To be perfectly honest, in academia many of us tend to think that our copying of materials for class falls under various “fair use” guidelines. After all, we’re using an article for educational purposes; we certainly aren’t going to have students purchase the whole book an article came from, so we’re not cutting into sales; our students are most likely not going to pass the article around; and so on. And, again to be honest, we don’t really think someone is going to check up on our reader or online materials, and if they do, we don’t expect that serious trouble will result. Finally, it’s a huge hassle sometimes to find out about copyrights and secure them, and if we have to go to all that trouble, then maybe we’ll just rely on a not-very-good textbook. All of these rationalizations make it easier for us to post materials at will. But we shouldn’t.
Although the issues are complex, sometimes a simple question can do a lot: if this were my own work, would I want it to be used without my permission in this case?
Failing reliance on the Golden Rule, we will plunge into some of the complexities:
Course Readers: Companies that produce course readers are supposed to make sure that you have secured permission for articles you include. Whether they actually do this is another matter. But it is your responsibility to check.
Now that Berkeley, like many universities, has site licenses for a number of scholarly journals and clearinghouses, like jstor, it is very easy to access materials online that we couldn’t get to before. Remember that just because you can print it out does not mean you can then copy it for a reader.
Online: The intricacies of using copyrighted materials online are vast. But the best simple rule is this: you can provide a URL without any problem. Many URLs faculty provide are to articles and journals that are accessible only to UCB students, faculty, and staff, because the library has purchased a license for that site. But to copy an article or a pdf from one of these controlled-access sites may be a violation, even if you are not printing it but putting it online for your students, so it is better to provide the URL.
Please note that when you do upload resources to bSpace, the site does ask you about copyright. Instead of just clicking through this question, you might actually ask yourself whether you do have permission to post.
A major point for faculty to consider is that protecting a site by password or other firewall technologies may improve the “balancing test” (see below) inherent in the determination of fair use but does not necessarily mean fair use considerations can be discarded, or that fair use is somehow looser if those protections are utilized.
UC Guidelines and UC Copyright Education website. Fair Use guidelines are a moving target. Below we provide a variety of links to excellent resources, but first, a summary from the UC Copyright Education Website, which should be essential reading for all faculty who are interested in this issue, or are wondering whether they may be in violation of fair use policies. This excerpt involves the “four factors” regarding fair use in US copyright law and how they might apply to faculty:
No guidelines have been established nationally or at the University for fair use in electronic media. The University adopted guidelines in 1986 for the reproduction (photocopying) of copyrighted works for teaching and research purposes, and these could be consulted for general parameters. The University’s guidelines parallel in most, but not all, respects a nationally developed set of guidelines that was approved by some educators and content providers, but not all. The national guidelines do not have the force of law, but are widely known. They have been criticized as having created a “ceiling” rather than the intended “floor,” and being ill-suited to higher education. Nonetheless, we recommend that instructors review the 1986 University of California Policy on the Reproduction of Copyrighted Materials for Teaching and Research.
Here is a helpful section from those documents:
2. Multiple Copies for Classroom Use
Multiple copies (not to exceed in any event more than one copy per pupil in a course) may be made by or for the teacher giving the course for classroom use or discussion provided that:
3. Definitions
4. Prohibitions as to a) and b) above. Notwithstanding any of the above, the following shall be prohibited:
Additional resources
Know Your Copy Rights
An extremely helpful printable booklet aimed at faculty and GSIs. It includes What You Can Do [pdf] and Using Copyrighted Works in Your Teaching—FAQ: Questions Faculty and Teaching Assistants Need to Ask Themselves Frequently (by Peggy Hoon, JD, Visiting Scholar for Campus Copyright and Intellectual Property, Association of Research Libraries).
Fair Use Q and A Copyright in Teaching, Research and Publishing
Compiled by the Library, this lists a number of links to other useful sites.
UCOP also maintains a website about copyright