Re: Fair use

If it is just for a power point presentation for a class project, and it is not more widely distributed or posted on the internet, etc., then it is almost certainly fair use.

The more widely it is disseminated, the more likely that it is not fair use.

The more it is used for educational purposes, the more likely it is fair use.

The longer the images are kept by the student, or the school, the less likely it is fair use, but this is not a weighty factor, really.

The extent to which your student would be adversely affecting the market for those images, the more likely it is not fair use.

This sort of use has pretty much no effect on the market.

And, it is not necessarily the case that copying an image from a site that protects its images from being copied would in fact be illegal. It could still be fair use. The copyright owner's position does not determine what is and what is not fair use. Of course, this is an area where experts will disagree about the proper scope of fair use and about the legality of people circumventing anti-copying technology.

Downloading software, mp3s, and video are not necessarily infringing copyrights. Many sites license people to download software, mp3s, and video. It is not the nature of the medium or the thing itself downloaded that is determinative. Of course if one downloads a commercial product without permission to do so and without a legitimate fair use for it, that would be infringing. This would apply, of course, to most music files and much software.

Steve

On Feb 27, 2006, at 12:30 PM, Bernie Campbell wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I am an K-6 educator in Southwestern PA. My question is about
> images on the internet. If a student is doing a PowerPoint
> presentation about spiders, and includes several pictures from
> several different web sites. Is this a copyright infringement?
>
> I know that downloading software, mp3's and video from the web
> would be a copyright infringement. There are even sites that
> protect their images from being copied. Obviously, copying an
> image from one of these sites would be illegal.
>
> Rather, I am talking about going to Google and searching for
> spiders, then images. Then coping that picture to an project.
> Whether it be a digital project or printed in a document.
>
> Any enlightenment on this subject would be greatly appriciated.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Bernie Campbell
>
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-- 
Prof. Steven D. Jamar                                 vox:  202-806-8017
Howard University School of Law                       fax:  202-806-8428
2900 Van Ness Street NW                         
mailto:mailto:stevenjamar[_at_]gmail.com
Washington, DC  20008      http://www.law.howard.edu/faculty/pages/jamar

"God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be  
changed, courage to change the things which should be changed, and  
the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other."

Reinhold Neibuhr 1943