This Fair Use/Fair Dealing Week, we’re featuring a selection of resources and articles to help authors understand and apply fair use.
Learn more: https://www.authorsalliance.org/2021/02/23/fair-use-week-2021-resource-roundup/
Under the Copyright Act, express permission of the copyright owner is required before making copies or distributing works, with some exceptions. These guidelines outline the framework for operating under one of these exceptions – “fair dealing” for the purposes of research, private study, review, criticism or news reporting, education, parody and satire. These guidelines outline the limits and requirements for making paper and electronic copies of a portion of a published work by individuals for their own use, by faculty for use in their courses of study and by libraries for the use of their patrons.
Learn more: https://libraries.dal.ca/services/copyright-office/fair-dealing/fair-dealing-guidelines.html
Iconic news images from the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s can be powerful tools to help students ground events like the murder of George Floyd in their rightful historical context. But uncertainty and anxiety about how, and to what extent, copyrighted materials can be used within open educational resources (OER) has presented challenges to creators of OER. Fair use is a critical component of ensuring high-quality OER are created and used on campuses and in education nationwide. To help OER creators meet their pedagogical goals and support the highest-quality student learning, the American University Washington College of Law released their new Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Open Educational Resources last week.
Endorsed by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), “this Code is a tool for educators, librarians, and authors to evaluate common professional scenarios in which fair use can enable them to incorporate inserts, including those protected by copyright, to create OER. It can provide groups working on OER projects with a shared framework for evaluating and understanding when and how to incorporate existing content to meet pedagogical needs.”
Research libraries are key partners with academic faculty in creating and publishing high-quality OER. Many libraries also provide consultations on what falls within fair use for copyrighted materials. According to Toby Graham, university librarian and associate provost at the University of Georgia, “this document clarifies key areas where there is consensus not only on what is OK, but on applications that exemplify why fair use exists in the first place.”
In this paper, we argue that while fair dealing is not a carbon copy of fair use, it is similar enough that many of the principles and limitations set out in the many codes of best practices in fair use published in the United States would be applicable in the Canadian context.
This week is Fair Use/Fair Dealing Week, an annual celebration of the important doctrines of fair use and fair dealing. The week is designed to highlight and promote the opportunities presented by fair use and fair dealing, celebrate successful stories, and explain these doctrines.
Check out all the great posts from Day 1 of Fair Use/Fair Dealing Week 2021! Don’t see yours? Email kaylyn@arl.org to get it added! You can view previous roundups here.
“Can Fair Use Survive the CASE Act?,” Kenneth D. Crews, Copyright at Harvard Library blog
“Celebrate Fair Use Week 2021,” Georgetown University Library
“Fair Use Week 2021,” LeEtta Schmidt, University of South Florida Libraries’ EdLib Report
“Fair Use Week 2021: Promoting Ideas, Creativity, Learning, and Culture,” Florida Atlantic University Libraries
“Fair Use Week Celebrates Copyright Flexibility for All,” Liz Hamilton, Northwestern Libraries Blog
“If You Could Be the Judge of Fair Use…,” Patricia Aufderheide, Center for Media and Social Impact Blog
“We’re All Fair Users Now,” Katherine Klosek, ARL Views blog
“What Is Fair Use Week?,” The Catholic University of America University Libraries
“Text & Data Mining in the Digital Humanities,” keynote lecture by Paula Samuelson, roundtable discussion with Natalie Meyers, Katie Walden, Elliott Visconsi, and Mark McKenna, hosted by University of Notre Dame Hesburgh Libraries
“The End of Library Ownership?,” a one-hour conversation with Meredith Rose, Kyle Courtney, Jason Schultz, and Aaron Perzanowski, hosted by Library Futures
“Call to Action: Share Your Feedback on Controlled Digital Lending,” Authors Alliance
Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Open Educational Resources, Meredith Jacob, Peter Jaszi, Prudence S. Adler, and William Cross, American University Washington College of Law and Center for Media & Social Impact
Strengthening Canadian User Rights through Shared Understanding: Adapting the Codes of Best Practices in Fair Use for Canada, Mark Swartz and Graeme Slaght, Canadian Association of Research Libraries
You probably make use of fair dealing every day without even realizing it! Whether emailing a news article to a friend, using a clip from a song, using a copyrighted image on social media, or quoting passages from a book when writing an essay. Activities such as these are not considered to be copyright infringement – in fact, the ability for users to make copies for specific purposes is an integral part of the Canadian Copyright Act.
Every year libraries and educational institutions across North America celebrate the rules that allow sharing of portions of published works for research and education.
In celebration of Fair Dealing Week 2021 you’re invited to enter our Virtual Escape Room.
Learn more: https://lib.unb.ca/news/virtual-escape-room-fair-dealing-week-edition
Today kicks off Fair Use Week, an annual celebration of the important doctrine of fair use/fair dealing. Previously, ARL has debunked common fair use myths, and reviewed the fundamentals of fair use. This year, in acknowledgement that our world has changed since February 2020, we highlight three ways that fair use has allowed us to move our lives online during the COVID-19 pandemic.
First, just a little background. Fair use is an important right that is built into the US Copyright Act and allows the public to use copyrighted materials without asking for permission. Described by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg as a built-in accommodation to the First Amendment, fair use balances the exclusive rights of authors to reproduce and distribute their works with the rights of users to borrow, lend, and transfer those works. This balance is critical to the constitutional purpose of copyright: to promote the progress of science and useful arts. Scholarship builds on previous work, and researchers and educators rely on the fair use doctrine to create high-quality learning objects and to incorporate the full breadth of prior work into their current inquiries. Artists in all disciplines rely on fair use to build upon others’ work in their own creations. Ok, on to the examples.
Teaching and learning have mostly moved online, but even before COVID-19 educators and learners could rely on fair use for online education. To support students, librarians, and open educators, American University College of Law released a Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Open Educational Resources. Developed in consultation with practitioners and other experts, the code includes principles for how fair use may apply in common open education scenarios. For more on open educational resources (OER) this week, check out the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) webinar, “Foundations of OER,” on Wednesday, February 24. And don’t miss the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) webinar, “Implementing the CARL Copyright OER for University Instructors and Staff on Campus,” on Thursday, February 25.
HathiTrust Digital Library is a prominent example of the benefits to libraries and society from courts deciding in favor of fair use in technology cases. Hathi relies on fair use for two key functions: (1) providing accessible texts for people who are print-disabled and (2) allowing access to a database of scanned books that can be used for nonconsumptive purposes like text and data mining. In determining that providing access to works for people with print disabilities is a fair use, courts cited the rationale behind the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the legislative history of the Copyright Act itself.
During the pandemic, we have seen a proliferation of online creativity, sharing, and access, such as art museums offering virtual access, online performances, or the ubiquitous Bernie mittens meme. Noncommercial expressions of creativity like these rely on fair use. Read this blog post, “Copyright for Meme-Makers,” by our colleagues at Public Knowledge, then apply the four-part test to the Bernie meme. Based on your analysis, is it fair use? Why or why not?
Fair use is intentionally flexible to respond to new technologies and ways of working. But it’s important to note that these activities were all possible even before COVID-19. Fair use is meant to be used, and we hope this post illustrates its necessity.
The Fair Dealing Decision Tool helps teachers decide whether “fair dealing” permits classroom use of print materials, artistic works, or audiovisual materials without first getting copyright permission. The tool helps teachers determine whether a specific intended classroom use is allowed by the Fair Dealing Guidelines.
By: American University Washington College of Law
We are pleased to announce the release of the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Open Educational Resources. This document is intended to support authors, teachers, professors, librarians, and all open educators in evaluating when and how they can incorporate third party copyright materials into Open Educational Resources to meet their pedagogical goals.
