Copyright Challenges:
a Brief Overview
Presented by Dr. Marilyn Kaplan
Faculty Senate, March 25, 2009

Each work’s copyright situation needs to be
examined individually. However, there are
common elements that will allow us to determine
whether copyright permission must be obtained.
◦ Who holds the copyright? Often, it is the publisher.
◦ Is the work protected by copyright? Yes. But there are
exemptions: federal, state, and local government
publications; works published prior to 1923 indicating
their copyright expired; and lecture notes, homework
solutions, and exams created by faculty members

You locate an article, a book chapter, a photograph from
an art book, or a poem from a collected work, and make
handouts for your class.

You use a video and show the film in your class. You
also use audio streaming clips or video clips from a
website.

You provide lecture notes, samples of quizzes and
exams, and homework solutions.

These works may be available electronically or
converted from print in order to download digital files
(PDF, JPEG, streaming clips), and post them into your
WebCT course and/or library reserves.

Electronic materials, made available through databases
and web sites, should not be posted in full text; instead
we should provide web addresses. But if we reproduce
print materials digitally, we may not be in copyright
compliance.

As faculty, we should be able to use any tool to facilitate
our students’ learning process. It can be complex to
learn all the copyright legal issues as we will show you.
Type B – Fair use
one of the two copyright exemptions

Fair use is based on four factors to be considered
on a case-by-case basis:
the purpose of the use
the nature of the publication
the amount or substantiality of the work being used or
reproduced
the effect on the market for the work

Professor Jones of the Art History department wants to
digitize over 500 art slides used for various art courses.
Some slides were obtained by the Art Department years
ago, and it is unclear who holds the copyright. Other
slides are photographs taken by faculty who donated
them to the department. Jones wants to mount all of the
digitized slides on the password-protected course
through WebCT so students can view the slides 24/7.
◦ Is this fair use? No. We do not know who owns the copyright.
Photographs are highly creative work, and makes it prohibited. The
amount / substantially of work also makes it questionable.

A women's studies faculty member has created her own
personal web site. Her research interest is gender
representations in popular media. She has included a
large image of Thelma and Louise (Susan Sarandon and
Geena Davis from the movie Thelma and Louise ) on her
web page. She obtained the image by digitizing a
photograph that she made from a 35mm print of the film
that she rented last semester for a classroom viewing.
◦ Is this a fair use? Would it matter if the faculty member put a
watermark on the image so it could not be copied? No. The image
came from a motion picture which is already copyright protected. The
image is also a “creative work” and a watermark will not negate the
potential of purchasing the image. She also converted a print image to a
digital file. The image is simply a gender representative which has no
educational value.

Professor Cleo distributes 23 copies of the article,
"Telekinesis: Theory and Practice" from the July 2005
issue of Pseudo-Psychology Today to his class at the
University.
◦ Does Professor Cleo exercise fair use? Yes, this is permissible. This is
a one-time use, which is “spontaneous” and relevant to the course.

What if this professor wants to reuse this article every
semester?
◦ Is this permissible? No. Cleo must obtain copyright permission
because the spontaneity no longer exists. Cleo does not have the right to
re-use the same article every semester or in alternate semesters without
obtaining permission.

Each semester, Professor Al makes all of his course
content notes available on a WebCT page. To expand on
some of his lectures, Professor Al would like to scan a
few articles from a copyrighted journal and add them to
the existing course web page.
◦ Is this a fair use? No. The professor is reproducing the journal articles in
a different format. Additionally, the professor wants to use more than 1
article, which negates the sale of the issue / journal. This also leads to a
complex issue – how much is too much? A couple of book chapters? 2
articles? 250 words for a poem?
◦ It is ideal to provide the web addresses, pointing students to the content if they are
readily available electronically.

The Copyright Clearance Center’s academic copyright license will
provide copyright permission to many publications, allowing UT
Dallas faculty to focus on teaching without worrying about securing
copyright permission for course packs, posted materials on WebCT
courses, classroom handouts, and library reserves.

It will be our responsibility to verify whether the titles are covered by
the license, and we will receive frequent updates listing publishers
who are on the license list. If it is covered, we have the copyright
permission.
◦ We just need to secure copyright permissions for those not covered by
the license.

You locate an article, a book chapter, a photograph from
an art book, or a poem from a collected work, and make
handouts for your class. This is permitted for one time use.

You use a video and show the film in your class. You
also use audio streaming clips or video clips from a
website. It depends on the content and the use for showing it – no if
used as entertainment, yes if educational.

You provide lecture notes, samples of quizzes and
exams, and homework solutions. Yes, this is permitted.