Jiang Lan & Dave Dagley (Spring/Summer, 1999). Teaching via the Internet: A brief review of copyright law and legal issues. Educational Technology Review, Spring/Summer 11, 25-30

The full article and citation are available here

Basics of Copyright Law

Copyright Law includes The Owner's Right, The Subject Matter of Copyright, Copyright Requirements, Infringement Action and Remedies, and The Fair Use Doctrine.
Copyright Requirements -- Copyright does not protect an idea, but the expression of an idea (Baker v. Selden, 1879). Three requirements exist: originality, creativity, and fixation.
The Fair Use Doctrine -- The fair use doctrine is "a privilege in others than the owner of a copyright to use the copyrighted material in a reasonable manner without the owner's consent, not withstanding the monopoly granted to the owner" (Black, 1944).

Fair use depends upon four factors:

The purpose and character of the use;
The nature of the copyrighted work;
The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
The effect of the use upon the potential market of the copyrighted work.

A finding of fair use is a mixture of law and fact, and depends upon a case by case analysis of the four factors. Consequently, fair use is a fluid concept.

Duration of Copyright

Before 1923, now in public domain;
1923-1978, Published without a copyright notice. Now in public domain;
1923-1963, Published with copyright notice, but not renewed. Now in public domain (85% of copyrights were not renewed);
1923-1963, Published with copyright notice and was renewed. 95 years after publication date;
1964-1978, Published with copyright notice. 95 years after publication date;
1978-March 1, 1989, Published without copyright notice and no subsequent registration. Now in public domain;
After March 1, 1989, No copyright notice needs to appear. 70 years after death of author; or if work of corporate authorship, either 95 years from publication or 120 years from creation, whichever is shorter.

Selected Resources

The Association of Research Libraries, Know Your Copyrights: Using Copyrighted Works in Academic Settings. The focus of this initiative is on what faculty CAN do instead of CAN NOT do in teaching

Chronicle of Higher Education (3/26/2008), Federal Judge Rules That Plagiarism-Detection Tool Does Not Violate Students' Copyrights

Dallas Morning News (1/24/2008), UT Southwestern finds possible plagiarism in scientific database, possibly 200,000 biomedical research publications have potential plagiarism

Dave Dagley & Jiang Lan (Spring/Summer, 1999). An analysis of copyright-related legal cases and decisions: Implications to designing Internet-based learning activities. Educational Technology Review, Spring/Summer 11, 19-24

Educational Multimedia Fair Use Guidelines Development Committee (July 17, 1996), Fair Use Guidelines For Educational Multimedia

Intel Teach-to-the-Future and Microsoft, Copyright Quiz, can be used to assess your knowledge on copyright

Jiang Lan & Dave Dagley (Spring/Summer, 1999). Teaching via the Internet: A brief review of copyright law and legal issues. Educational Technology Review, Spring/Summer 11, 25-30

Scott Moore, Office of Inspector General at the NSF, An Investigator Calls a video presentation at SMU in 2007 describing OIG's role in promoting economy, efficiently and effectiveness and in investigating fraud, waste and abuse

SMU, Academic Honesty Tutorial & Honor Code, can be assessed through SMU Blackboard: (Log in with your SMU ID and password)

The U.S. Copyright Office, Copyright Basics

UT System's official website for Intellectual Property