The Purpose of Copyright Law is to protect the interests of the authors/creators, but also to promote the progress of science and the useful arts—that is—knowledge.
Remember ideas are not copyrighted – content is. For example, if an author uses a Whale in his story, can’t we also use the animal whale in our story? BUT we cannot copy the same story as our own. Remember, people, create ideas from other people’s ideas.
Copyright law is an attempt to balance public interest with the rights of the individual author/creator
Let’s understand Fair Use. Fair use is an Exemption in the Copyright law. Indian Copyright Law and easier interpretation of Indian Copyright
Fair Use is a part of copyright law that enables people to make legal use of copyrighted materials without payment or permission under some circumstances, especially for uses related to broad and important social goals to the development of innovation and spread of knowledge including teaching and learning, news reporting, scholarship, criticism, and commentary
To know you are following the FAIR USE- consider these 4 Factors that determine Fair Use
Purpose of the use – For education, research or public viewing (not permitted)
Nature of the copyrighted work – published or unpublished, fiction or nonfiction?
The amount and substantiality of the portion –Whether you are using 10% or 1/2 or the main plot of the writing piece (fiction or nonfiction
Effect of the use on the market for the original – effect on the marketing and sales of the produced work.
Please do not use this as a checklist, use critical skills to analyze using all of these four factors.
- Make copies of newspaper articles, TV shows, and other copyrighted works and use them and keep them for educational use
- Create curriculum materials and scholarship with copyrighted materials embedded (Credit/Attribute)
- Share, sell and distribute curriculum materials with copyrighted materials embedded Using for educational purpose does not necessarily make a use fair Nor does using a portion of a copyrighted work for commercial purposes make it unfair – Inspired by Renee Hobbs
Therefore THINK and ASK? – Is it TRANSFORMATIVE