I spent 8 hours on Tuesday learning about copyright law and how it impacts us in education. “Thrilling!” you say with a twinge of sarcasm? Actually – Yes. it was a fascinating discussion, I learned a lot, and 8 hours flew by in no time.
Our presenter for the day was Dr. Kenneth Crews, a Professor of Law and the Director of the Copyright Management Center at Indiana University.
I’m not going to try to summarize 8 hours of class in a short post, but I will share some interesting tidbits:
- Despite what I thought I learned in college and in previous brushes with copyright, there are no “magic ratios” of what is considered fair use of materials in educational settings and what is not. Each individual situation must stand on its own merits when posited against the fair use guidelines.
- “Fair Use” is a balanced application of 4 factors:
- PURPOSE of the use
- NATURE of the work
- AMOUNT of the work that is used
- EFFECT of the use on the market value of the work
- Quotations and proper citing of sources have little or nothing to do with copyright law. They apply to plagiarism, not law.
Easily 5+ hours of our time was spent discussing examples – both provided and from our own experiences – of situations compared against the fair use guidelines. In almost every case, Educators came out OK.
About 20 minutes before the day ended, Dr. Kenneth Crews smiled and shared this information with us:
- Lawsuits against educators are rare. Why? If someone believes that you violated copyright as an employee of a non-profit educational institution, but you have proof that you applied the four factors of fair use beforehand and believed that you were within your fair use rights (and it is reasonable that you came to this conclusion,) by legal definition the court will cut your statutory damages to $0.
Copyright owners may still make you cease & desist, they may sue to cover their attorneys fees, and they may sue for proven actual damages. Because of this any case brought against a teacher will likely be settled quickly and out of court. Moral of the story? Keep notes of why you believe you are within reason before you use someone else’s copyrighted materials.
- Furthermore, copyright law is FEDERAL law. If you sue someone, they must sue you in FEDERAL court. About 12 years ago The Supreme Court started ruling in strict adherence to the Eleventh Amendment, which says that a STATE cannot be held liable for damages in a FEDERAL court. Teachers are representatives of the STATE! If you are knowingly and willfully violating copyright law you could be found guilty, just like anyone else. However, if you are found to be violating fair use guidelines unknowingly they can force you to stop doing violating that copyright, but you CANNOT be sued for financial damages in a Federal court. Case dismissed.
That is all good and well, and highly empowering for Educators. Which brings me to a more difficult place, modeling.
Is there a more hypocritical precept in Education than the idea that the Teacher at the front of the room can live in virtual immunity from copyright law, the Student, so long as they are sitting in their desk is shrouded in the same immunity, but the moment the child steps out of the classroom, the law changes for them?
It is no wonder that kids download movies and music illegally.
It is not enough that we do a better job educating our students on copyright laws. We need to be better MODELS. Even if that means giving up some of the “rights” we are granted under fair use. I’d say that’s a fair trade for not going to jail the next time we copy something from a textbook or play a pop song behind the athletic team banquet slideshows.
