Copyright

[|Source: Copyright and Fair Use - Stanford University Libraries] "The four factors to consider are:
 * 1) the purpose and character of your use
 * 2) the nature of the copyrighted work
 * 3) the amount and substantiality of the portion taken, and
 * 4) the effect of the use upon the potential market.

In a 1994 case, the Supreme Court emphasized this first factor as being a primary indicator of fair use. At issue is whether the material has been used to help create something new, or merely copied verbatim into another work. When taking portions of copyrighted work, ask yourself the following questions:
 * 1. The Transformative Factor: The Purpose and Character of Your Use**
 * Has the material you have taken from the original work been transformed by adding new expression or meaning?
 * Was value added to the original by creating new information, new aesthetics, new insights and understandings?

Because the dissemination of facts or information benefits the public, you have more leeway to copy from factual works such as biographies than you do from fictional works such as plays or novels. In addition, you will have a stronger case of fair use if the material copied is from a published work than an unpublished work....
 * 2. The Nature of the Copyrighted Work**

The less you take, the more likely that your copying will be excused as a fair use. However, even if you take a small portion of a work, your copying will not be a fair use if the portion taken is the "heart" of the work. In other words, you are more likely to run into problems if you take the most memorable aspect of a work. For example, it would not probably not be a fair use to copy the opening guitar riff and the words "I can't get no satisfaction" from the song, "Satisfaction." This rule--less is more--is not necessarily true in parody cases. In a parody, the parodist is borrowing in order to comment upon the original work. A parodist is permitted to borrow quite a bit, even the heart of the original work, in order to conjure up the original work. That's because, as the Supreme Court has acknowledged, "the heart is also what most readily conjures up the [original] for parody, and it is the heart at which parody takes aim. " (//Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music//, 510 U.S. 569 (1994).)
 * 3. The Amount and Substantiality of the Portion Taken**

Another important fair use factor is whether your use deprives the copyright owner of income or undermines a new or potential market for the copyrighted work. As we indicated previously, depriving a copyright owner of income is very likely to trigger a lawsuit. This is true even if you are not competing directly with the original work. For example, in one case an artist used a copyrighted photograph without permission as the basis for wood sculptures, copying all of the elements of the photo. The artist earned several hundred thousand dollars selling the sculptures. When the photographer sued, the artist claimed his sculptures were a fair use because the photographer would never have considered making sculptures. The court disagreed, stating that it did not matter whether the photographer had considered making sculptures; what mattered was that a potential market for sculptures of the photograph existed. ( //Rogers v. Koons//, 960 F.2d 301 (2d Cir. 1992).) " [|Source: Stanford Univ. Libraries http://fairuse.stanford.edu/Copyright_and_Fair_Use_Overview/chapter9/9-b.html]
 * 4. The Effect of the Use Upon the Potential Market**

Other resources:

Copyright Alliance Education (includes lessons)

[|Copyright in the Classroom] (Video)

[|Copyright and Fair Use Guildines Chart] [|Teaching About Copyright and Fair Use]

[|A Visit to Copyright Bay]

[|Teaching Copyright]

[|Educator's Guide to Copyright]

[|Think First, Copy Later] (includes a quiz for teachers)

[|Educator's Guide to Copyright] - Quiz for Teachers (Tech&Learning)

[|Code of Best Practices for Fair Use in Media Literacy Education] helps educators gain confidence about their rights to use copyrighted materials in developing students' critical thinking and communication skills.