Six Resources for Learning About Fair Use

Earlier today a group of us had a great dialogue about fair-use and copyright. The conversation got started when I posted the question, "is copying and pasting entire posts, formatting included, then just posting a link, fair use?" My belief was that it isn't fair use if the copied text was all that appeared without any commentary. I then added these two pictures (pic a, pic b) to clarify the type of situation I was referring to. Nothing was firmly resolved by the conversation, but it was clear that there are many interpretations of fair use. The conversation also reminded me that over the last couple of years I've watched and read some good information about Copyright, Creative Commons, and Fair Use. The following is gleaned from some of the posts I've shared on the topics of Copyright, Creative Commons, and Fair Use.

Probably the best presentation I've found on copyright and fair use is Copyright for Educators from Wesley Fryer. Of particular interest to me in this presentation is the discussion of fair use practices related to using images in digital presentations. After watching the presentation you should check out Wesley's handouts that go with this presentation.

Copyright for Educators

View more presentations from Wesley Fryer.

Rodd Lucier has a very good presentation about Creative Commons called Creative Commons: What Every Educator Needs to Know. In addition to this presentation, Rodd has an excellent podcast series and blog called The Clever Sheep. I encourage you to check out all of Rodd's digital content.

Creative Commons: What every Educator needs to know

View more documents from Rodd Lucier.

The Classroom Copyright Chart created by and hosted on the California Student Media Festival's website. The Classroom Copyright Chart provides teachers with clear explanations of when it is and when it is not okay to reproduce and reuse copyrighted materials. The chart can be viewed online or downloaded for printing and distribution within a school.

The Media Education Lab at Temple University has created a number of great resources about fair use for teachers and students. Visit the Media Education Lab's website to see videos explaining fair use, lesson plans for media education, and to download a copy of the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use. The presentation below gives a brief overview of the purpose of the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use.

Finally The End To Copyright Confusion Has Arrived

View more documents from Renee Hobbs.

Another resource from the Temple Media Education Lab is this short music video about fair use.


During our Twitter exchanges this afternoon @jtheiser reminded me of the resources from the Center for Social Media at American University which includes some excellent video explanations of fair use. The video I've embedded below offers an explanation of fair use as it relates to creating remixes. In addition to the video embedded below the Center for Social Media offers documents about best practices for online video. Amongst the documents is this FAQ sheet. The Center for Social Media also offers video examples of best practices.