Copyright+&+Fair+Use+Measures

Copyright is a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States (title 17, // U. S. //// Code // ) to the authors of “original works of authorship,” including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works. This protection is available to both published and unpublished works.
 * Copyright Infringement and Plagiarism - LL **

Section 106 of the 1976 Copyright Act generally gives the owner of copyright the exclusive right to do and to authorize others to do the following: • To reproduce the work in copies; • To prepare derivative works based upon the work; • To distribute copies of the work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending; (The Publishing Law Center) Federal laws, cases, and guidelines pertaining to copyright will govern the use of material accessed through the Hometown School District resources. Users will make a standard practice of requesting permission from the holder of the work and complying with license agreements. Employees will instruct students to respect copyrights, request permission when appropriate, and comply with license agreements and employees will respect and comply as well. Violations of copyright law can be a felony and the law allows a court to hold individuals personally responsible for infringing the law. The School District does not permit illegal acts pertaining to the copyright law. Therefore, any user violating the copyright law does so at their own risk and assumes all liability. Violations of copyright law include, but are not limited to, the making of unauthorized copies of any copyrighted material (such as commercial software, text, graphic images, audio and video recording), distributing copyrighted materials over computer networks, and deep linking and framing into the content of others’ web sites. Further, the illegal installation of copyrighted software or files for use on the Hometown School District’s computers is expressly prohibited. This includes all forms of licensed software and electronic software downloaded from the Internet.

School District guidelines on plagiarism will govern use of material accessed through the School District’s CIS systems. Users will not plagiarize works that they find. Teachers will instruct students in appropriate research and citation practices. (Millersburg Area School District AUP) Fair use is a limitation on the exclusive rights of the copyright owner. The guiding principle of the fair use doctrine is to make available, for limited purposes, reasonable public access to copyrighted works.
 * Fair Use Measures **

Section 107 of the Copyright Act, entitled, "Limitations on Exclusive Rights: Fair Use," is the statutory codification of the fair use doctrine. This judicially developed concept strives to balance the public's need to know and be informed against authors' incentives to create. The copyright law contemplates that fair use of a copyrighted work without permission shall be for purposes such as (1) Criticism and comment (2) Parody and satire (3) Scholarship and research (4) News reporting (5) Teaching, and that such fair use will not result in the infringement of a copyrighted work. Section 107 also sets out four factors to be considered in determining whether or not a particular use is fair: (1)The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes (2) The nature of the copyrighted work (3) The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole (4) The effect of the use upon the potential market for, or value of, the copyrighted work (The Publishing Law Center)