Copyright Questions of the Month. Conference Handouts

Q: What is the current rule regarding the distribution of photocopies of documents found on the Internet and on hand from other sources or books?  I have always heard this is not recommended and violates copyright law. However, is there a waiver/allowance for educational purposes in the copyright law such as sharing printed matter at conferences?

What about creating websites such as LiveBinder to save, post, and share documents and images? If items are allowed in either scenario above, how do you cite source, etc., if you do not have the URL/Web address but want to share/include?  These are documents found and saved into MY DOCUMENTS. My observation at past conferences is people share in both ways with/without the "bibliographic information" as we are taught.

A: This question is a mixture of copyright law and information ethics, so only some of the answer will be legally based. Distribution of photocopies in educational settings is guided by two things: Section 107 of copyright law (general fair use) and the Agreement on Guidelines for Classroom Copying for Not-For-Profit Educational Institutions (“Classroom Guidelines”). Some argue that the Guidelines are not law; they aren’t but courts cite them, and they are—by definition in the guidelines themselves—the “intent of Congress.” The Guidelines can be safely used as long as you remember that if the Guidelines don’t yield the results you hoped for, you do a double check against the Section 107 factors to see if they are more generous.

The Guidelines don’t specifically address the use of printed material at conferences. It addresses single copies for teachers as well as multiple copies for “classroom use.” The Guidelines themselves don’t define what a “classroom” is. It does say that multiple copies may be made “by or for the teacher giving the course for classroom use or discussion.” Assuming the broadest interpretation of those terms, the copying must meet three tests of use:

1. Meet tests for brevity and spontaneity, and
2. Meet the test for cumulative effect, and
3. Each copy has a notice of copyright.

The brevity limitations would prevent you from using an entire article as a handout. The spontaneity exception would work for most works, if the teacher is choosing handouts close to the time of use. But for those plan-ahead presenters, they will be expected to request permission (that they may or may not get). The cumulative effects test doesn’t apply well to a conference presentation, but it limits the end user use of the work. Creation of anthologies is precluded, so a single handout might work where a packet of works would not. The one thing that does merit investigation is whether the article is available as a reprint. If a work is available as a reprint you are expected to use that method of clearing rights for the piece. Getting permission to use a short excerpt (rather than the entire work) is generally permitted by academic authors, so you might be more successful in requesting an excerpt from an author.

If the options above can’t qualify the use of your work, a full fair use evaluation might, and it should be the next step.

Online conference presentation resources

In viewing information found in LiveBinder, when the information compiler allows the collection of material to be viewed through LiveBinder (rather than forcing the viewer to the compiler’s own page), each displayed page identifies the URL of the original page. That sounds great, but if your luck is like mine, the webmaster of that site reworked the pages the day after you captured that page, so the displayed URL may no longer be valid.

You always want to use some standardized bibliographic citation format on each copy of the work, especially because a notice of copyright ownership is required to meet the requirements of the Guidelines and it is only ethical to cite your source. Every citation format has a form of citation layout for online resources. If you don’t have a notation of where the work was found, your citation system probably has a format if you can distill pertinent information from your printout.

This column is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information regarding application of copyright law in schools. Nothing in this column is intended to constitute legal advice, and nothing herein should be considered legal advice. If legal advice is required, the reader should consult a licensed attorney in his or her own state. Neither ABC-CLIO, LLC, nor the author makes any warranties or representations concerning the information contained in this column or the use to which it is put.