Copyright Questions of the Month: Can Classroom Teachers Use Book Jackets with Students for Book Reports?

Q: I have lots of unused book jackets taking up valuable storage space. Can classroom teachers use them with students for book reports?

A: You own the book jackets. The physical copy (the paper, ink, etc.) belongs to you. You can frame them, cut them up and make a collage, decoupage them onto a tray—whatever you like with that one physical copy. Certainly you can use them to play games, etc. It’s when you start making copies of the covers that you need to think about what you are doing, or if you edit the copy to change who did the work, or something like that.

FAIR USE OF CLIPPINGS

Q: Parents have purchased a yearbook page on which they plan to put a bunch of clippings of their daughter. Some of the clippings are pictures of her playing sports, and they want to include a partial clipping of a newspaper article with their daughter’s name in the headline. Are there copyright issues that come into play?

A: Using an excerpt of an article like this is almost certainly fair use. It becomes just another element in the collage, and certainly does not replace the original. No one would buy the yearbook to have a copy of a partial article (or even a complete headline).

MULTIMEDIA ONLINE

Q: If I include the following fair use notice on a student project, may I post student-created projects that include copyrighted images on school webpages?

Certain materials in this presentation are included under the fair use exemption of the U.S. Copyright Law and have been prepared according to the multimedia fair use guidelines and are restricted from further use.

A: The guidelines regarding multimedia projects explain when and how long student material may be posted online. Read the guidelines at http://copyright.lib.utexas.edu/ccmcguid.html.

OVERSEAS DATABASES

Q: I teach in an overseas school, and we spend a lot of time using online databases. Are there copyright issues I should consider in using them and teaching the students?

A: Because you will be using databases under license, not under fair use, you will be controlled by whatever license you sign. License (contract) trumps copyright in virtually every instance, so you will want to closely read and negotiate any contract you sign.

ARTICLE COPIES FOR PARENTS

Q: A teacher has located an article in a magazine that she would like to share with parents at a PTA meeting. Is it permissible to make copies?

A: The educational exemptions would not apply to this reproduction since these are not students and the purpose is not direct instruction. However, it might pass the four-factor fair use test. Also, many educational periodicals offer reproduction permission for their articles (or actually post the articles online for anyone to read, in which case she could easily give them the link rather than killing trees to make copies). Failing that, a quick phone call to the magazine would probably get permission if the use is explained.

REWARD MOVIES IN SECONDARY

Q: In our 7-12 public school we would like to show a movie to our straight A students, but I don’t know how to go about purchasing the rights to a movie for that. Can you help me, please?

A: Who you would contact depends on who owns the rights in the film. Swank Inc. (www.swank.com) can sell you the rights for a one-time showing for most entertainment-type films. Go to their website and choose “other.” It may turn out that getting a site license is less expensive, depending on the film and the circumstances. In that case, check out Movie Licensing USA (www.movlic.com) for a license that covers about twenty major entertainment producers (including Disney) for a year. If the producer of the film you want to use is not covered by Swank or Movie Licensing, you will need to check with the producer of the film (who is usually the copyright holder as well).

T-SHIRT QUOTATIONS

Q: Some of our teachers would like to print t-shirts for a thematic unit they will do this semester. They plan to put “New Moon Escape” with a quote from New Moon, the Stephenie Meyer book, on the t-shirt. They want to use the funds from sales to help pay for a trip to the theater to see the movie. They are not planning to put the book cover on the shirt. Since they will make a profit on the t-shirts, what do you think about using the book’s title and a quote in this fashion?

A: Check to see if the book title is a registered trademark. Titles are not copyrightable, so you are okay on that from a copyright perspective. A short quote is almost assuredly fair use unless it constitutes a large portion of the text of the book.

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.