In the U.S. the copyright laws include a limitation to using copyrighted materials. The use of a reproduction of a particular work without permission of the copyright holder is allowed and not considered an infringement under the Fair Use doctrine. The use may be considered fair when it is used for educational purposes such as teaching, or research. Other instances of fair use are: commentary, news, and criticism. The Fair Use doctrine applies to video, audio, text, and imagery.
The U.S. Copyright Law does not specify exact limitations. It does not state how many words or how many seconds the educational industry or news industry may use. There are industry standards that do specify how just how much content the educational and news organizations should use. The general concept for multimedia, music and text is ten percent. The industry practice for imagery whether it is art or photography is to use no more than 5 images from an artist or 15 works from a published collective work. Other industry guidelines are time related. The most common recommendation for teachers who use copyrighted works under the Fair Use doctrine is to do so for a limited time. Online and classroom instructors are recommended to incorporate the copyrighted material into curriculum based instruction and conference presentations for a 15 day availability period. After 15 days the copyrighted material can be put in reserve or archives for 2 years. After the two year period permission from the copyright holder should be obtained.
Standard Guidelines for Quantity of Content
- Motion media (video) - allowable up to 10% or 3 minutes whichever is less.
- Text material - up to 10% or 1000 words whichever is less.
- Music, lyrics, music video - up to 10% but no more than 30 seconds.
- Imagery including art or photography - no more than 5 images from an artist or 15 works from a published collective work.
Fair use laws allow copyrighted content to be used in defined ways without being considered an infringement. The copyright code has four factors that are considered in determining that a use of the material in question is fair. The four factors are:
- The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes.
- The nature of the copyrighted work.
- The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole.
- The effect of the use upon the potential market for, or value of, the copyrighted work.
