Understand Campus Needs

Beware Rigid Rules

Understand Exemptions

Understand Campus Needs: Make it a priority to understand your campus needs with respect to using copyrighted material in teaching and learning.

• Keep track of the copyright-related questions your office receives. Categorize them and identify units most in need of copyright information and guidance. Target them in your physical and online outreach efforts.

• Conduct an informal survey of online classes at your institution to determine how often third-party copyrighted material is being used.

• Survey your campus to see how many faculty and staff are interested in copyright, what kind of questions they have, and what they need in terms of answers.

Beware Rigid Rules: Beware of imposing rigid copyright guidelines that unnecessarily hamper lawful uses of copyrighted material.

• Conduct an environmental scan of your campus to identify formal and informal copyright use guidelines. Review them for content, accuracy, and currency. Consider updating or crafting a use policy that supports the responsible exercise of fair use and other copyright exemptions.

• Examples of unnecessarily restrictive copyright use guidelines that do not have the force of law and are outdated include:

  • Agreement On Guidelines for Classroom Copying [PDF]
  • Fair Use Guidelines for Educational Multimedia
  • Guidelines for Off-Air Taping for Educational Purposes
  • US Copyright Law: A Guide for Music Educators

Understand Exemptions: Work toward a greater understanding of the exemptions in copyright law (like fair use) so that you can exercise them confidently and assertively.

• Knowing that university counsel are busy general practitioners responsible for authoritative knowledge in a broad variety of subjects, it is critical to have easily used, trustworthy resources and tools, such as those contained in this initiative to both expand your own knowledge and help you in your campus outreach efforts.

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