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Legal and
Ethical Issues
Within the classroom, teachers are constantly being confronted with the issue of
fair use. Teachers need to keep copy right laws in mind when sharing
copied stories and audio recording with their students. Teachers also
often share videos with their students. Although it is commonly thought
that children's videos may be shown in schools, this is often not the case.
There are many factors that teachers must keep in mind before deciding whether
or not they are fairly using copyrighted materials.
There are four main factors that teachers should consider:
1. Purpose
2. Nature
3. Amount
4. Effect
Purpose: The reason a
teacher is using a copyrighted material is part of the determining factor as to
whether or not it is legal. A teacher is not allowed to show a video for
entertainment reason. On the other hand, if a video is being shown for
educational reasons it is acceptable.
Nature: How the work that is being used was copyrighted is also a factor
that a teacher must keep in consideration.
Amount: It is not always acceptable for a teacher to use an entire piece
of copyrighted work, while using only a portion of this work is acceptable.
For example, copies of printed materials can only be made if the work is less
than 2,500 words. At the same time, if this work is a poem only 250 words
may be copied. The number of copies made is also an issue. Teachers
are only allowed to make one copy per student and this is only allowed to be
done nine times per class per term.
Effect: A teacher should always keep in mind whether or not copying a
material effect its market value.
A Few Acts
to Keep in Mind..
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Family
Educational Rights and Privacy Act (1974)- this right protects the privacy
of students educational records. This act provides parents with particular
rights to students records and grades, but is open to interpretation.
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Intellectual
Property- This right includes copyrights of materials such as, books,
movies, music, paintings, software, etc. It provides patents for
inventions and innovations. It is also associated with trademarks, slogans,
and trade secrets.
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Digital
Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (DMCA)- This act deals with new
technologies.
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Title 1 - a
crime to circumvent anti-piracy measures. This directly effected
educators because they are no longer allowed to copy materials that were
once very helpful for them. Library's are no longer allowed to
make spare copies of videos and other materials, which has become a
problem.
www.copyright.gov/legislation/dmca.pdf
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Title 11 -
Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act - this protects
internet providers from being sued
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TEACH Act 2002-
this act allows teachers to perform or display reasonable and limited
portions of legally acquired works in online environment. This law
also allowed for password protection for registered users. It
facilitates use of digital technologies in distance education and expands
educators' rights to perform and display work. The TEACH act checklist
is found at
www.utsystems.edu/ogc/intellectualproperty/teachact.htm
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