Copyright Policy and Resource Guide Educational Multimedia Fair Use

Can I use copyrighted material in a multimedia work that I have created for educational purposes without obtaining the copyright owner's permission?

Yes, but within certain limits. Key elements of the Educational Multimedia Fair Use Guidelines are summarized below. The Guidelines specify how much of copyright-protected sources may be included in multimedia products prepared by students or faculty members for course-related work. Use of larger portions requires permission from copyright owners. Creators of multimedia products may prepare a total of three copies, one of which is for preservation and replacement purposes only. One of the copies may be placed on Library Reserve. An exception is allowed for joint projects: each principal creator may retain a copy. Fair Use status expires two years after the first instructional use of a particular multimedia product.

How Much

Motion Media
Up to 10% or 3 minutes of a source, whichever is less.

Text
Up to 10% or 1000 words of a source, whichever is less. An entire poem of less than 250 words, but no more than 3 poems or excerpts by one poet. No more than 5 poems or excerpts from one anthology.

Music, Lyrics, Music Video
Up to 10% but not more than 30 seconds total from an individual work.

Illustrations, Photographs
No more than 5 images by one artist or photographer. No more than 10% or 15 images, whichever is less, from any single published work.

Numerical Data Sets
Up to 10% or 2500 fields or cell entries, whichever is less.

Internet Sources
Though it can be difficult to determine what is copyright protected and what is in the public domain, the multimedia creator is responsible for adhering to copyright law.

Opening Screen Notice

"Certain materials are included under the fair use exemption of U.S. Copyright Law and have been prepared according to the educational multimedia fair use guidelines and are restricted from further use." Credit the sources and display the copyright notice and copyright ownership information if shown in the original source. Crediting the source must adequately identify the source of the work, giving a full bibliographic description where available (including author, title, publisher, and place and date of publication). The copyright notice includes the word "Copyright" or the copyright symbol, the name of the copyright holder, and the year of first publication.

Integrity of Sources

Any alterations of copyrighted items must be noted.