Questions about this Topic?
Can I Use this for My Course?
This fair use checklist is based on the one created by Kenneth D. Crews and Dwayne K. Butler for the Columbia University Libraries: Fair Use Checklist
In this section, the fair use checklist has been pared down to those considerations most relevant to use of copyrighted material in teaching. Items of particular importance are in bold.
*Note: It is your responsibility to go through the fair use checklist and make an individual determination for each copyrighted item you wish to use, each time you use it.*
|
|
Favors a Fair Use Determination | Opposes a Fair Use Determination |
| Purpose |
Teaching Nonprofit Educational Institution Restricted Access (e.g. putting the material in Canvas) Transformative Use (e.g. showing a portion of a movie, but having students engage in an exercise that relates the movie to the course material) |
Entertainment (e.g. showing a movie in class to give students a day off) Denying credit to the original author (e.g. putting images in an iBook or PowerPoint slide without attribution) |
| Nature |
Published work Factual Important to your educational objectives (clearly connected) |
Unpublished work Creative work/fiction |
| Amount |
Using only a small amount of a work Portion used is not central to the work (e.g. you haven't used the chapter that is at the "heart" of the work's purpose) |
Large portion or whole work used Portion used is central to the work's significance (the "heart" of the work) |
| Effect |
User owns a lawfully purchased copy of the work (you or the library have purchased a copy of the work) No significant effect on the market (e.g. only a few copies made) No similar product is marketed by the copyright holder (e.g. you want to use digital images and the copyright holder does not have a digital platform) |
Could replace sale of copyrighted work (e.g. if you are providing students with chapters from a textbook so that they don't have to purchase the textbook) Numerous copies made Reasonably available licensing mechanism is available (e.g. the copyright holder has a subscription product available) Repeated or long-term use |
Best Practices for Educational Use of Copyrighted Materials
- Get permission from the copyright holder whenever possible
- Link to licensed resources from the library when possible
- Don't upload a PDF you got from the library or from a colleague
- Go through the fair use checklist for each item, each time you use it, and make an individual determination for each before using
- Put it on a password protected site (like Canvas)
- Accessible only to those in the class, only for the duration of the class
- Remember, this doesn't guarantee fair use, but it helps in that determination
- Give credit to the original author
- Always, even if your use is fair
- Work with the library to license resources you need
- We may not always be able to get exactly what you need, but we might! And if we can't, we will work with you.
- Ask the library if you have questions