HCC Copyright Requirements Quick Guide

Copyright law begins with the premise that the copyright owner has exclusive rights to many uses of a protected work. But it also sets forth several exceptions to those rights. The best-known and most important exception to owner's rights is fair use. Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976 offers four broad criteria for applying fair use: 

1.  The purpose and character of use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature is for nonprofit educational purposes;

2.  The nature of the copyrighted work;

3.  The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and

4.  The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

These factors should be considered in determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use.

Both copyright law and college policy require all faculty to follow the following guidelines:

I.    Classroom Showing of Media Materials:

       Films, videos, filmstrips, etc., whether purchased, rented or leased, may be shown in
        classrooms as part of the established curriculum. They may not be shown for
        recreational or entertainment without a non-theatrical-public-performance license." 

II.  Duplicating Print Materials for Classroom Use:

A.  An individual educator may make:

1.  Single copies of:

a. chapter of a book,

b. an article from a magazine or newspaper,

c. a short story, short essay, or short poem, or

d. a chart, graph, diagram, drawing, cartoon or a book, magazine or newspaper. 

2.  Multiple copies for classroom use (not to exceed one copy per student per course):

a. a complete poem of less than 250 words,

b. an excerpt, not to exceed 250 words, from a longer poem,

c. a complete article, story or essay of less than 2,500 words,

d. an excerpt from a larger printed work not to exceed ten percent of the whole or 1,000 words.

e. one chart, graph, diagram, cartoon or picture per book or magazine issue if the individual item is not separately copyrighted, or

f.  two pages or ten percent of the words from children's picture books or comic books 

g. 10% or less of a newsletter

3.  All copies must include an appropriate copyright warning notice

4.  Copying must be made by the teacher or at the request of the teacher - not at the direction of higher authority.

B.  An individual educator may not:

1.  Copy more than one work or two excerpts from a single author during one class term,

2.  Copy more than three works from a collective work or periodical volume during one class term,

3.  Make multiple copies of more than nine works for distribution to students in one class term,

4.  Use photocopies to create, replace, or substitute for an anthology, 

5.  Copy "consumable" works such as workbooks, standard tests, answer sheets, etc., or

6.  Copy or re-use same work from term to term without permission.

III.   Reserves:

A.  Library Reserve

1. In lieu of classroom distribution, a reasonable number of copies may be placed on reserve for one semester. The number of copies depends on the size of the class, possibly one copy per ten students.

2.  Repeated use beyond one semester of a given material requires written permission.

B.  Electronic Reserves

1.  In lieu of classroom distribution an instructor may place a copy of a copyrighted work on electronic reserve.

2.  Appropriate materials for electronic reserve include, but are not limited to lecture notes, past exams, government publications, a single article from a journal issue, a single chapter of a book, a short story, a short essay or a short poem.

3.  Videotapes may be streamed for electronic reserve but only after permission is granted for streaming from the copyright owner. Any payment required to the copyright owner for permission to stream a videotape must be paid by the library before the video can be streamed to electronic reserve.

4.  A course specific password is required to assure only authorized users have access to the reserve material for that course.

5.  Items will be removed from electronic reserves at the end of the semester. Repeated use beyond one semester of a given material requires written permission.

IV.  Music Copying:

A.  Sheet Music

1.  An educator may:

a. make an emergency copy for an imminent student performance, if the original copy was lost and there is not enough time to order a replacement  copy. The temporary copy must be destroyed promptly after the performance,

b. make multiple copies (up to one per student) of excerpts not constituting an entire performance unit or more than ten percent of the total work for academic purposes other than performance. 

c. edit or simplify purchased sheet music provided the character of the work is not distorted or lyrics added or altered, or

d. duplicate individual parts if they are out of print or unavailable except in complete works and are used for teaching purposes.

2.  An educator may not:

a. copy to substitute for an anthology or collection,

b. copy from works intended to be "consumable",

c. copy for purposes of performance except for emergency copies to replace a
                       lost copy,

d. copy to substitute for purchase of music, or

e. copy without including the copyright notice

B.  Recordings:

1. An educator may make a single recording of student performances. The recording may be retained by the institution or the teacher for evaluation purposes only.

2.  An educator may not reproduce musical recordings or convert them to another format (e.g., record to tape, tape to cassette, etc.) without written permission.

V.  Recording Television Programs:

A.  Recording Off the Air of Off the Cable:

1.  The guidelines only apply to non-profit institutions,

2.  Television programs may be recorded from broadcast or simultaneous cable transmissions to the "general public," which excludes premium-pay programs, (e.g., HBO, CineMax, Disney, etc.),

3.  Programs may be shown once and repeated once for reinforcement within ten "teaching days" of the broadcast. They may be retained for forty-five calender days from the date of the broadcast,

4.  Recording must be made by the teacher or at the request of the teacher,

5.  Programs may not be re-recorded at a later date, regardless of the number of times it is re-broadcast,

6.  A limited number of copies may be made to meet the needs of several teachers.

7.  Programs need not be used in their entirety but may not be edited or electronically altered or combined,

8.  All copies must include the copyright notice as it appears in the program, and

9.  Institutions are expected to implement appropriate control procedures.

B.  Recording Programs at Home for Classroom Use:

Television programs recorded at home by teachers may be used in the classroom if they meet all the conditions of the Recording Guidelines.

C.   Recording Public Broadcasting System Programs:

1.  For short-term retention follow the guidelines, in V.A. above.

2.  For long-term retention, call the local PBS station for information about extended retention rights for specific programs.

D.  Recording from Satellites:

Programs may not be recorded from a television satellite unless the programs are authorized for free reception or the institution obtains a license to copy the programs.

E.   Transmission of Audiovisual Works:

Films, videos, etc., may not be transmitted to classrooms by open- or closed-circuit television or via fiber optic technologies without a transmission license or written permission.

F.  Home-Use-Only and Rental-Store Videos:

Programs labeled "For Home Use Only" or rented from rental stores may be used in classrooms under the following conditions:

1.  The programs are shown to students in a face-to-face setting,

2.  The programs are shown only in courses given for credit,

3.  The programs must be shown only in classrooms or other locations devoted to instruction,

4.  The programs must be legitimately-made copies, and

5.  The programs may not be shown for entertainment, recreation, or reward.

VI.  Computer Software and Databases:

A.  Backup Copies:

One backup copy of computer software may be made for archival purposes in case the original is destroyed.

B.  Computer Laboratories:

Except for the back-up exemption above, software may not be duplicated without appropriate licenses or agreements.

C.  Multiple Loading:

Loading programs into several computers for simultaneous use is only permitted with permission or a license.

D.  Networks:

Computer software may not be used in a network (LAN or WAN) without permission or a license.

E.  Database Downloading:

Downloading from a database is an infringement. Short-term, single-use retention is "accepted" by the copyright owners as a fair use, but long-term retention and multiple use of data requires a license.

F.  Internet:

Access to works on the internet does not mean that information can be reproduced and reused without permission or royalty payment. The Fair Use criteria apply to copyrighted information on the internet.

VII.  Duplicating Films, Videotapes, Filmstrips, Slide sets, etc.:

A.  An educator may duplicate a "small part" of an item for research or instruction.  While no guidelines exists for copying these materials, the congressional reports accompanying the Copyright Revision Act of 1976 suggest that copying ten percent of a program is reasonable, if the ten percent is not the "essence" of the work.

B.  An educator may not:

1.  Reproduce an audiovisual work in its entirety, or

2.  Convert one media format into another, (e.g., film to video, filmstrip to slide, etc.) without permission.

VIII.  Multimedia projects:

A.  Students and educators may use portions of lawfully acquired copyrighted works of all types of formats and integrate them into Multimedia Project.

B.  Limitations on Time, Portion, Copying and Distribution apply.

IX.     Distance Education:

Distance Education activities at HCC include Telecourses, Online Courses, and the Interactive Verizon Classroom. Section 110(2) of the 1976 Copyright Act places a number of restrictions on distance education. These are:

1.  Only non-dramatic literary or musical works may be performed.

2.  reception must be in a classroom or other place normally used for instruction

3.  the performance must be directly related and of material assistance to the teaching content

4.  the performance must be part of the systematic instruction of a nonprofit educational institution or government body.

            Examples of allowed and disallowed activities in distance learning follow......

            Allowed without permission:

1.  Showing a photograph, or chart, or table, or still from a motion picture. These are "displays" of works

2.  Performances of musical works and literary works, but only if they are "non- dramatic" works. "Literary works" are defined to encompass works other than audiovisual works, expressed in words, numbers, or other verbal or numerical symbols or indicia..." Motion pictures and videos are specifically excluded from the scope of "literary works."

Not allowed unless permission is obtained:

1.  Performances of any dramatic work, whether musical or textual

2.  Performances of any work that is neither "musical" nor "literary." Hence, all audiovisual works are excluded from the specific right of use in distance learning. AV works include motion pictures, videotapes, and many screen displays from computer programs.

X.        Microforms:

Microforms may be copied according to the rules applying to the materials reproduced, (e.g., books, periodicals, poetry, etc.). However, microform copies of works in the public domain may be copied freely.

XI.       Artworks:

Artworks may not be duplicated without written permission except for illustration copied under the "Agreement on Guidelines for Classroom Copying."

XII.      Computer Scanning:

A.  Artworks: scanning or photography for the purpose of reproduction or for creating derivative works requires permission.

B.  Text:

1.  Scanning for research (e.g., textual analysis) is permissible but

2.  Reproduction to create a copy or to prepare a derivative work requires permission.

XIII.     "Free and Benefit" Performances

Storytelling, poetry readings, and musical performances of non-dramatic works are authorized if (a) admission is free, or (b) the gate receipts, over and above costs, go to a charitable cause, and the performers and managers contribute their services.