Resources to inform /assist /direct you in your judgment regarding copyright and fair use issues.
These resources can also be found on PCC's Copyright Resources web page. (Note: these resources are not a substitute for legal advice.)
Pima Community College requires faculty, staff and administrators to comply with federal copyright law. College procedures cover a wide range of topics including:
See Board of Governors Policy BP 6.05: Copyright, and Administrative Procedure AP 6.05.01 Copyright Practice and Compliance.
PCC employees retain certain rights to works they create while working for the College (Board of Governors Policy BP 6.06: Intellectual Property Ownership, Administrative Procedure AP 6.06.01: Intellectual Property Ownership.)
Copyright is a form of legal protection for authors of original works. Its purpose is to foster creative expression by promoting "the progress of science and useful arts" (U.S. Constitution, Article 1, Section 8). Any original expression is automatically copyright protected as soon as it is fixed in a tangible form (paper, computer file, video recording, etc.).
Neither publication nor registration is essential for a work to be copyright protected, e.g., most of the material available on the Internet is copyright protected, even if no © notice or warning is displayed. Copyright protection may apply to text, photographs, graphics, cartoons, music, movie clips, etc., as found on the Internet.
The fair use doctrine of the Copyright Act permits reproduction and other uses of copyrighted works without the permission of the owner of the work under certain conditions for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship and research. Fair use depends on a reasoned and balanced application of four factors:
There's no one single answer as to what constitutes "fair use" of a particular copyrighted work.
The answer varies from situation to situation.
Weighing the fair use factors is often difficult and at times subjective. In general, fair use only permits use of small parts of copyrighted materials during a limited period of time. To evaluate Copyright Fair Use for your course, utilize Pima Community College’s Copyright Fair Use Checklist.