your putting that clip art on and if it's 'allowed'.

2. A student film buff downloads a new release from a Taiwanese Web site to use for a humanities project. As long as the student gives credit to the sites from which he's downloaded material, this is covered under fair use.

False. Educators may use "legitimately acquired" material without asking permission, but many file-sharing sites are suspect in this area. Use common sense to determine if those peer-to-peer resources are legitimate or pirated
-Wait a minute! Is this really true, because I thought that if you just cited something that you were good for something that is for school purposes. I feel as if I have stolen than!

2. A geography teacher has more students and computers than software. He uses a CD burner to make several copies of a copyright interactive CD-ROM so each student can use an individual copy in class. This is fair use.

False. Just as with a print encyclopedia, one student at a time has access to a piece of software. The number of students who can use a software program simultaneously is restricted to the number of copies the school owns (but be sure to check out #2 above).

-This is unfairbecause then the students are beign deprived and the school must pay more to have access for all the students. I'm really not too suprised because this tends to happen a lot, but it just really sucks

4. A student tries to digitize the shower scene from a rented copy of Psycho into a "History of Horror" report. Her computer won't do it. The movie happens to be on an NBC station that week, so the teacher tapes it and then digitizes it on the computer for her. This is fair use.

True. Manufacturers are instituting blocking technology, authorized under the law, so newer material like VHS rentals and DVDs block educators from their constitutional right to use material for teaching. It's time to begin complaining. In the meantime, educators should grab all the laserdiscs they can find. They're unblocked.

- I would think that this would be against the rules and needed to get permission for use first. I guess that I don't see the difference between the tapped one and the rented one... they are not making money if she burns it from the TV or from the rental place (other than the money that NBC or the rental place has paid the Movie company).

5. On Back-to-School night, an elementary school offers child care for students' younger siblings. They put the kids in the library and show them Disney VHS tapes bought by the PTA. This is permissible.

False. Video (like everything else) is not covered under fair use for entertainment or reward. The use described is entertainment, pure and simple. However, Disney will sell you a one-time license for $25 that makes this legal use. Call Disney at (818) 560-1000, ask for "Rights," and prepare to trade faxes.

-That's kind of insane because no one wants to or does actually get permission adn pay a fee everytime they do an event. I feel as if they are going to show it more than a certain amount of people, yeah they should pay, but if it's at a babysitting night or in a day-care and just to a small handfull of people it should be acceptable.

6. A teacher makes a compilation of movie clips from various VHS tapes to use in his classroom as lesson starters. This is covered under fair use.

False. The current guidelines exclude the creation of video compilations. However, FilmClipsOnline.com offers film clips for free (the VHS tape on American values is particularly good.) E-mail Michael Rhodes at imrhodes@msn.com or call (805) 984-5907.

-Isn't there an education clause that if it is under a ccertain amount of seconds or mins (or whatever) that it's fair use...?

7. A high school video class produces a DVD yearbook that includes the year's top ten music hits as background music. This is fair use.

False. This is not fair use. Yearbooks are not generally intended to be instructional. Plus, it's not permissible to use entire songs. If you're using pieces of songs and analyzing them as a reflection of the times students lived in, that's different.

-That's shocking because a lot of schools do that sort of thing with their yearbooks and other things. I wonder how they deal with such a thing and why doesn't the yearbook advisor stop them?

8. Last year, a school's science fair multimedia CD-ROM was so popular everyone wanted a copy of it. Everything in it was copied under fair use guidelines. It's permissible for the school to sell copies to recover the costs of reproduction.

False. Fair use allows educational use of copyright material, true, but it does so only if there is no anticipation of wider distribution.

-So if the Senior class wanted to do a fundraser of "songs from our 12 years of school" or soemthing of the such, it would be illeagal. They wouldn't be able to do it in the end because the fee's and final cost would be more than the profit in the end. I feel as if there should just be a time or song limit on the amount on the CD that they sell.