Copyright, Fair Use, Creative Commons

So how do you use copyrighted material?

Most of the time, you need to get permission from the copyright holder. That permission may require a royalty fee, an advertising deal (for example on a YouTube video), or it might be free (they also may not give you permission).

However, you can use copyrighted material without permission if your use falls under the fair use clause of the law. You are allowed to claim fair use for purposes such as:

• criticism, comment (including satire and parody)
• news reporting
• teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research.

Fair use is not strictly defined but there are a few factors to consider:

Courts determine if a new work is fair use by asking the following questions:

• Is the new work transformative - does it add new meaning - and not just replicate the original?
• What is the nature of the work? (Creative or fictional works generally get more protection than purely factual ones, legal scholars say.)
• How much of the original work is used?
• Does the new creation use the "heart" of the original?
• How would the new work affect the market for the original?

There are several guidelines available for how fair use in education

Teachers can:

1. make copies of newspaper articles, TV shows, and other copyrighted works and use them and keep them for educational use
2. create curriculum materials and scholarship with copyrighted materials embedded
3. share, sell and distribute curriculum materials with copyrighted materials embedded

Learners can:

1. use copyrighted works in creating new material
2. distribute their works digitally if they meet the transformativeness standard

The big question is what makes something transformative. The courts have ruled on some cases, but the law can be interpreted differently depending on the case.