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Lyndsey Harvey
ETE 424
Professor Wolf
September 29, 2019

The Impact of Copyright and fair use on Education.

A first-grade class is doing a lesson over historical figures, during a read aloud the
teacher reads a book to her class about Martin Luther King Jr. She wants to play a short clip from
a documentary of Martin Luther King Jr. she found on the internet to her students to give them
more insight on Dr. King’s infamous speech “I have a Dream”. Does this scenario fall under
protection of copyright and fair use laws? Is she able to show her class the video? When we as
educators go into the classroom, there are a variety resources that we are able to use and have
access to. By using these resources, we can implement them into our lesson plans to be
additional support for our students and give them more opportunities to learn from different
perspectives. So, what impact dose copyright and fair use have on education? To know the
answer to this, educators first need to know what is considered a copyright and fair use and how
exactly are they protected under it.
What exactly is the meaning of copyright and fair use? “A copyright is the set of
exclusive legal rights authors or creators have over their works for a limited period of time”. The
Fair use doctrine falls under copyright laws, which allows teachers to use a variety of resources
for students without the permission from the originators. In education teachers are protected
under fair use and copy right laws. “Fair use allows reproduction and other uses of copyrighted
works – without requiring permission from the copyright owner – under certain conditions.”
Because of these laws’ educators are able to take learning outside of the classroom and integrate
additional teaching resources for our students. By doing this, learning can be more motivating
and engaging, along with student exposure to realistic learning materials. But educators need to
know the legality of how they can stay protected while doing this.
How are educators protected under the copyright law and fair use doctrine? Teachers can
bring in other media tools such as video clips, articles and books that children can use as tools
for learning. But there are stipulations to doing this and knowing what educators can and cannot
do is important to distinguish. In my scenario, because of the fair use doctrine, the teacher is
allowed to play just a small clip of her video about Martin Luther King Jr because she is
previewing it in an educational setting and only showing a small portion of it. “for motion media
(e.g., video clips), use is limited to 10% or three minutes, whichever is less.” However, if she
was to show the whole video to the class she would no longer be protected by this doctrine.
Educators need to be aware of the four factors that can protect them under this doctrine. They
include the purpose of what its being used for, the nature of the work, the amount of work to be
used and the effect of the use of it. “The Copyright Act establishes a four-factor test, the "fair use
test," to use to determine whether a use of a copyrighted work is fair use that does not require the
permission of the copyright owner.”
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Lyndsey Harvey
ETE 424
Professor Wolf
September 29, 2019

The impact of copyright laws and the fair use doctrine protects educators if used properly
and creates many learning opportunities for our students. With technology becoming new ways
of learning, this is very important for first year educators to have knowledge on.

References:
Copyright Information Center. (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/copyrightinfo/fairuse.html.\

Copyright Compliance Policy for Members of the Alliant ... (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://library.alliant.edu/screens/reservecopyright.pdf.

Fair use for teaching and research. (n.d.). Retrieved from

http://copyright.universityofcalifornia.edu/use/fair-use.html.

Kristan very interesting reading your response! I was not aware of different types of
copyrighting, I thought it was all one in the same. Good job on the intell! Now that I think about
it, when I go to restaurants, they all have their own version of the happy birthday song. I guess
now I know why..Copyright laws!

Samantha you did a great job on the presentation and your paper. Both were very informational
and your presentation ran together smoothly. I did not realize that not everything needed to say
copyright, that is was automatically there. Your slide of fair use was also very informative. It
showed ways of teachers getting around the copyright laws. Good job.

Colin the information you presented was very informative. A Lot of people do not realize that the
materials they have available to them in the class requires a license to be used. I learned my
second year in the school district that even showing movies on holidays, the district had to have
a certain license for that. I enjoyed the presentation very catchy.