Copyright & Education

What are the implications of copyright issues for educators?

Copyright within the education realm weighs heavily on teachers. It is essential for teachers, or any educators for that matter, to understand the copyright laws before using other people's work and copying it to hand out to a class. Sounds easy, right? Wrong. 

The copyright laws in this country are very broad, making them hard to define in a concrete way. Most work which is copyrighted is allowed to be used for educational purposes if it meets one of the four criteria for fair use. These four things are taken into considered when weighing whether or not a piece of work qualifies for fair use of the copyrighted piece: 1. purpose of use, 2. nature of work, 3. amount used, 4. effect on the market. 

I was surprised to learn that a work's effect on the market does not necessarily mean reproducing something and selling it for profit. This can simply mean copying a piece of copyrighted work and handing it out so it becomes public. Another question that came up during our class discussion was the meaning of the "public domain". This is that a copyrighted piece is available for public use after the life of the author plus seventy years. A great example of this are Emily Dickinson's poems to be copied and given out during an English lesson in school. This, of course, would not be considered a violation to copyright laws because Emily Dickinson has not been around since the late 1800's. 

The implications of these broad and vague "fair use" copyright laws in education create a blurry reality of what teachers can use copyrighted material for in their classrooms. The implications of these copyright laws should open the eyes of educators everywhere to ensure they are following the laws correctly, and when in doubt either look them up, or don't use it! After all, it is someone else's work and we wouldn't want to be posed as a thief....