Copyright and Fair Use: Use of AudioCopyright Presentation by Thanh Nguyen

Copyright LawsAccording to Dictionary.com, copyright is “the exclusive right to make copies, license, and otherwise exploit a literary, musical, or artistic work, whether printed audio, video, etc.: works granted such right by law on or after January 1, 1978, are protected for the lifetime of the author or creator and for a period of 50 years after his or her death.”

Copyright laws are there to ensure that the author or creator of the work is credited for their work. Copyright laws are created to protect a creator's right to be compensated and to control how his or her work is used. This process is to makes sure that the creator’s work is protected.

A work does not have be registered to be copyrighted.

Fair UseFair Use allows for limited copy of the work without the owner's permission.

There is not a specific amount of how much you can use when it comes to fair use. Here are some guidelines to follow with fair use:

It is fair use when the piece of work will be used for educational purposes by both teachers and students.

10% of a copyright audio can be reproduced, performed, and displayed as part of a multimedia program produced by an educator or student.

A maximum of 30 seconds per musical composition may be used.

Multimedia programs must have an educational purpose.

It is fair use when using the audio is not giving a negative effect for the market. It will not interfere with the market value of the work.

Give citations for work when using it in a face-to-face environment.

Types of Audios

Records

Cassette tapes

CDs

Audio clips on the Web

Musicals

Music CopyrightMusic is copyrighted when it is composed/written by someone else. If you are not the composer of the work that you are using, then you are using copyrighted music created by the composer. Permission is required to use the piece of work. However, if the composer is deceased for more than 50 years, copyright of the work will expire after that time period and the work will be released to everyone in a public domain.

When you use music that is not your own creation or it doesn’t belong to a long deceased composer, then the music is currently under copyright.

If you play, listen, or record music that is not free in the public domain, you are using music under copyright and you need a permission or a license!

Music Copyright continued

Copyright Permission/ License is not needed if it is for your personal use such as a recording of yourself or playing the music for yourself in the comfort of your own home alone.

Copyright Permission/License is needed if you intend on giving away or selling your recording, or if someone is watching/listening to your performance. The moment you give only one copy to someone else, you are distributing or duplicating the music and it is no longer your personal use, you must get a license to do so first.  

You are following copyright laws if you are using music that you downloaded or has been downloaded. If you received music that came to you as a bootleg copy, it is still under copyright laws and you need permission for it.

You need a license to use music under copyright every time you use such music for any other than your personal use .

Scenario 1Posting music on the Internet on a site open to the public (e.g., school homepage or

teacher page)

While browsing the web, Mrs. London found a great song about adjectives. She wanted to share this song with other teachers and parents, so she went ahead and downloaded a copy of the song to her computer. Mrs. London went ahead and uploaded the song that she downloaded up onto her teacher page on Weebly. Later, she emailed parents and staff members informing them to check her Weebly for the new song she found.

Problem? Mrs. London has assumed that everything posted on the Internet is in the public domain. By posting the song up on Weebly, it turned into a violation of the copyright law. The song was not of her creation, therefore she did not have the permission to share the song to others. Permission is often hard to get especially in a short time frame. The song may only be posted if the owner gave permission of the song or if Mrs. London, herself, owned the original work.

Answer: It is fair use for Mrs. London to use the song because she is only using it with an educational purpose of teaching adjectives to students and presenting ways to teach adjectives to other teachers. She can only use 30 seconds of the song. A password protected page would be a great place to temporarily share music pieces that are used in instruction. Instead of posting the song through her Weebly, Mrs. London can share the website of the song for others to find it themselves. The best place to look music is the public domain or music posted for open use by the rights holder.

Scenario 2Audio Sounds in Multimedia Project

The students in Mr. Mann’s class are creating a PowerPoint on different types of sounds. Nick is doing his presentation on high and low pitch. After researching the information needed to be included in his PowerPoint, Nick also browsed the web for some audio examples of high and low pitch. When Nick found the pitches he needed, he downloaded the pitches into a document on his computer. From there, Nick was able to add the pitch sounds on his PowerPoint slides. As he presented, Nick was able to let students hear the different kinds of high and low pitch.

Problem? Nick used audio sounds that are not of his own creation. He broke copyright laws by embedding someone else’s audios onto his own assignment. Nick also shared the audio sounds with his whole class.

Answer: However, music may be used in student multimedia work without permission. With Fair Use, Nick was able to use the audio sounds because he used it in his multimedia project to educate his classmates about pitch. By doing so, Nick does not need permission to use those audios but he can only use 30 seconds of it. Students and teachers should keep in mind that audios that are used for entertainment, dances, yearbook, etc. are not covered in the fair use and they will need permission to do so. When in doubt, you should buy rights, ask for permission, or use music from a licensed collection.

Scenario 3Musicals

There is always a spectacular performance every spring for Cherry Blossom Elementary School. Every year, Ms. Allen, a first grade drama teacher, loves to help the school put together a spring musical. She had not decided on the theme for this year’s spring musical. However, she did talk to some of the other teachers and found out that the students are learning about fairy tales in their language arts curriculum. When the weekend rolled on by, Ms. Allen and her friends had tickets to see the musical, Peter Pan. On Monday morning, Ms. Allen came into her drama class with an idea for their spring performance. The big idea was to do a reenactment of the musical, Peter Pan, since it is a fairy tale that the students must have learned about in their class. Ms. Allen spent her whole weekend after the musical to write up a script for her students to perform. The students were quickly engaged to this fairy tale. The performance turned out great and everyone loved watching the reenactment of a childhood story that they grew up hearing about.

Problem? Ms. Allen wrote a script to a musical that have already been written by another writer. By rewriting a script for the same musical, Ms. Allen is breaking copyright law since she was not the original creator or writer of the musical, Peter Pan. She also had the spring musical performed live to an audience.

Answer: To be considered fair use, the location of the performance must be within the school which the musical is only to be performed at the school. The musical is relevant to the first grade curriculum because it deals with fairy tales which makes it okay to do in the school setting. Permission will be needed if it is not in the school setting and/or not related to instructions. A performance copyright is needed to secure the rights for school performance. School performance rights are not expensive but there’s a fee that the school has to pay for. The school can charge admission to watch the musical by having the performance rights.

Remember…

When in doubt, get permission.

It is fair use when the piece of work will be used for educational purposes by both teachers and students.

Don’t take credit of what’s not yours.

Be a responsible person and give credits where credits are due.