Copyright Primer: Fair Use Copyright Quiz by Hall Davidson

1.The owner of the local video store supports the school by donating one DVD rental-free to the school every Friday. The video is shown in the multipurpose room to reward students with perfect attendance that week. It does improve attendance. This falls under fair use.
Since the use of the video is not being used for face-to-face educational purposes, but rather for entertainment, this will not fall under the domain of fair use. This is a major consideration of the Copyright Act of 1976, and the purpose and character of use falls under the commercial nature or the nonprofit educational purposes of the intended video.

2. A teacher buys a single-user program with department money and puts it on the Local Area Network (LAN). It is frequently used by several teachers at the same time. This is done in violation of a written district policy against using single-user programs on the LAN. After two years, the software company takes action against the individual teacher. The district is also liable.
Not only is the district liable for any user that is within their district, but it is stated that the written policy of the district was violated. The term, singleuser, is exactly what is implied; only one student or learner can utilize the program at a time, and the use by multiple teachers violates the programs intended use. A license for the program would benefit the district and the students in question.

3. On her home VCR, a history teacher taped the original ABC news report of Nixon leaving the White House after resigning. She uses the entire news program every year in her classroom. This is fair use.
Even though the program was the original and simultaneous program that was recorded, you must also follow the guidelines of time retention period for use which is a 45 day period.. This broadcast is being used without charge, but it specifically cites and maintains the time frame stipulation of which the school system must adhere to.

4. A school purchases a single copy of a math program and installs it on the server so it can be accessed by classrooms throughout the school and also on the stand-alone computers in the portables. The policy is that only one class can use it at a time and the policy is religiously enforced. Permissible.
This will satisfy the stipulation that only one learner or student can utilize the program at a time, and the school district demonstrates culpability of copyright adherance by strictly enforcing a policy that holds teachers and students responsible for maintaining district guidelines.

5. Purchasing a computer program is the same as licensing it.

Although one might think this is the same, licensing allows for multiple users at a time, wheras a computer program is intended for individual use.

6. A teacher rents Gone With the Wind to show the burning of Atlanta scene to her class while studying the Civil War. This is fair use.
This falls under the usage of copyrighted material within educational projects, and if it is up to three minutes or 10 percent of the presentation, then it is acceptable for fair use.

7. Copyrighted material used without permission in multimedia projects may remain in the student's portfolio forever.
Firstly, without express permission, the use of copyrighted material is strictly forbidden. An educator cannot allow the usage of the material without instructing the student in the policies of the school district and in fair use policies. If there is permission for the material, the student can only make two copies, one of which can stay in the media center for archival, and the other which cannot be used after an initial 15 day period.

8. Asking for permission is key to fair use protection in education.

The standard that all educators and students must adhere to is the advice, When in doubt, ask for permission! This is impo rtant for all forms of media and tangible creations.

9. Using a legal copy of an off-line Web Browser, a district technology specialist downloads and caches educational and non-educational web pages for school Internet trainings. This is fair use.
This would be an example of fair use as the linking of web pages directs traffic to the explicit website and does not claim authorship of the pages educational content.

10. A science teacher asks the school librarian to record a great episode of Reading Rainbow on its original broadcast on 3/02. He figures on using it for years. His students digitize parts for a multimedia class project. This is okay.
This would be acceptable for the use within a 45-day period (retention policy), yet the intention to use for years violates this policy. Express

permission from Reading Rainbow might be the course of action if the use will be covering a span of many years.

11. A student finds a photo online dramatizing a pre-Columbian Viking landing in America. Since the school symbol is the Viking, he posts this photo on the school web page. It links back to the original website. This is fair use.
This is still in an area of concern, as the linking back to the original website must not bypass advertising or identifying information so to not limit or deny revenue to the creator. In this situation, the original website suggests that it would not affec t the creators ability to produce revenue, so it would be considered legitimate.

12. A student doing a multimedia report copies the video of Kennedy's "We shall go to the moon" speech from the CD-ROM version of Groliers Encyclopedia. Her teacher posts the project on the school LAN. This is fair use.
If documentation is given to the original creator, then it would be referenced so to not claim ownership of the report. This would allow the student to use the speech in an educational setting that will be acceptable.

13. A school purchases a typing tutorial program and houses it in the library. It is checked out to students to take home. By enforced policy, the homes erase the program at the end of the two week checkout period. Permissible?
This situation gives the indication that this is a program that is licensed for multiple-use at a time. This would be acceptable as this is the intention of a school licensed program. By adding the assurance of the enforced policy of erasure by the parents, then it further reinforces the fair use policy. But, can one really be sure of the erasure without personally witnessing this action? How is the school handling this, and if they do not physically come into the home to do so, then I would feel it would be a violation of the fair use policy.

14. A student building a multimedia art project uses copyrighted images of Frank Lloyd Wright buildings downloaded from the web. He submits this project to her states Student Multimedia Festival (and others) honoring classroom work and wins the $1,000 prize for the school. This is permissible under fair use.
This can only be permissible if the student does not use more than five photographs or illustrations by ONE person, or no more than fifteen images or ten percent, whichever is less from a single published work.

15. The teacher of the winning multimedia project mentioned above shows it at an art conference for educators. It cost $50 to attend the conference and the teacher is awarded free attendance because he is a presenter. This is fair use.
The correct usage of the project in fair use practices was listed above. If the criteria for the project was met, the other concern is of the non-profit status for the conference. The revenue created by charging for attendance can violate this indicator, and the use of an artists illustrations or photos can create a problem with the revenue capability for the artist.

16. A high school sells a student video yearbook made by volunteers for $25 to raise money for equipment for the school. They use popular music clips. The money all goes to the school. The songs are fully listed in the credits. Fair use.
If the songs were not purchased for the project, despite referencing with full credits, this is still a violation of fair use practices. The clips can only be thirty seconds or ten percent, whichever is less, of music and lyrics of a single musical work to be considered viable for fair use policy.

17. A school can only afford one copy of KidPix. It loads this onto the library computer and all students and all classes have access to it all day. The teachers copy and install KidPix Player on their classroom computers to evaluate the student work. This is permissible.
The KidPix license must be used in order for all students and all classes to have access daily. To only purchase one copy and then to allow for multiple usage at a time through copying this program denies KidPix the ability to create revenue from their creative program.

18. A teacher creates his own grading program. He transfers to another school and forgets to delete the program from the network. Everyone at his old school copies and uses the program. He sues the school and wins. He is likely to receive a significant monetary reward.
The first question would be to determine if the teacher utilized a copyright for his program. If so, then he has a legitimate case. If not, then the proof of ownership would have to be determined so to give credit to the creator of the grading program. Nevertheless, a district policy has been violated as teachers are held accountable for fair use practices within the district, and the accountability would fall on the school district as a whole for any violations that incur from sloppy practices.

19. An elementary school transcribes the lyrics from the album CATS for the school mini-musical. There is no admission charge. Fair use applies.
If the lyrics are within the thirty seconds or ten percent guidelines that are considered fair use policy, the application is legitimate. The fact that it is used in an instructional setting with no revenue being accrued from the musical reinforces the ability to be acceptable for fair use.

20. An enterprising media aid tapes 60 Minutes every week in case teachers need it. This is fair use.
The recording must first be in response to a specific request, and not in case a teacher will need it. So, to arbitrarily tape a show just in case it could be used in an educational setting will not be part of fair use policies. The contingencies of alteration of the program, simultaneous taping, and without charging for the recording will reinforce fair use; although this tape can only be used once with each class, and the retent ion period is still only forty five days and only for teacher-evaluative purposes.

The Copyright Quiz may be reproduced (with attribution) for educational purposes from halldavidson.net 2001, Hall Davidson - hall@cccd.edu