Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Madison Moore
ETEC 424.01W
Any work that has been created by an author or an artist is protected by copyright law
to prevent others from stealing and claiming the original creators work as their own.“A work
copyright.” ("Using Copyrighted Material," n.d.) From the very moment the original creator has
made an original work it is protected by copyright law up till seventy years of the death of the
original creator. For educators a common question that arises from students when needing to
deal with written work and copyright terms such as, what works are safe to use as a source?
Thankfully, the fair use doctrine lets people be able use works protected copyright for
situational types of works, “such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship,
and research” ("More Information on Fair Use | U.S. Copyright Office," n.d.). With this students
and teachers can use and source material for their own creative purposes and research without
having to seek permission from the original creator.Whenever anyone begins to learn, it is
difficult to come up with original ideas, and that is where inspiration comes in. Using other’s
content within guidelines is key to sharing knowledge, so long as the resources are credited
accordingly. With this, educators build lesson plans, and can even pass along the resources to
their students to refer to as they work. However, the resources must always be credited
accordingly, and one must NEVER claim research as their own if it is not theirs.
There are however four factors an individual must know and take account of if a
copyrighted source would be an acceptable work to use, according to the ("Fair use for teaching
and research| UC Copyright," n.d.). One factor would be considering the purpose of the work,
which can matter greatly. Some works are a little more commercial while others are more
informative creatively. It needs to be understood that not all information is fair game, and
although one can rewrite knowledge in an original format, sometimes directly using information
The Impact of Copyright and Fair Use on Education3
from a source may not be accepted as fair use, and with that, credit still needs to be taken into
consideration. Secondly, according to the University of California’s article, the nature of the
work is considered as well. Reproducing a work that is factual is much easier, due to it’s ease of
interpretation, things can be reworded easily when it comes to literary pieces. However, in terms
of artistic works, such as music or paintings/pictures, reproduction can be much more tedious, as
it is much more glaring when work is copied. However, according to point three, there is
inspiration. One must put into question if using a part of media is acceptable and be able to
determine how much is too much when drawing from different sources. Lastly on point four of
the article’s points, money is determined. Putting a work or piece of media on the market is
always tedious, and analysts will scan and examine the piece to see what is and what isn’t fair
use. If a piece becomes successful due to the incorporation of someone else’s work, it can be a
problem for the person who reproduced it, and with that can follow many different lawsuits.
Fair use and copyrights are important, and it’s entirely understandable to be upset over
someone getting value out of a work that someone else created. However, that doesn’t mean that
inspiration can’t come into play, if one takes an existing idea and creates something new out of
it, there’s always more value in flourishing from that idea, especially one that is original.
however, when informing others, one must be sure to provide proper credit to the original
publisher of the article or lesson. Lastly, when publishing something, one must always consider
the four points from the University of California’s fair use article, and with that, take away the
importance or originality. There are hundreds of ideas in our heads, and as we discuss and share
The Impact of Copyright and Fair Use on Education4
them, we add them to the melting pot of knowledge that resides around our world, we all evolve
ideas and progress them further and further than anyone could ever have gotten before.
The Impact of Copyright and Fair Use on Education5
Works Cited
Fair use for teaching and research| UC Copyright. (n.d.). Retrieved October 23, 2018, from
http://copyright.universityofcalifornia.edu/use/fair-use.html
More Information on Fair Use | U.S. Copyright Office. (n.d.). Retrieved November 9, 2018, from
http://www.copyright.gov/fair-use/more-info.html
https://www.baylor.edu/copyright/index.php?id=56543