How to avoid copyright pitfalls

Sec. 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976 allows the fair use of a copyrighted work for criticism, comment, news reporting or teaching. Multiple copies of brief works may be made for classroom use if there is a short time lapse between deciding to use and actually using the copies. Federal guidelines allow teachers to make single copies for a class or for scholarly research. The following is a guideline summary.

Material that may be copied

• Articles from newspapers or periodicals
• Chapters from books
• Complete poems if fewer than 250 words and printed on two sides or less
• Articles, stories or essays of fewer than 2,500 words
• One chart, graph, diagram, drawing, cartoon or picture from a book, periodical or newspaper

Material that may not be copied

• Identical material for more than one course
• More than one short poem, article, story or essay
• More than two excerpts from the same author, or more than three from the same collective work
• “Consumable” material, such as workbooks, exercises, standardized tests, answer sheets, etc.
• The same material from term to term
   

Questions?

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