Principles of Copyright Law for JFSC Faculty and Staff

1. Copyright is a statutory privilege extended to creators of works that are fixed in a tangible medium of expression. Included in this concept are books, magazine articles, newspaper articles, charts, maps, graphs, diagrams, cartoons, pictures, essays, and poems.



2. The "FAIR USE" of a copyrighted work is use "for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship or research." Use in this fashion is not an infringement of copyright. (See the United States Code, Title 17, Section 107).



3. Determining "fair use." In determining whether the use made of a work is a fair use, the factors to be considered include the following:
   • The purpose and character of the use, i.e., for commercial or nonprofit educational purposes;
   • The nature of the copyrighted work. That is, a published or unpublished work, work of fact or work of fiction.
   • The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole. There is no numerical or percentage limit to guide us here. In one court case, the copying of 300 words of a book was considered an infringement of the law.
   • The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work. In other words, does the copying impair the book's marketability.



4. What can a teacher do and still stay within the "fair use" guidelines?
   • Make a single copy of any of the following for scholarly research or for use in teaching or preparation to teach a class: a chapter from a book; an article from a periodical or newspaper; a short story, short essay, or short poem; a chart, graph, diagram, drawing, cartoon, or picture from a book, periodical, or newspaper.
   • Also, multiple copies (one per student) may be made by or for the teacher giving the course for classroom use or discussion, provided that the copying meets three tests and includes a notice of copyright.
   • The three tests are brevity, spontaneity, and cumulative effect.
   • Brevity is defined as a complete article of 2,500 words or less, or an excerpt of less than 1,000 words or 10% of a work. (This limit has been called unrealistic at the graduate school level.)
   • Spontaneity refers to copying made at the instance and inspiration of the teacher upon seeing the article or work for the first time.
   • Cumulative effect means that copying can be made for only one course; that no more than one article or two excerpts can be copies from the same author; that no more than three articles can be copied from the same collective work or periodical during one class term; and that there are no more than nine instances of multiple copying in one term.



5. What a teacher cannot do:
   
   • You cannot copy to create or replace or substitute for compilations or anthologies
   • You cannot make copies of or from "consumables" such as workbooks, exercises, or answer sheets
   • And copying cannot substitute for the purchase of books; be directed by higher authority; be repeated from term to term (same item, same teacher)



6. Some questions and answers.

   I teach two sections of my focused study course. Can I photocopy the same material for both sections? Yes.

   Can I use the articles I photocopied for the January class in the April class as well? NO. Not without permission from the copyright holder.

   I want to use a cartoon from the Sunday comics in my lesson. Is that okay?

   • YES, if you only use it ONCE in your own seminar.
   • YES, if you are using it in a pre-course workshop to illustrate a point to other faculty members.
   • NO, if you are planning to reproduce it for a course book used by the entire student body.
   
   

   I know that I can freely use and copy materials excluded from copyright. What are they?
   

   • U.S. government documents, including legislative proposals, statutes, legal documents, judicial opinions, and most articles in journals such as JFQ, Parameters, Air Power Journal, and Military Review. Also, photographs from such collections as the DOD Joint Combat Camera Center, as well as most books and pamphlets published by the Government Printing Office.
   
   

   I'd like to use some references that I downloaded from the Internet. Does copyright law protect these references?
   

   • Yes, in many cases the copyright law protects these electronic documents. First, check the Internet site carefully for a copyright notice before you use downloaded Internet materials in your course materials. However, since copyright notices are not required for unpublished materials, and are optional for published works, you cannot assume that lack of a copyright notice means the work is in the public domain. A good rule of thumb is to request permission from the site provider first, or to ask the library to request permission for you. Some materials on the Internet are in the public domain, and can be used freely, such as items on most U.S. government sites.

Prepared by J.G. Nicula, Ph.D.
Chief, Library Division
Joint Forces Staff College
Norfolk, Virginia