Copyright Questions of the Month. When Is a Format Obsolete?

Q: Our school has many VHS tapes in the library collection. Is it legal to copy the VHS videos to a DVD? I would put the VHS player in storage, so that it never gets used again.

A: Unfortunately, VHS is not yet ‘obsolete.” Under present copyright law, libraries may transfer, for preservation purposes, media from an obsolete medium to a current digital medium if the work is not available for sale in a current format. In other words, if you can purchase that work on DVD, you must do that rather than make a VHS to DVD transfer. Obsolete is defined in the law as media for which the necessary hardware is not available in the marketplace. Well, you can still buy VHS players, so VHS doesn’t meet the requirement of obsolete—yet.

Remember, when VHS does become obsolete, you may make the transfers to DVD or some other digital technology (including up to three digital copies), but you won’t be able to circulate the copies. They can only be used in the library.

DRAWING CARTOON CHARACTERS

Q: Our Student Council wants to make a t-shirt with a drawing of SpongeBob SquarePants that says ‘We’re Ready.” I told them there might be a copyright issue. They insist it will be fine because they drew it and did not copy it. I still think it may be a copyright infringement. What do you say?

A: Copies do not have to be exact to be considered copies. A hand-drawn copy, as long as it is sufficiently like the original, is still a copy. There are some fair use exemptions for parody, criticism, commentary, etc. You would need to go through a full fair use assessment to know where the students’ use stands. Don’t forget that SpongeBob may also be a trademarked character, so copyright may not be your only issue.

COPYRIGHT BROCHURE FOR STAFF DEVELOPMENT

Q: I need to create a handout or brochure of copyright information to give to teachers for a brief staff development session. What do you think are the essential facts that I can present in about ten minutes?

A: Rather than reinvent the wheel, my book Copyright for Schools, fifth edition, has a three-fold reproducible brochure in the back. If your school owns the book, you have a license to reproduce the brochure for your campus. The brochure covers, at least minimally, print, audiovisuals, music, computer software, and the Internet. Nothing so brief can possibly cover all the nuances of such a complex topic, of course, so always offer to help faculty sort through copyright issues if the brochure doesn’t answer all their questions.

OUT OF PRINT BUT AVAILABLE ON ERIC

Q: I work at a small private school. In our advisory program, the administration would like to use a book that was printed in 1992 but is now out of print. They would like each of our teachers to have a copy of the book. We have one copy of the book for our school right now, but copyright prevents us from copying the book. We can only find a few on Amazon. I was able to find the book in eric.gov as a PDF. On page 2, the book gives permission to reproduce the material to ERIC (Educational Resources Information Center). Are we allowed to use this PDF and reproduce it as well?

A: Here is what ERIC has to say about the full-text pieces included in the collection:

The ERIC website contains full-text resources protected by US. and foreign copyright laws. The authors or publishers retain copyright to these works, which are used by ERIC with permission. All persons reproducing, redistributing, or making commercial use of this information are responsible for compliance with the terms and conditions asserted by the copyright holder. Transmission or reproduction of protected items beyond that allowed by fair use as defined in the copyright laws requires the written permission of the copyright owners. ERIC does not retain copyright to the works indexed in the database and cannot grant permission to use indexed works under copyright protection.

Certain works, including documents, reports, and other materials authored by the U.S. government, reside in the public domain and may be freely distributed and copied. Works authored by a private contractor on behalf of the U.S. government are not necessarily in the public domain. Contract terms and conditions vary from one agency to another. If the copyright status of a particular work is uncertain, it should be verified with the sponsoring agency.

The ERIC website includes links or pointers to other sites. Once another site is accessed through a link on the ERIC website, the copyright and licensing restrictions of the new site apply. ERIC cannot authorize the use of copyrighted materials contained in linked websites.

So you see, the document only gives ERIC the right to reproduce it, not everyone, as far as I can tell from this statement. You can contact the publisher and see if they would give you permission to reproduce it since the publisher is no longer making it available for purchase.

Every effort is made to provide accurate, up to date information in response to copyright questions. However, this column is not intended to take the place of legal advice. For more information, consult your school district’s attorney.