Copyright is a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States (title 17, U.S. Code) to the authors of “original works of authorship” including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works. This protection is available to both published and unpublished works. Section 106 of the 1976 Copyright Act generally gives the owner of copyright the exclusive right to do and to authorize others to do the following:

• To reproduce the copyrighted work in copies or phonorecords;
• To prepare derivative works based upon the copyrighted work;
• To distribute copies or phonorecords of the copyrighted work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending;
• To perform the copyrighted work publicly, in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and motion pictures and other audiovisual works;
• To display the copyrighted work publicly, in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and pictorial, graphic, or sculptural works, including the individual images of a motion picture or other audiovisual work; and
• In the case of sound recordings, to perform the work publicly by means of a digital audio transmission.

This is an excerpt from the US Copyright Office's Basic Circular on Copyright.   The full text is available at their web site: http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright/circs/circ1.html. This document explains what copyright protects and does not protect, how to obtain a copyright, and who can claim copyright, among other topics. Also see this helpful table by Laura Gasaway, When Copyrights Expire, showing when a work becomes "public property."

II. Fair Use (return to top)

One of the most important limitations to copyright is "fair use," which allows students and teachers to make use of copyrighted material under certain circumstances.

The following is the full text of the fair-use statute from the U.S. Copyright Act.

Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976. Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use

"Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include --

(1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;

(2) the nature of the copyrighted work;

(3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and

(4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors."

The application of the Fair Use factors is not an exact science.  Here are links to several articles that discuss the interpretation of Fair Use:

• Fair Use of Copyrighted Works: The Consortium for Educational Technology for University Systems (CETUS)
• The Copyright Website
• Stanford University Fair Use Site: Articles

III. Fair Use/Multimedia (return to top)

Unfortunately, neither the Copyright Act of 1976 nor the fair use guidelines that followed its passage, address the production of educational multimedia.  As Chris Dalziel, Executive Director of the Instructional Telecommunications Council, notes:

The lack of fair use guidelines for educational multimedia places a huge burden on educators who want to take advantage of today's new teaching technologies. According to the Copyright Act of 1976, an educator must obtain copyright permission to duplicate or change an image in any way. Consequently, digitizing an image to incorporate it into a multimedia project requires faculty to obtain permission for each copyrighted piece they use in their program. When one multimedia production can easily contain over 2,000 copyrighted works, paying royalty fees and obtaining formal permission to use each piece can be extremely costly and time consuming. Often it is impossible to track down who owns the rights to a certain photograph or other piece of work.

In an attempt to develop guidelines for fair use in the digital age, more than 40 groups representing publishers, educators, and librarians began meeting in 1994 as the Conference on Fair Use (CONFU).  One of the issues addressed by CONFU was Educational Multimedia. The group attempted to "clarify the application of fair use of copyrighted works as teaching methods are adapted to new learning environments. The Guidelines apply to the fair use of portions of lawfully acquired copyrighted works in educational multimedia projects which are created by educators or students as part of a systematic learning activity at nonprofit educational institutions" (Interim Report).

The proposed Fair Use Guidelines for Educational Multimedia do not have the force of law, but they do at least represent more than two years of thinking and negotiation by a large number of interested parties and they are an excellent starting place for thinking about creating a multimedia project. The Guidelines cover materials such as motion media, text, datasets, and music.

Summary of Fair Use Guidelines for various Media : This is a handy table prepared by Susan Campbell in the Instructional Resource Center.

The Guidelines also explain the number of permitted copies of a multimedia project containing copyrighted material.  Students may have one copy.   Instructors may have one copy on reserve for students to review, plus one copy for themselves.

In addition, the University of Texas has devised a set of Rules of Thumb for helping their faculty and staff make decisions about the fair use of multimedia materials.  These may also be useful to other academic institutions in determining fair use.

Here are some additional materials related to Fair Use and Multimedia and an article on a related issue, the use of copyrighted materials in distance learning environments:

• Hot Property: A Comprehensive Multimedia Law Site
• Fair Use and Multimedia (Stanford)
• Conference on Fair Use, Interim Report
• Kenneth Crews, Copyright and Distance Education
• Penn State University Libraries Copyright Symposium

IV. Intellectual Property (return to top)

Intellectual Property is like the other side of the coin of copyright.  It relates to the ownership of intellectual work.  Like the Fair Use issue, the concept of Intellectual Property becomes more confusing when applied to electronic media. (Consider the commonly held, but incorrect, belief that "If it's on the Internet, it's not copyrighted.") The Consortium for Educational Technology in University Systems (CETUS) has produced an extensive discussion document on these issues in relation to academic environments: Ownership of New Works at the University. 

Here are some additional materials related to Intellectual Property:

• An Intellectual Property Law Primer for Multimedia and Web Developers
• Report of the American Association of Universities Task Force on Intellectual Property Rights in an Electronic Environment
• The Franklin Pierce Law Center Intellectual Property Mall
• Report of the Working Group on Intellectual Property Rights (US Patent and Trademark Office)

V. Citation of Sources (return to top)

Even for material that falls within the Fair Use guidelines or for which permission has been obtained, the source of the material must be correctly credited, including copyright ownership information where appropriate. The sources below show the correct formats for citing electronic sources.

• Citing Electronic Resources
• Online Citation Guides

VI. Other Resources on Copyright (return to top)

George Mason University's Copyright Assistance Office is located in the Johnson Center, Room 119.  For questions about copyright, please call the office at (703) 993-2562, during normal business hours.

• George Mason University Copyright Policy
• The Copyright Permissions Page (a service of Wake Forest University): collection of links to copyright permission pages of various publishers and journals
• The University of Texas Crash Course on Copyright
• Indiana University Purdue Copyright Management Center
• Regents Guide to Understanding Copyright and Fair Use
• Copyright Resources for Education Online
• Brad Templeton, Ten Big Myths about Copyright Explained