[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").
We at [redacted higher ed institution] are considering digitizing our past yearbooks and storing them in an institutional repository which has the option of materials being password protected or available publicly. We are also considering using these photos in future advertising materials.
We have had a lot of questions about yearbooks over the years of Ask the Lawyer.[1] We'll answer this submission with the understanding that for those who want further and deeper information, there's more to read in the "ATL" vault.
An academic librarian relayed this question from a researcher/author:
First, some validation: the faculty member is wise to be considering this issue, since publishing contracts[1] almost always put the responsibility and liability for photo clearances on the author.
The CASE Act has a provision for libraries to preemptively opt out of CCB proceedings. If we opt out at the institutional level, does that cover individual library employees?
Opting out seems like a good course of action for our institution but I wonder if there are reasons why we should not opt out.
For this question, "Ask the Lawyer" brought in "Authorlaw.com" and copyright attorney at the Law Office of Stephanie Adams, Sallie Randolph, as a guest author. Many thanks to Sallie for crafting this answer as the CASE Act unfolds.
Periodically, our library receives handwritten requests for information from individuals who are incarcerated at prisons and correctional facilities around the country.
As I have written before, a big rule for the "Ask the Lawyer" service is "don't reinvent the wheel!"
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:
Since the 1970s, Villa Maria College has published an annual anthology of student work called Skald (https://www.villa.edu/campus-life/skald/).
To address this question, I took a look at several issues of "Skald Art & Literary Magazine."
Each issue was interesting, but it was viewing the works collectively that brought true rewards.
Every issue was a different size, was informed by a different design sensibility, and had a different type of binding.
Recently a question has come up at our academic library concerning patron privacy and the notification to a patron (usually a student) concerning excessive downloading of content from databases in our collection. Our current practice has been to receive notification from the vendor about perceived illegal downloading.
Questions that combine higher education, data access, and "terms of use" enforcement always give me a moment of sad reflection, as I remember Internet pioneer and activist Aaron Schwartz. It was an alleged overuse of an academic database at MIT in 2012 that lead up to his demise.[1]
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:
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:
