Copyright
This is the law that protects the published or unpublished works of an author.  A copyright allows for said author to determine how his work can, and or will be used outside of its original form.  The author has legal rights to his work, and the copyright is what protects that right.  A copyright covers a wide variety of mediums such as literary works, music, architectural works, dramatic works, and sound recordings.  

Fair Use:
This is the principle that provides limitations of the use of the copyrighted work of an author.  The principles or guidelines are formed to aide students as well as educators in the use of copyright materials during the development of various multimedia projects.  These guidelines only apply to information taken by a student or educator from a piece of work containing a copyright.

Preparation of Educational Multimedia Projects under these guidelines:
Preparation includes proper attribution and citation of a particular work.  Students may use particular sections of a copyrighted work in the creation of a multimedia work for a particular course.  Educators may also use lawfully gained pieces of copyrighted works when developing multimedia projects for educational support.

Permitted Educational Uses for Multimedia Projects under these guidelines:
The uses of educational multimedia under these guidelines are permitted but subject to time, portion, and distribution.  Students my display their own multimedia projects in the course for which it was crated as well as in portfolios as an example of their academic work in the past.  Educators may display their own multimedia projects when it is for the basis of curriculum based instruction.

Limitations on both time and amount of usage:
The use of copyright material in multimedia projects is subject to certain limitations such as time limitations and portion limitations.  Time limitations for the educators extends for a period of two years from the date that the material is first used, after that the educators must have permission to use each piece of copyrighted material.  The student may use the multimedia projects in a portfolio without a particular time period given to that piece of work.  Portion limitations for an educator and or student differ depending on material category. Text material, which is the most commonly used,  allows for up to 10% of 1000 words to be utilized.

Examples of when permission is required for teachers:
Teachers must seek permission when using multimedia projects for commercial reproduction, and are not allowed to use multimedia material over electronic networks without the permission to do so first.

For the most part, all of my prior teachers have followed the guidelines of fair use very well and it has always been strictly enforced.  I remember when I was in high school I would hear of students running into trouble with certain articles of the fair use guidelines but I believe that by enforcing the rule at a young age it prevents the misuse of copyright material later in life, though violations of the rules still occur all the time. The following links are just two examples of how violations of fair use have occurred.
Teacher resigns
Student plagiarizes major end of term project


Published by, Ryan Mertaugh
Modified date 11/12/07