I recently purchased a copy of a DVD at the request of a professor. I believe that the professor intends to show this film in class. The DVD is relevant to course materials.
Before we jump into things, let me first offer this unambiguous assurance: Doubts, begone! The use you contemplated is allowed by law.
Okay, with that out of the way, let's break it down.
[We got a question from an academic library...]
I have a question about using copyrighted materials in my classes.
The question is: what legal ways can I share these lectures with students?
The answers are:
1. List the video series in the syllabus as a course material to acquire (I know...."BOOO").
My institution subscribes to the "Kurzweil Reading Program", a "Text-to-Speech" product for those with reading impairments (dyslexia, English language learners, blind/vision impaired, etc.)
Section 121 indicates these users are "eligible persons" for "fair use", but others, without such disabilities could use the program (like an audiobook in the car!).
This question reflects the level of savvy "Ask the Lawyer" readers bring to their submissions. The member submitting the question has already set out (in a manner much more succinct than I usually achieve) the interplay of:
If a teacher teaches a novel in school, can they show the DVD of the movie under fair use?
This question was submitted by a system serving elementary and secondary schools.
The answer for those schools (and for higher education, too) is: if the viewing of the DVD is tied to the reading of the book and the content is part of the class/curriculum, then YES, it can be viewed in class.
We were asked about signage to post over the copier at a schools where educational materials are copied. Below is some template language with footnotes explaining why they say what they do. Of course, before posting in your school or library, check with your lawyer!
MAKING A COPY ON THIS MACHINE
MAY BE SUBJECT TO THE COPYRIGHT LAW OF THE UNITED STATES
This means 4 important things:
1. Copying a copyright-protected work here could be a copyright violation[1].
We were asked about signage to post over the public copier at a libraries open to the public. Below is some template language with footnotes explaining why they say what they do. Of course, before posting in your school or library, check with your lawyer!
MAKING A COPY ON THIS MACHINE
MAY BE SUBJECT TO THE COPYRIGHT LAW OF THE UNITED STATES[1]
This means 4 important things:
Students in a school are reading a simultaneous use eBook. The students with IEPs[1] have access to a screen reader but this feature is very robotic and doesn't meet their needs. The school librarian and the School Library System searched for an audio version of this book but could not find one for purchase.
The school may be covered by Fair Use but for this scenario, it doesn't need to be in order to make the recording proposed by the member.
Why?
I am struggling to find information on using popular music in public K-12 schools. I have the following areas I am trying to find information about:
1. Can a teacher use a Spotify account in their classroom?
2. Can a teacher use music with face-to-face instruction?
3. Can a service provider (counselor, therapist, social worker...) use music with students?
Welcome to "Back to School 2021"...a year unlike any other!
I have weathered many K-12 "back-to-schools." For instance, second grade back-to-school, for me, was in 1980. For my son, it was in 2010. And for my daughter, it was just a few days before I sat down to write this.
That 1980-to-2021 time span has allowed me to realize two things:
We are trying to determine if sharing only book covers as part of video book talks published online is Fair Use. We think we can support a Fair Use evaluation. However, we would like to know how library management software is allowed to include covers in our online public access catalogs. How to do they get permission? We would like any feedback and information regarding book covers.
I am writing this answer on a Friday afternoon, so before I give a formal answer (and I will, this is an important question), please indulge me in a small flight of fancy.
A taskforce at the college is wanting to use a recent song and video on Youtube. This would be a traditional lip dub with a little step up in production as they would use some greenscreen and use some face tracking to animate anti-racist quotes on the faces of the participants. They want to mimic some of the effects in the video as well as add some of our own. So it is transforming the work.
This submission is a "fair use”[1] question coming at us from a private college, so before we delve into a reply, I have to emphasize that the specific analysis in this case is limited to that type of entity (a private, accredited school).
Since it can get boring "emphasizing" disclaimers in prose form, I will emphasize it in verse:
