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National History Day Yes, there are copyright laws and yes, even students must follow them. Copying parts of or entire works for use in a classroom cannot be done simply because the purpose is educational. The information below is by no means a legal guide to copyrights. It is, however, presented as a guideline for students who do research and incorporate information, ideas or quotes from their research material. Copyright Just because a work doesn't incorporate the word or symbol for copyright doesn't mean you can use it. An original work—even your original work—is protected by copyright as soon as it is "fixed" in a tangible form. This means, if you can touch it, or hear it, or see it, it's probably copyrighted. Now, if you use someone else's work (with permission, of course) within your work, your copyright will only cover what you have created. The other person's work is still covered by their original copyright. A copyright means the person who created the work has the exclusive right to copy, distribute, display or perform the work. Only that person can give you permission to use their work. Fair Use "Fair Use" is not to be interpreted as any sort of not-for-profit or educational "permission" for copying. There are guidelines on when you can use part of a copyrighted work without getting permission. Your purpose for copying must fall into the categories of criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research. If it doesn't, you cannot claim fair use. Your claim under fair use must also take into consideration the following: Remember: these are only guidelines. Only the courts can authoritatively determine whether the use you have chosen is covered under the Fair Use provision. Public Domain The limitations and conditions set forth in these guidelines do not apply to works in the public domain—such as U.S. Government works or works on which copyright has expired for which there are no copyright restrictions Fair Use Guidelines in the Multimedia Age Here we are, on the World Wide Web, with a wealth of material for us to use in whatever way we want. Right? Wrong... Just because the material is easily available through the computer on your desk or at home doesn't mean that you can it's yours for the taking. And this definitely makes the copyright issues more complicated. The National Information Infrastructure Working Group on Intellectual Property Rights developed in 1994 the Fair Use Guidelines for Educational Multimedia and is creating Educational Fair Use Guidelines for Digital Images. The basic rules for educational use of copyrighted material still stand—see "Fair Use." If you want to get a complete copy of the guidelines for Fair Use in the Multimedia Age, check out the links at the bottom of this page. In Summary In incorporating copyright materials into your work, you can only be truly safe using works for which you have obtained permission for the particular use. Also, you can get a license agreement which may govern the uses of some works. Links for Additional Information A great resource for copyright information—with more links than you ever imagined possible for copyright information, both from university and non-university sources—is Yale University's Copyright Resources Online.
A number of sources for obtaining information on fair use of copyrighted materials are available on the World Wide Web. A three page list is available upon request, but a few of the basic ones are listed below:
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