Recently Asked Questions

[We got a question from an academic library...]

I have a question about using copyrighted materials in my classes.

A few years ago, I purchased and listened to the audio version of a Great Course called "[NAME REDACTED TO AVOID COMPLICATIONS]." Each lecture is about 30 minutes and I thought they would make a great weekly assignment in my "[NAME OF CLASS ALSO REDACTED]" class. I would have students listen to a lecture and then focus their discussion around it.

My question is, what legal ways can I share these lectures with students? I have purchased the video series at thegreatcourses.com (for $29.95). I know I can't take a screen recording of them and post on YouTube public, but could I take a screen recording and post in Brightspace? That way, they would not be able to disseminate it or access it beyond the end of the course."

PS "Brightspace" is course software (Like "BlackBoard")

I am asking this on behalf of the Elementary School in my district. (I work in the library of our district's high school). The Elementary School participates every year in a program called PARP. (Parents As Reading Partners). The teachers and principal always make some sort of video to kick this off this event since pandemic times.

This year the entire school is reading the SAME book: The World According to Humphrey, by Betty G. Birny. (It's a story about a Hamster and how he deals with life issues). My district's teachers want to "borrow" liberally from this Animoto video: https://animoto.com/play/ICom40fpoTdMzDov931aDQ

This video contains four components: 1. Another School (We'll call it School X, an independent school in California essentially doing the same thing), 2. an interview with the author segment, Betty G. Birny, 3. an interview with a store clerk from PetCo and 4. a video of a hamster performing "cute antics" with a voice-over dubbed in called April's Animals. (This individual posts varied animal videos on YouTube)

What my teachers want to do is create their OWN video of teachers and the principal endorsing this book, interspersed with the hamster video from April's Animals. I did observe at the end of the Animoto video, there were credits provided. My school would not use the PetCo interview or the Author Interview or the School X video as those segments are directly related to that specific school. They want to do the same idea and only use the video provided by April's Animals. I didn't know if this would be problematic because we are a public school, this would not be posted on YouTube. It would be shown over our school network to our K-2 classrooms one time only.

We were asked about signage to post over the copier at a schools where educational materials are copied. Below is some template language with footnotes explaining why they say what they do.  Of course, before posting in your school or library, check with your lawyer!

We were asked about signage to post over the public copier at a libraries open to the public. Below is some template language with footnotes explaining why they say what they do.  Of course, before posting in your school or library, check with your lawyer!

Does the TEACH Act allow a school to stream entire movies, if the movies could otherwise be shown in their entirety in class?