Copyright and Creative Commons: What you need to know

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Every day, we and our students create content that is shared and published online. When it comes to using images and other files from the internet, many teachers think they can use anything they want because they have educational immunity under the Fair Use doctrine. This is not accurate. In fact, individual teachers, schools, and even districts have been sued for copyright infringement. 

Fair Use is decided on a case-by-case basis. When deciding whether using material falls under Fair Use, you must consider four things:

1. Is the use transformative? Did you add value to the work?
2. What was the nature of the original?
3. How much of the original was used?
4. Will your use of the material affect the market for the original?

Copyright logo, Public Domain
via Pixabay.com
Judges can interpret things in different ways, so you must be extremely careful using works (especially creative ones like music and images) that are not yours. You can use a Fair Use checklist to help you determine if material falls under Fair Use. Visit copyright.columbia.edu/basics/fair-use/fair-use-checklist.html to find one.

A better way to go may be to use material that is in the public domain or licensed under Creative Commons. Material in the public domain doesn't have  to be cited; however, it is good practice to do so to show respect for the work of others. Material licensed under Creative Commons may be used freely as long as the terms of the license are respected. There are various types of CC licenses. A good, short video explanation of the CC licenses can be found at http://creativecommons.org/videos/creative-commons-kiwi.

Creative Commons logo used by permission.
Creative Commons material is available all over the web. To get started, you may want to visit this Symbaloo webmix: symbaloo.com/mix/copyrightfriendly.  It contains links to many websites where you can find images, music, and videos that have been licensed for use. 

To cite Creative Commons material, follow the TASL rule. You must provide as much of the information as you can about the Title, Author, Source, and License of the material. In an online publication, links should be provided. To learn more about Creative Commons, visit creativecommons.org or email Nancy Minicozzi at nminicozzi@lvusd.org.

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