Copyright and Fair Use 1
Anchor Standard 2: Organize and develop artistic ideas and work.
Enduring Understanding: Artists and designers balance experimentation and safety, freedom and responsibility while developing and creating artworks.
Essential Question(s): How do artists and designers care for and maintain materials, tools, and equipment? Why is it important for safety and health to understand and follow correct procedures in handling materials, tools, and equipment? What responsibilities come with the freedom to create?
7th Grade: Demonstrate awareness of ethical responsibility to oneself and others when posting and sharing images and other materials through the Internet, social media, and other communication formats.
8th Grade: Demonstrate awareness of practices, issues, and ethics of appropriation, fair use, copyright, open source, and creative commons as they apply to creating works of art and design.
High School:
Proficient – Explain how traditional and non-traditional materials may impact human health and the environment, and demonstrate safe handling of materials, tools, and equipment.
Accomplished – Demonstrate awareness of ethical implications of making and distributing creative work.
Advanced – Demonstrate understanding of the importance of balancing freedom and responsibility in the use of images, materials, tools, and equipment in the creation and circulation of creative work.
Advanced – Demonstrate understanding of the importance of balancing freedom and responsibility in the use of images, materials, tools, and equipment in the creation and circulation of creative work.
On October 19, 1976, the United States government enacted The Copyright Act of 1976. The act has been amended (added to) since then.
So what is copyright? Copyright is literally the right to copy. Simply put, as the original creator of a piece of art, you are the only one who can legally make and distribute copies of your work. Copyright law is intended to protect artists so that they can benefit from their creations and so that other people are not able to make money from those creations without permission.
In other words, if you create an original drawing, for example, you should be able to display it and sell it without worrying about another person copying and claiming your work as theirs or trying to make money from copies of your work.
If someone uses your work without permission, they are infringing on your copyright. To infringe on a law means to undermine or break the law.
To make copyright issues more complicated, but to enable creativity, the United States government included a Fair Use clause as part of Copyright Law.
The Fair Use clause would allow others to use your work as long as they make substantial changes to it and they do not negatively effect the value of your work. This is what the Fair Use clause says:
"107. 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 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."
You can read the Copyright Law of the United States at the U.S. Copyright Office's website here:
The four factors included in the Fair Use clause are very important - they are what lawyers and judges will focus on when deciding whether copyright infringement has taken place. Let's take a closer look at these four factors that help a court to decide whether someone has infringed on your copyright.
The first factor mentions the purpose and character of a person's use of your image - why and how did the person use it? Is the person, for example, simply copying your work and passing it off as their own without any further thought, or is the person using your work to communicate a very different idea from your original idea?
This first factor also specifies whether the copy is intended to make money or to educate without making money. If a person copies your work and tries to sell it or to profit from it another way without your permission, they would have a difficult time arguing in court that they are not infringing on your copyright.
The second factor focuses on whether the original work encourages creative expression. Using a copy of a work of non-fiction such as a news article could be easier to defend in court than using a more creative work such as a novel.
The third factor addresses the quantity and quality of the original work used in the copy. If someone uses most of your image in their work, they would have a tougher time defending that use in court than if they used a small amount.
The fourth factor addresses the market value of the original work now and in the future. Are the copies harming the value of the original work, or could they harm the value in the future?
You can read more about the Fair Use factors on the U.S. Copyright Office website here.
Answer these questions with 2 to 4 complete sentences:
What is copyright?
What is Fair Use?
