Clark University expects all members of its community to respect the rights of intellectual property ownership by adhering to the United States copyright laws, including amendments made to the laws by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and the Technology, Education, and Copyright Harmonization (TEACH) Act. Clark University also expects all members of the community to be mindful of the limited rights conferred on them by the “fair use” exemption and other exclusions to the copyright laws.
Works that are subject to copyright protection should only be used with the expressed written permission of the copyright owner or with a documented exception to the copyright law (U.S. Code Title 17 on copyright). While the fair use provision (section 107) is probably the most widely used exception to seeking permission for uses of copyrighted works, especially in the university environment, there are other provisions in the copyright law which outline performance or display exceptions for “face-to-face” classroom settings and distance education (section 110). There are also specific rules for music (section 107, section 112, section 114, and section 115) and works of visual art (section 113). Reliance on this exception should be limited to those cases that clearly meet the fair use balancing test and/or compliance criteria associated with the TEACH Act. Faculty, students, and other authorized staff should be familiar with these standards and all are encouraged to document a good faith application of these standards to all Clark-related uses.
In order to support Fair Use at Clark, student access to courses in the LMS will be removed approximately 1 month after the end of the semester. Exceptions can be made by the faculty member in consultation with ITS.
Not all educational uses are covered by the fair use provision.
Other Resources
Fair Use Guidelines from Columbia University gives a robust overview of the nuance of Fair Use from an academic perspective.
The Copyright Management Center at Indiana University has a rich array of resources related to copyright, many of which have been authored by Ken Crews (now at Columbia).
Creative Commons provides free tools that let authors, scientists, artists, and educators easily mark their creative work with the freedoms they want it to carry. You can use CC to change your copyright terms from “All Rights Reserved” to “Some Rights Reserved.”
Georgia State Copyright Case: Resources (EDUCAUSE) provides resources related to the Georgia State copyright case (Cambridge University Press et al. v. Patton et al.). This lawsuit brought by several publishers against Georgia State University involves the use of copyrighted materials in e-reserves in higher education, but the impact of the case and its potential results may be far more reaching.
*This policy was reviewed and approved by the President and Provost and endorsed by the Information Technology Committee in December 2008.
**Please keep in mind that the information presented here is only general information. True legal advice must be provided in the course of an attorney-client relationship specifically with reference to all the facts of a particular situation.
