RE: the boundaries of educational use

In response to my original posting, Sheldon W. Halpern wrote:

> >The copyright lawyer seemed to think that
> >"broadcasting" images was fine within the sharply defined limits of
> >the four walls of the classroom, but that making them available over
> >the network would not be. Is there general agreement or disagreement
> >on this?
>
> No, it is highly unlikely that any "transmission" would come within the
> specific educational exemption under the circumstances you describe. It
> is also unlikely that this dissemination to so large a group of the
> entirety of the copyrighted images would be considered a fair use.

The transmission I was referring to in the case of the bounded four walls was the showing of a slide. Is it a violation of copyright to show a slide in a classroom? I think not. What if the slide is in digital form and is shown to the classroom using an LCD panel? That case seems not particularly different, and therefore also fair use. What if the classroom is fully networked, and each student has a monitor in front of her, and so the image appears not only on the screen in the front of the room, but also on each of their screens? What if the teacher is not in the room, and the students are looking at the images in a review session for an exam? And so on. I am curious about the point on this slipperly slope where the law is being broken.

Michael Roy
Research Associate
Harvard University Received on Mon Feb 28 1994 - 19:45:54 GMT