How to Use Copyrighted Material for Teaching

The Copyright Act of 1976 contains a "fair use" provision where teachers are allowed to photocopy and distribute portions of copyrighted works in their classrooms without permission from the copyright owner. There are four main factors that you need to take into consideration when deciding if you are distributing portions of work under the "fair use" provision. If you carefully adhere to these guidelines, you'll remain within the boundaries of the law.

Instructions

1. Make sure you are using the work for nonprofit, educational purposes. In other words, it's okay to distribute copies of William Wordsworth's poems to your class. However, it isn't okay to self-publish a book with those same poems, with the intent to sell that book to your students.

2. Ask yourself what is the nature of the work you are about to distribute. It's okay to distribute published, factual work. But distributing unpublished, fictional works does not fall under "fair use."

3. Make sure you are only distributing a small portion of the work. A few photocopied pages is acceptable; an entire photocopied book is not.

4. Ask yourself the question, 'if everyone did what I am doing now, would it financially affect the copyright holder?' If you have met the other three criteria for fair use, and the answer is no, you fall under "fair use." If the answer is "yes," your use is not permissible.

Tips & Warnings

• Fair use laws are open to interpretation. There aren't definitive rules for how many pages you can distribute, or certain percentages of works that can be distributed. Therefore, you should err on the side of caution, and only distribute small amounts of the copyrighted work (the absolute minimum necessary to perform your teaching duties, while following all four steps).

References

• University of California: Fair Use Guidelines
• Stanford University: Fair Use Guidelines
• University of Texas: Four Factor Test