Copyright Policy and Critique of Forsyth County Schools

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Copyright Policy and Critique of Forsyth County Schools

Bobbie Keenan

Applications of Instructional Technology - FRIT 8530

Kenneth Clark

September 19, 2009


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The Forsyth County Copyright Policy

Administrative Procedures Media Program IFBD January 2007

IX. COMPLIANCE WITH COPYRIGHT LAW

1. The System Media Services contact will be charged with keeping abreast of current

copyright law, regulations, and interpretations. This person is responsible for

disseminating information to school system employees through the System MediaCommittee so that school materials, employees, and equipment will not be involved in

the infringement of this law.

2. The school Media Specialists, through the Local School Media Committee, are

charged with informing school staff members of copyright regulations so that school

materials, employees, and equipment will not be involved in the infringement of this law.

Board Policy Instructional Materials

Use of all instructional materials in Forsyth County Schools shall be in accordance with

applicable federal copyright law, as well as its most current guidelines and

interpretations. Non-school owned instructional materials and community resources, bothprint and non-print, may be used within a schools instructional program in the Forsyth

County School District at the discretion of the Local School Media Committee or the

Committees designee. All non-school owned instructional materials and communityresources shall meet the Media Program Selection Criteria governing Media Program

Instructional Materials outlined in Forsyth County School District Policy & Procedure

IFBD. Non-school owned instructional technology resources and software shall be usedonly in accordance with Forsyth County School District procedures governing their

selection and use as provided in Forsyth County School District Policy & Procedure IFA,

Instructional Media Center Materials.

Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use.

Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair

use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in

copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that

section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting,

teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use),

scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In

determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case


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is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include -

(1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether

such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit

educational purposes;(2) the nature of the copyrighted work;

(3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in

relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and

(4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or

value of the copyrighted work.

The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding

of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the

above factors.


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Critique

The private school I work at does not currently have a copyright policy. The obviouscritique of my own school is to create a copyright policy as soon as possible. However,

to get an idea of what others schools have in place, I decided to look at the Forsyth

County (where I live) School System policy for this assignment. The Forsyth CountyCopyright Policy is basically a blanket statement that, I suppose, can be manipulated to

their advantage if a lawsuit, concerning a copyright issue, were to arise. However, it

could also work against them because their policy is so vague.

Forsyth Countys Copyright Policy says that the System Media Service contact is in

charge of keeping the staff up to date on current copyright law (Forsyth County School

Board 2007). It then says that school Media Specialists are charged with informingschool staff of these policies (Forsyth County School Board 2007). While I agree that

Media Services should be responsible for keeping staff informed, the policy seems to

suggests that all the responsibility lies on the shoulders of Media Services, and that

should be amended to include all staff that use copyright materials.

Theres also a paragraph in the instructional materials sections that refers to copyrightlaw and fair use in regards to instructional material. At the bottom of the page, separate

from said paragraph, is a link to 17 U.S.C. 107: US Code - Section 107: Limitations on

exclusive rights: Fair Use. If you werent looking for information on the schoolscopyright policy, you would not know that that link was related to the paragraph. The

link should be embedded in the paragraph, so readers will know where to look for further

information.

For my school, as well as Forsyth County Schools, a thorough copyright and Fair Use

policy should be adopted that points out the specifics of Copyright law and Fair Use, soeducators can understand what is legal, not only for print materials, but also for graphicmaterial, music, multimedia, electronic media, software, and performances. (Alamance-

Burlington Board of Education 2002) The policy should also state that if educators

knowingly go against the Copyright laws, then they are responsible for any legal actionthat may be taken as a result (Alamance-Burlington Board of Education 2002). The

policy should then be posted to the school website in its entirety, with any links that

could help elaborate or clarify the specifics of the policy.

In looking for other examples of school copyright policies, I found what I think is a very

thorough example. This policy is from the Alamance Burlington School System in North

Carolina. Not only is the policy thorough, but it is reader friendly, breaking down eachsection of the policy for clarification. I intend to use the Alamance-Burlington policy as a

guide in constructing our own copyright policy for our school.


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Reference Page

Alamance Burlington Board of Education (2002, September 24).Alamance-Burlington

School System Copyright Guidelines. Retrieved from

http://abss.k12.nc.us/modules/cms/pages.phtml?pageid=2677

Forsyth County School Board (2006, December 14).Board Policy Instructional

Materials. Retrieved from https://eboard.eboardsolutions.com/ePolicy/policy.aspx?

PC=IFA&Sch=4069&S=4069&RevNo=1.18&C=I&Z=P

Forsyth County School Board (2007, January 1).Administrative Procedures MediaProgram IFBD January 2007. Retrieved fromhttps://eboard.eboardsolutions.com/ePolicy/policy.aspx?PC=IFBD-

R(0)&Sch=4069&S=4069&RevNo=1.14&C=I&Z=R

(n.d.). 17 U.S.C. 107 : US Code Section 107: Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair

use. Retrieved from http://codes.lp.findlaw.com/uscode/17/107
http://abss.k12.nc.us/modules/cms/pages.phtml?pageid=2677https://eboard.eboardsolutions.com/ePolicy/policy.aspx?PC=IFA&Sch=4069&S=4069&RevNo=1.18&C=I&Z=Phttps://eboard.eboardsolutions.com/ePolicy/policy.aspx?PC=IFA&Sch=4069&S=4069&RevNo=1.18&C=I&Z=Phttps://eboard.eboardsolutions.com/ePolicy/policy.aspx?PC=IFBD-R(0)&Sch=4069&S=4069&RevNo=1.14&C=I&Z=Rhttps://eboard.eboardsolutions.com/ePolicy/policy.aspx?PC=IFBD-R(0)&Sch=4069&S=4069&RevNo=1.14&C=I&Z=Rhttp://codes.lp.findlaw.com/uscode/17/107http://abss.k12.nc.us/modules/cms/pages.phtml?pageid=2677https://eboard.eboardsolutions.com/ePolicy/policy.aspx?PC=IFA&Sch=4069&S=4069&RevNo=1.18&C=I&Z=Phttps://eboard.eboardsolutions.com/ePolicy/policy.aspx?PC=IFA&Sch=4069&S=4069&RevNo=1.18&C=I&Z=Phttps://eboard.eboardsolutions.com/ePolicy/policy.aspx?PC=IFBD-R(0)&Sch=4069&S=4069&RevNo=1.14&C=I&Z=Rhttps://eboard.eboardsolutions.com/ePolicy/policy.aspx?PC=IFBD-R(0)&Sch=4069&S=4069&RevNo=1.14&C=I&Z=Rhttp://codes.lp.findlaw.com/uscode/17/107


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Copyright Policy and Critique of Forsyth County Schools