Copyright laws were developed centuries ago to protect authors. If an author wrote a book, poem, or article he or she could register it with a government agency. That assured the author that others could not copy the work without permission. (Permission frequently included paying a fee.) If an author discovered that someone had coped the work without permission, he or she could sue the offender. If the author proved his or her case in court, judges frequently forced the offenders to pay for their mistakes.
The copyright law has changed over the centuries, but it still protects books, poems, maps, and magazine articles. Now, it also protects games, films, videos, computer programs, music videos, and other communication technologies.
Today, the law also gives some rights to users, the ones who read books and watch videos. This "users right" started several centuries ago in England. People were being sued for copyright infringements for copying short quotations. At one point, an author could be sued - and lose - for copying one sentence without permission. The judges decided the law had gone too far so they began finding some defendants innocent on the basis of "fair quotation." The judges said it was not illegal to include short quotations in a book or article, so long as the quotation was brief.
U.S. judges began applying "fair quotation," but they called it "fair use." Whatever it is called, "fair quotation" or "fair use" is the right of an individual to quote a small part of a copyrighted work without asking permission or paying a fee.
When the U.S. copyright law was revised in 1976, it included a "fair use" exemption authorizing teachers to copy for classroom use. The 1976 copyright law and the related documents include specific exemptions authorizing teachers to copy pages from books, encyclopedias, and magazines to distribute to their students. It also authorizes teachers to videotape programs off the air for classroom use. Congress did not give teachers a "blank check" to copy everything. Some restrictions apply to copying by teachers.
Unfortunately, the new copyright law did not include a specific exemption for copying by students. However, the fair use exemption in the law applies to students. In applying "fair use," it is important to apply the "injury test." Most authors are poorly paid for their work, so copying which deprives them of part of their income is "injurious" to them. Copying a few pages from a book probably does not "injure" the author. On the other hand, copying an entire book to avoid buying it deprives the author of income from the sale of that book. In that case, the copying is "injurious," and illegal.
Students are most likely to injure copyright owners by copying computer software, records, cassettes, and videos. Copying software, records, cassettes, or videos to avoid buying them injures many people. The royalties from music, videos and software are shared by many people, including composers, musicians, and technicians. The loss of income from the sale of software, videos, records, and cassettes does injure these people. Therefore copying these items to avoid buying them is both "injurious," and illegal.
Students in computer classes often enter text, data, illustrations or logarithms as part of a class requirement. Students producing media projects (slides, film, video, etc.) often copy pictures from books, scenes from videos or TV programs, or music from records. In most cases, this appears to be a legitimate application of "fair use."
When Congress rewrote the copyright law, it stated that copying by students as a "learning exercise" was a "fair use." If you copy pictures, music, or text to produce a media project, that copying may be a "fair use" as long as the copy is only used for a school project. You may submit the project for a grade and the teacher may show it in class. That much is probably a "fair use."
The key questions concerns future uses of the material you produce for class assignments. You may keep it for your own enjoyment and you probably can show it to a prospective employer during a job interview. However, it is includes copies of copyrighted works, it is probably illegal to share a computer program on a bulletin board or to exchange it with friends. In the case of media productions, it may be illegal for you to show it to an audience. It is particularly important that you not broadcast the program or transmit it through a cable system without checking on copyright permissions. Your school Copyright Officer can help you decide if you must request permission for the items you copied. If the only thing you copied is music, the station or cable system's licenses may cover the music - but verify that before the broadcast or cable transmission.
Please remember, your education would not be possible without books, magazines, encyclopedias, computer programs, videos, and the like. You benefit from the creative efforts of others. Those who created those materials are entitled to a decent income from their labor. Copying more than a small part of a copyrighted work denies them of a fair return on their labor. It does not seem fair, and it is clearly illegal.
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