Online Course Format

 
This information pertains to courses delivered online via PTC's WebCT Course Management System. All online access to the copyrighted works in question is on WebCT's password-protected platform.

Copyrighted resources may only be used if one of the following conditions applies:

• The faculty member is also the copyright owner. 

• Permission to use the work has been granted by the copyright owner.

• The work is in the public domain.

• Use of the work is protected by The TEACH Act.

• Use of the work is a "Fair Use" (one time use only!)

While a consensus has never been reached on Fair Use guidelines for multimedia, you may wish to refer to the CONFU Guidelines to help you decide whether to proceed with the use of a copyrighted work in a multimedia project.
 

Choose a Resource Type: Print Materials Video Television Recordings (Broadcast) Television Recordings (Cable) Music & Sound Art & Photographs Thumbnails Clip Art Copyrighted Databases Web Sites   

 
Print Materials

Category includes:  

• Books

• Poetry

• Articles

• Short Stories

• Essays

• Charts from a book or periodical

• Diagrams from a book or periodical

• Cartoons from a book or periodical

• Illustrations from a book or periodical

Before using this resource, you must understand the following:
If the work that you wish to use is still protected by copyright (i.e. not a government document or in the public domain), then you will need to either get permission from the copyright owner or rely on at least
one of the following types of protection to justify using the work:

To be protected by The TEACH Act: 

• TEACH Act provisions must be met by the instructor, college administration and technical staff.

• You must use a "reasonable and limited portion."

To justify Fair Use of a work: 

• Works must be lawfully acquired, and use should meet at least 3 of 4 factors in the Fair Use test.

• You must use the work one time only.

• If you have time to seek permission to use a work, you should do so. Otherwise, you may justify your use under Fair Use.

To follow CONFU Multimedia Guidelines, work must be used in a multimedia project as follows: 

• For longer works, the portion used may not exceed 10% or 1,000 words (whichever is less). These limits are cumulative over a semester.

• You may use complete articles, stories and essays of no more than 2,500 words.

• You may use complete texts of poems no greater than 250 words.

• No more than three (3) poems by a single poet may be used during a semester.

• No more than five (5) poems by different poets in the same anthology may be used in a semester.

• For poems longer than 250 words, you may use excerpts of up to 250 words. You may not, however, use more than three (3) excerpts from poems by a single poet or more than five (5) excerpts from poems by different poets in the same anthology.

• You may use one (1) chart, picture, diagram or cartoon per book or periodical issue

• You may use up to two (2) pages from an illustrated work of less than 2,500 words (ex. Children's literature)

• You may not exceed nine (9) instances of multiple copying in a semester.

• For use exceeding two (2) years, permissions must be granted by the copyright owner.

• Work must be used during face-to-face instruction; remote, real-time courses on a secure network; or for students' self study.

• You should completely acknowledge the source of the copyrighted work.

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Video

Category includes:  

• Videotapes

• DVDs

• Laserdiscs

• Computerized Video Clips

Before using this resource, you must understand the following:
If the work that you wish to use is still protected by copyright (i.e. not a government document or in the public domain), then you will need to either get permission from the copyright owner or rely on at least
one of the following types of protection to justify using the work:

To be protected by The TEACH Act: 

• TEACH Act provisions must be met by the instructor, college administration and technical staff.

• You must use a "reasonable and limited portion."

To justify Fair Use of a work: 

• Works must be lawfully acquired, and use should meet at least 3 of 4 factors in the Fair Use test.

• You must use the work one time only.

• If you have time to seek permission to use a work, you should do so. Otherwise, you may justify your use under Fair Use.

To follow CONFU Multimedia Guidelines, work must be used in a multimedia project as follows: 

• Portion used may not exceed 10% or three (3) minutes (whichever is less). These limits are cumulative over a semester.

• For use exceeding two (2) years, permission must be granted by the copyright owner.

• Work must be used during face-to-face instruction; remote, real-time courses on a secure network; or for students' self study.

• You should completely acknowledge the source of the copyrighted work.

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Television Recordings (Broadcast)

Category includes:  

• Programs from publicly-accessible networks such as NBC, CBS, ABC, PBS and local stations.

• "Off-air" recordings of programs shown on publicly-accessible networks.

Before using this resource, you must understand the following:
If the work that you wish to use is still protected by copyright (i.e. not a government document or in the public domain), then you will need to either get permission from the copyright owner or rely on at least
one of the following types of protection to justify using the work:

 To be protected by The TEACH Act: 

• TEACH Act provisions must be met by the instructor, college administration and technical staff.

• You must use a "reasonable and limited portion."

To justify Fair Use of a work: 

• As long as no other agreement exists with the copyright holder, off-air recording of broadcast programs by non-profit, educational institutions may be protected by fair use.

• Recordings may be retained by the institution for no more than 45 days after the date of recording.

• All recordings must be shown to students within the first ten (10) school days following the recording. After the 10-day window has passed, teachers may only use the recordings to make decisions about whether to purchase the videos.

• Recordings may only be shown to students twice: once by the teacher in the course of normal instruction and once for reinforcement.

• Recordings may be shown in classrooms and other instructional settings on  campus or in the homes of students receiving formalized home instruction.

• Recordings must be made at the request of the instructor.

• No matter how many times a program is aired, it may not be recorded more that one time at the request of the same teacher.

• All recordings must include the copyright notice on the program.

• Although recordings do not have to shown in their entirety, they may not be altered or combined with other recordings.

• Works must be lawfully acquired, and use should meet at least 3 of 4 factors in the Fair Use test.

• You must use the work one time only.

To follow CONFU Multimedia Guidelines, work must be used in a multimedia project as follows: 

• Portion used may not exceed 10% or 30 seconds (whichever is less). These limits are cumulative over a semester.

• For use exceeding two (2) years, permission must be granted by the copyright owner.

• Alterations to the music and/or lyrics are prohibited.

• Work must be used during face-to-face instruction; remote, real-time courses on a secure network; or for students' self study.

• You should completely acknowledge the source of the copyrighted work.

• No commercial reproduction and distribution is allowed.

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Television Recordings (Cable)

Category includes:  

• Programs from "pay" television networks such as CNN, MSNBC, ESPN, HBO, MTV or Pay-Per-View.

• Recordings of programs shown on cable networks.

Before using this resource, you must understand the following:
If the work that you wish to use is still protected by copyright (i.e. not a government document or in the public domain), then you will need to either get permission from the copyright owner or rely on at least
one of the following types of protection to justify using the work:

To be protected by The TEACH Act: 

• TEACH Act provisions must be met by the instructor, college administration and technical staff.

• You must use a "reasonable and limited portion."

To justify Fair Use of a work: 

• Because Congress addressed guidelines for television programming before cable was really a factor, cable programs are not technically covered by Fair Use in the same way that broadcast programs are covered.

• In general, you should get permission to show recordings.

• Works must be lawfully acquired, and use should meet at least 3 of 4 factors in the Fair Use test.

• You must use the work one time only.

To follow CONFU Multimedia Guidelines, work must be used in a multimedia project as follows: 

• Portion used may not exceed 10% or 30 seconds (whichever is less). These limits are cumulative over a semester.

• For use exceeding two (2) years, permission must be granted by the copyright owner.

• Alterations to the music and/or lyrics are prohibited.

• Work must be used during face-to-face instruction; remote, real-time courses on a secure network; or for students' self study.

• You should completely acknowledge the source of the copyrighted work.

• No commercial reproduction and distribution is allowed.

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Music & Sound

Category includes:  

• Records

• Cassettes

• CDs

• Internet Clips

Before using this resource, you must understand the following:
If the work that you wish to use is still protected by copyright (i.e. not a government document or in the public domain), then you will need to either get permission from the copyright owner or rely on at least
one of the following types of protection to justify using the work:

To be protected by The TEACH Act: 

• TEACH Act provisions must be met by the instructor, college administration and technical staff.

• You must use a "reasonable and limited portion."

To justify Fair Use of a work: 

• Works must be lawfully acquired, and use should meet at least 3 of 4 factors in the Fair Use test.

• You must use the work one time only.

• If you have time to seek permission to use a work, you should do so. Otherwise, you may justify your use under Fair Use.

To follow CONFU Multimedia Guidelines, work must be used in a multimedia project as follows: 

• Portion used may not exceed 10% or 30 seconds (whichever is less). These limits are cumulative over a semester.

• For use exceeding two (2) years, permission must be granted by the copyright owner.

• Alterations to the music and/or lyrics are prohibited.

• Work must be used during face-to-face instruction; remote, real-time courses on a secure network; or for students' self study.

• You should completely acknowledge the source of the copyrighted work.

• No commercial reproduction and distribution is allowed.

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Art & Photographs

Category includes:  

• Individual paintings and illustrations

• Collections of paintings and illustrations

• Individual photographs

• Collections of photographs

Before using this resource, you must understand the following:
If the work that you wish to use is still protected by copyright (i.e. not a government document or in the public domain), then you will need to either get permission from the copyright owner or rely on at least
one of the following types of protection to justify using the work:

To be protected by The TEACH Act: 

• TEACH Act provisions must be met by the instructor, college administration and technical staff.

• You must use a "reasonable and limited portion."

To justify Fair Use of a work: 

• Works must be lawfully acquired, and use should meet at least 3 of 4 factors in the Fair Use test.

• You must use the work one time only.

• If you have time to seek permission to use a work, you should do so. Otherwise, you may justify your use under Fair Use.

To follow CONFU Multimedia Guidelines, work must be used in a multimedia project as follows: 

• A maximum of five (5) images from a single artist or photographer may be used. These limits are cumulative over a semester.

• If using a collective work, no more than 10% or 15 images (whichever is less) may be used. These limits are cumulative over a semester. 

• For use exceeding two (2) years, permission must be granted by the copyright owner.

• Work must be used during face-to-face instruction; remote, real-time courses on a secure network; or for students' self study.

• You should completely acknowledge the source of the copyrighted work.

• No commercial reproduction and distribution is allowed.

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Thumbnails

Category includes: 

• Images that are sized no larger than 100 x 125 pixels or 125 x 100 pixels

Before using this resource, you must understand the following:

• Thumbnails of Internet images may be used.

• Full-size images may not be reposted without permission.

• A non-profit, educational institution may use thumbnails to create a visual catalog.

• You should completely acknowledge the source of the copyrighted work.

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Clip Art

Category includes: 

• Computerized images offered either online or as packaged software for general design use

Before using this resource, you must understand the following:
If the work that you wish to use is still protected by copyright (i.e. not a government document or in the public domain), then you will need to either get permission from the copyright owner or rely on the following to justify using the work:

• Refer to the licensing information that accompanies the clip either on the Web site where it is offered or on the product's packaging. Microsoft outlines restrictions for use of their clip art at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HP030900871033.aspx.

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Copyrighted Databases

Category includes: 

• Purchased or licensed databases

• Data tables

Before using this resource, you must understand the following:
If the work that you wish to use is still protected by copyright (i.e. not a government document or in the public domain), then you will need to either get permission from the copyright owner or rely on at least
one of the following types of protection to justify using the work:

• Refer to the specific licensing information that accompanies the database product. Usage restrictions that you may encounter include, but are not limited to:
   

  • Printing Restrictions
    For example, vendors of some of the library's online periodical databases allow a library user to print only one copy of an article. That means that the student or instructor who wish to share the article with others will need to either provide a link that goes straight to the article or provide information about how to search for the article.
     

  • Transmission Restrictions
    Some vendors prohibit the transmission of content by methods such as email, fax or display. 

To be protected by The TEACH Act: 

• TEACH Act provisions must be met by the instructor, college administration and technical staff.

• You must use a "reasonable and limited portion."

To justify Fair Use of a work: 

• Works must be lawfully acquired, and use should meet at least 3 of 4 factors in the Fair Use test.

• You must use the work one time only.

• If you have time to seek permission to use a work, you should do so. Otherwise, you may justify your use under Fair Use.

To follow CONFU Multimedia Guidelines, work must be used in a multimedia project as follows: 

• Portion used may not exceed 10% or 2500 field entries (items of information in a record of a database, such as name or social security number) or cell entries (intersections where a row and column meet on a spreadsheet), whichever is less. These limits are cumulative over a semester.

• For use exceeding two (2) years, permission must be granted by the copyright owner.

• Work must be used during face-to-face instruction; remote, real-time courses on a secure network; or for students' self study.

• You should completely acknowledge the source of the copyrighted work.

• No commercial reproduction and distribution is allowed.

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Web Sites

Category includes: 

• World Wide Web Sites

Before using this resource, you must understand the following:

• While you should not copy or lift content from a Web site without permission, there are currently no restrictions against simply linking to a Web site.

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Sources
Some of the information used on this page came from these sources:

• Harris County (TX) Public Library: Cy-Fair Library
  http://wwwcfc.nhmccd.edu/Library/research/faculty/copyright.cfm 
   

• The Copyright Management Center - Indiana University & Purdue University
  http://www.copyright.iupui.edu
   

• Complying with The TEACH Act and Copyright Issues in Distance Education
  Presentation prepared by Dr. Fritz Dolak for the ITC Professional Development Audio Conference on November 18, 2003. http://www.bsu.edu/classes/dolak/ITC/ 
   

• PBS Teacher Source: Copyright
  http://www.pbs.org/teachersource/copyright/copyright_ed_multi.shtm
   

• MediaFestival.org: Copyright Chart
  http://www.mediafestival.org/copyrightchart.html
   

• Microsoft: What uses of photos, clip art, and font images are prohibited?
  http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HP030900871033.aspx 
    

Disclaimer
Please note that the information presented in the Online Copyright Center is for information purposes only. It should not be used as a substitute for actual legal advice.