using movie clips for educational purposes

Copyright and Fair Use : Showing Films, Videos, and TV Programs

Showing films, videos, and tv programs.

What is Copyright?
What is Fair Use?

Adapted with permission from University of Pittsburgh Library System

When you want to perform, display, or show a film, video, or TV program for teaching, training, or entertainment, you have to consider the rights of the those who own the copyright to the work you want to use.

Copyright owners have certain rights, which are commonly known as public performance rights (PPR). When you're using a film, video, or TV program for teaching or educational purposes, this is often considered a fair use under U.S. copyright law. In other cases, especially when the film, video, or TV program is being shown as part of an event, you need permission--often in the form of a public performance rights license--to show the work.

What Are Public Performance Rights (PPR)?

Under U.S. copyright law , copyright owners have certain "exclusive rights." When you want to show a TV program, video, or film or when you want to broadcast or perform music (whether it's live or recorded), you have to consider the rights of those who own the copyright to the work you want to use.

Perform their work publicly--if it’s a literary, musical, dramatic, or choreographed work, or if it’s a pictorial, graphic, or sculptural work
Display their work publicly--if it’s a literary, musical, dramatic, or choreographed work, or if it’s a pictorial, graphic, or sculptural work
Perform their work publicly through digital audio and/or video transmission--if it’s a sound or video recording

There are exceptions to these exclusive rights, allowing faculty, students, and others to use audiovisual works to meet nonprofit, educational needs. These exceptions allow for the fair use of copyrighted works .

Films, Videos, and TV Programs

In general, any time you plan to show a film, video, or TV show to the public— that is to say, "anyone attending a film screening/showing in an auditorium, theater, or any other kind of unrestricted open space, either indoors or outdoors" (Tammy Ravas, Media Resources LibGuide , University of Montana)—you must first seek permission to do so from the film’s copyright owner(s). The film’s format or whether or not you are charging admission does not matter: You still need to seek permission. This permission comes in the form of a license from the rights holder called a PPR (public performance rights) license.

There are some exceptions to this rule:

Faculty and instructors at nonprofit, educational institutions, such as Lincoln University, can make a fair use defense under U.S. copyright law to use films, videos, and TV programs as part of teaching. However, what constitutes "teaching" under U.S. copyright law is very specific: It doesn't mean that just because we're at a university, all on- or off-campus uses of films, videos, or TV shows are considered fair.
If the film or video is in the public domain, you should be able to show the film or video in public. It may depend on whether the work is really in the public domain. It can be difficult at times to determine the copyright status of any work, whether text or video.
If the film or video is licensed under Creative Commons or another "copyleft" license, you should be able to show it in public. Pay attention, however, to the specifics of the license. For example, some works licensed under Creative Commons (CC) may have a non-commercial (NC) designation, which may impact how or where you show a film or for what purpose.

In the Classroom

According to the Section 110 (1) of the U.S. Copyright Act , the performance or showing of films in the classroom (or a similar venue) as part of “face-to-face” teaching at nonprofit educational institutions (such as Lincoln) is covered under the fair use exception. Viewing must be limited to only those enrolled in the course. Showing films in an analogous fashion as part of distance education or hybrid courses also qualifies as fair use under the TEACH Act, which is incorporated in Section 110 (2) of the U.S. Copyright Act .

There are noteworthy exceptions pertaining to remote locations and unlawfully acquired or made copies of audiovisual materials. See the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) “ Performance of or Showing Films in the Classroom ” for further advice and examples.

Outside the Classroom

The performance or showing of films, videos, and TV programs in a similar venue (i.e., not necessarily a classroom) for face-to-face teaching is covered under the fair use exception of U.S. copyright law. Showing films in a similar fashion as part of distance education or hybrid (both face-to-face and online) courses also qualify as fair use under the TEACH Act, which is incorporated in Section 110 (2) of the U.S. Copyright Act .

In both cases, the display or performance must be limited to those enrolled in the course. The display or performance cannot be open to the public or freely available via the Internet.

The main point here is that the venue for teaching does not have to be limited to a traditional classroom. However, the film's use for teaching or educational purposes does need to follow the parameters set out by the Copyright Act and the TEACH Act.

When Showing Is Not Part of a Course or Class

In general, the performance or showing of films for public viewing does not fall under the fair use exception. It does not matter whether the showing is free or whether admission is charged; this is not considered a fair use under U.S. copyright law.

Often in this situation, you will need to seek permission from the copyright owner by acquiring a public performance rights (PPR) license in order to show the work. Generally, there is a charge for a PPR license, one that can range from $100 to $1,000, depending on the work and who owns the copyright. The library cannot acquire PPR licenses for films for you or your group.

Student Groups, Clubs, and Organizations

Often the performance or showing of films for by university-affiliated student groups, clubs, and organizations may not fall under the fair use exception of U.S. copyright law. The intent of such showings is generally for entertainment, not for face-to-face teaching.

In such a case as this, you will need to seek permission from the copyright owner by acquiring a public performance rights (PPR) license in order to show the film, video, or TV program.

However, according to copyright lawyer and specialist, Kevin D. Smith in Owning and Using Scholarship: An IP Handbook for Teachers and Researchers, there may be a fair use defense for student groups showing a video if the showing is done for truly educational purposes. For example, if a student group is "discussing a topic related to the curriculum or in some other way that is clearly educational" (p. 102), it might be possible to use the fair use exception under U.S. copyright law to show a film to the group without acquiring a PPR license.

Such a group would have to be specific and limited and use must be for educational or curricular purposes.

This, like much in copyright law, is an "it depends" situation. Student groups should consult with sponsors, governing bodies, or university officials and policies to determine what the university allows.

Film Series

The performance of or showing of films for public viewing (whether admission is charged or not) as part of a film series does not fall under the fair use exception.

No matter how educational the setting may be or how tied to the curriculum the showing may be, this is generally considered a showing for entertainment purposes. Even if the showing is conducted by a student organization, such as a film society, this would still not be considered fair use.

Thus, in order to show the films, you will need to seek permission from the copyright owner by acquiring a public performance rights (PPR) license.

Training Programs

According to copyright lawyer and expert, Kevin D. Smith, showing films, videos, and TV programs as part of a training program for professional groups may fall under fair use. (See Owning and Using Scholarship: An IP Handbook for Teachers and Researchers, p. 102.)

Again, this may be an "it depends" situation. The group or entity interested in showing the film, video, or TV program may need to consult with sponsors, governing bodies, or university officials and policies to determine what is allowed.

Showing Clips or Excerpts

Using clips or excerpts from films, videos, or TV programs for teaching purposes is allowed under the fair use doctrine of U.S. copyright law. However, to use them, you need to consider the four factors of fair use and apply them to the number and amount of video clips being used.

According to Copyright Law for Librarians and Educators: Creative Strategies & Practical Solutions (3rd ed.) by Kenneth D. Crews, some of the points that those teaching should consider (pp. 74-75) include--

The nature of the work: Is it a feature film or an educational video? Is the film marketed for education? Is the work creative or simple, in the latter case consisting of news events or explanations?
The amount of the work: How long are the clips? Are they brief? Do they constitute the "heart of the work," i.e., the main point or thrust of the work? Does the length of the original video matter when considering how much to use?
The effect of the use on the marketplace for the video: Is the film or video readily available for purchase by students at a reasonable price? Is it a foreign film that is not easily findable, affordable, or usable (for example, a DVD with a non-North American region code)? Is it an educational film or a general, commercial work? Does the library or the university own a copy of the work (and thus has contributed to the market for the work)?

You can find out more about fair use, including online resources to help you make a fair use defense for your use, by visiting the University of Pittsburgh Library System's "What Is Fair Use?" webpage.

Obtaining a PPR License

Educational films and videos.

Some educational films, when purchased, may already have public performance rights. However, just because the film is educational in nature or produced by a nonprofit organization does not guarantee PPR are included. Such films or videos usually cost more than the average movie you'd buy on DVD or online (think a couple of hundred dollars, not $19.95). Educational films or videos with a PPR license generally may allow you to show the video in public on more than one occasion.

In general, the library does not buy educational films with PPR licenses.

Commercial films

While the library purchases commercial films (e.g., Hollywood-produced movies) for university use and educational needs, these films are not purchased with public performance rights. Permission to show or display the film must be acquired separately. Generally, the PPR license to use the film is good for only one time.

Generally, the cost for a PPR for a commercial film one that can range from $100 to $1,000, depending on the work and the copyright owner.

The library does not purchase PPR licenses for commercial films for Lincoln University students, staff, or faculty.

More about PPR Licenses

The section entitled “Showing Media Outside Classes (PPR)” in this LibGuide created by a librarian at the University of Montana may provide you with some direction on searching for and acquiring a PPR license for a film you want to show in a non-classroom, non-instructional setting.

There are a number of companies in the U.S. that offer PPR licenses for films. These include Swank Motion Pictures, Motion Picture Licensing Corporation, and others. The University of Montana LibGuide provides contact information for these companies.

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Copyright on Campus: Showing Movies in Class and on Campus

Introduction
Copyright Law Basics
Public Domain
Theses & Dissertations
Author Rights
Showing Movies in Class and on Campus
Copyright & Data Management
Copyright in Special Collections
Open Education

Showing Videos in Class and on Campus - What You Need to Know

When you want to perform, display, or show a film, video, or TV program, whether it be as part of a course, at a group or club activity, at an organization event, or as a training exercise, you have to consider the rights of the those who own the copyright to the work you want to use. This consideration must be made regardless of who owns the video or where you obtained it. Copyright owners have certain rights, which are commonly known as public performance rights (PPR) .

When you're using a film, video, or TV program in a classroom for teaching or educational purposes, such performance or display of the entire work may be allowed without permission under the face to face teaching exemption at 17 U.S.C. §110(1).

When showing a film in an online class, it may be considered fair use depending on how much of the film is being shown and for what purposes. If fair use does not apply, you will need a streaming license or view the film through a licensed streaming film provider.

In most other cases, especially when the film, video, or TV program is being shown as part of an event, you need permission--often in the form of a public performance rights (PPR) license--to perform or show the copyrighted work.

Do I Need Public Performance Rights

YES -- you need public performance rights :

If the showing of the video is open to the public , such as a screening at a public event, OR
If the showing is in a public space where access is not restricted , such as a a showing of a film for a class but in a venue that is open to anyone to attend, OR
If persons attending are outside the normal circle of family and friends , such as a showing of a film by a club or organization.

NO -- you do not need public performance rights :

If you are privately viewing the film in your home with only family and friends in attendance, OR
If you are an instructor showing the film in class as part of the course curriculum to officially enrolled students in a classroom that is not open to others to attend, OR
If the film is in the public domain .

Finding Movies with PPR at the UF Libraries

Because the UF Libraries acquires media to support the curriculum, and face-to-face teaching is exempt from public performance licensing, we do not typically secure public performance rights (PPR) with video purchases. However, many distributors of the videos we purchase include PPR in the purchase price.

To search for videos in our collections that have been purchased with PPR, go to this list of titles that can be shown in non-classroom settings so long as no admission fee is charged. You can further filter this list with subject terms, geographic limits, etc. by additional terms or using the “Narrow Results” filters on the left. This list is not exhaustive; you may contact the Libraries if you have questions about other options.

How to Obtain Public Performance Rights

Individuals and organizations are responsible for obtaining public performance rights for all non-exempt showings. There are two ways to obtain PPR, also known as permission or a license:

1. Contact the copyright holder directly, or contact the distributor. If the distributor has the authority from the copyright owner to grant licenses, to purchase public performance rights or to request permission for a particular public performance use, permission or license can be directly obtained.

2. Contact the licensing service representing the particular studio or title ( note - this will generally be required for all feature length films ). Services vary in the types of licensing offered and the scope of materials represented. Some of the companies that provide (for a fee) public performance licenses are listed below:

Swank Motion Pictures
Criterion Pictures USA
Kino International
Modern Sound Pictures
Motion Picture Licensing Corporation (MPLC)
New Yorker Films

Contact your department's library liaison for additional assistance in locating the appropriate licensing agent for your particular film.

Frequently Asked Questions

Our student club wants to show a film but it is for educational purposes. There is a plan for discussion about the issues raised in the film after it's shown. Do we still need Public Performance Rights? It depends. Ordinarily, the showing of a film by a group or club is for entertainment purposes and thus PPR is required. However, if the group's purpose and activities are ordinarily educational nature and the showing of the film is in furtherance of those educational purposes and activities, then it may be fair use to show the film without PPR.

What about a film series hosted by a group or club that is open to and advertised to the public? The showing of a film as part of a film series is viewed as entertainment even if hosted or sponsored by an educational group or club. No matter how educational the setting or how tied to the curriculum, this is generally considered not to be fair use and PPR must be obtained.

I own the DVD that the club I am a member of wants to show. Do I still need to get PPR? It doesn't matter where the film you are planning to show comes from -- your own collection, the Library's or the corner video rental shop. The analysis is the same. If an exception under copyright law does not apply (e.g. fair use, face to face teaching), then you must obtain PPR prior to showing the film.

What does "Home Use Only" mean? Does it mean I cannot show this DVD to my class? Under copyright law, copyright holders have the exclusive right of performing or displaying their copyrighted works, including films or videos. The "Home Use Only" warning at the beginning of most DVDs refers to this exclusive right of performance and display. However, the law also has an exception for performing or displaying works in a face to face teaching situation where the work being performed or displayed is related to the curriculum and only being performed or displayed for students enrolled in a course at a non-profit educational institution (such as UF). Therefore, under this exception, DVDs with the "Home Use Only" warning can be played in a face to face classroom. For online courses, refer to fair use for determining how much of the film can be shown.

May I show clips of films to my students as part of a lecture? Generally, yes, this is permissible under fair use. Apply the four factors of fair use to determine whether the film in question may be used for this purpose and how much of the film may be shown. New exemptions under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act permit educators to "rip" clips from videos for educational purposes.

The film I want to show is on Netflix. Can I stream this through my Netflix account in the classroom? Subscription services such as Netflix and Amazon have very detailed membership agreements that may forbid the streaming of subscribed content in a classroom or other public venue. When you agree to the terms of membership, you enter into a contract and the terms of that contract trump any applicable exception in copyright. Therefore, if the membership agreement with Netflix prohibits the showing of the film in a classroom, you are bound by the terms of that agreement even if the face to face teaching exception would otherwise allow it.

Can I Show a Video to My Online Class?

The Copyright Act at §110(1) (face to face teaching exemption) allows for the performance or display of video or film in a classroom where instruction takes place in classroom with enrolled students physically present and the film is related to the curricular goals of the course. The TEACH Act amendment to the Copyright Act, codified at § 110(2), permits the performance of a reasonable and limited portion of films in an online classroom. Instructors may also rely upon fair use for showing films in an online course, although showing an entire film online may or may not constitute fair use. Whenever the goals of a course allow, relying on clips or short portions of a film or video for online instruction is preferable. UF instructors may contact Course Reserves for additional support.

Resources for Free and Legal Streaming Video

American Experience (PBS) Full length episodes from the acclaimed series.
Annenberg Foundation Learner Resources Teacher resources across the curriculum, including short films on a variety of subjects.
FolkStreams A National Preserve of Documentary Films about American Roots Cultures streamed with essays about the traditions and film-making. The site includes transcriptions, study and teaching guides, suggested readings, and links to related websites.
Moving Image Archive This library contains thousands of digital movies uploaded by Archive users which range from classic full-length films, to daily alternative news broadcasts, to cartoons and concerts. Many of these videos are available for free download.
OpenCulture.com A thoughtful collection of links to hundreds of Indie Films, Film Noir, Documentaries & More. The list includes films by directors like Fritz Lang, Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder, Elia Kazan, Ken Loach, Sergei Eisenstein, Tarkovsky, Capra, Luc Besson, Godard, Hawks, Kubrick, and many more.
OpenVideo Project A Project of the School of Library and Information Science at UNC Chapel Hill. The purpose of the Open Video Project is to collect and make available a repository of digitized video content for the digital video, multimedia retrieval, digital library, and other research communities.
TED Talks TED talks is large collection of recorded presentations from the TED (Technology, Entertainment Design) conference held annually since 1984 in Long Beach California. Talks are generally short and run the gamut of topics from biotechnology to astronomy to population to urban design and beyond.
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Last Updated: Jan 30, 2024 4:37 PM
URL: https://guides.uflib.ufl.edu/copyright

Educational use of images, video and audio

This page goes deeper into copyright and related legal issues for educational use of images, video, and audio. The information is mainly for instructors at the University of Minnesota.

Educational use of images

Images can be powerful teaching tools as illustrations related to a class, or for studying concepts outside of the course context.

Most of the time, showing things to students from physical media in in-person classes at the University of Minnesota is totally okay. There’s a legal exception that only applies to teachers, and only in specific situations, but it’s very clear - you don't have to guess at market harm issues, or how much is an appropriately small amount.

It’s not so clear that showing the same image in a non-classroom educational setting is allowed, and neither is scanning or copying things as a step towards showing them in a class. People frequently do copy or scan images and show them in online teaching, at conferences, and at school meetings, and it is often fair use to do so.

It's also likely that not all image copying, even in non-profit instructional contexts, falls under fair use. Courts haven't done much to interpret how fair use might apply to instructional use of images, but they have allowed fair use copying of images in other contexts - sometimes even commercial ones - especially when accompanied by criticism or commentary.

The Visual Resources Association has a very useful "Statement on the Fair Use of Images for Teaching, Research, and Study" . The statement articulates the organization's understanding of fair use principles, but it's not legal advice. It's a bit longer than this website, but very much worth the read for anyone whose teaching is image-heavy. It is also of great value for anyone working with images as the subject of their research, or who wants to include images in published scholarly materials.

The College Art Association has drawn up a " Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for the Visual Arts ". This has been welcomed by many in the visual arts teaching and research community. It articulates accepted community practices around writing and teaching about art, and goes beyond to fair use issues in making new art, and in archival and museum uses.

The Association of Art Museum Directors have " Guidelines for the Use of Copyrighted Materials and Works of Art by Art Museums ", which is a welcome new document in succession to their groundbreaking earlier principled documentation of fair use issues in visual arts

Although the resources above are mostly focused on visual arts disciplines, the principles they explore apply to many different types of educational and research uses.

Lecture recordings and streaming with students

As mentioned above, showing things to students , or performing things with or for students from physical media like a DVDs, CD, or existing sheet music at an in-person class at the University of Minnesota is usually totally okay. But that kind of class environment is becoming less common.

If you can limit audio and video use during your online course to relatively brief clips, you may be able to include those in lecture recordings or live-casts under fair use. For media use longer than brief clips, it is often legally easier to have students independently access the content outside of your lecture videos.

The same basic legal provisions apply to the University’s Kaltura platform as they do to YouTube, but there may be some practical differences between platforms. It is more likely that videos posted on YouTube may encounter some automated copyright enforcement, such as a takedown notice, or disabling of included audio or video content. These automated enforcement tools are often -incorrect- when they flag audio, video, or images included in instructional videos - if you encounter something like this that you believe to be in error, you can contact [email protected] for assistance.

Live streaming clips and whole movies or songs for or with students via Zoom, Twitch, etc is a relatively new innovation in teaching with media, and the law around it is very unclear. Technologies that automatically detect and shut down video and audio within streams on commercial services are also evolving very quickly. This is a great area for instructional innovation.

If you’d rather not work on that innovative edge, the Libraries already have quite a bit of licensed streaming video content , which you are welcome to use in your online course. The Libraries also already have subscriptions to a significant set of streaming audio options for UMN users. We may be able to purchase streaming access for additional media, but it does take time to finalize a streaming license, and institutional streaming costs do often exceed our budget constraints.

Terms of service affect media use

Sites like YouTube and Vimeo have Terms of Service that say they are for personal use only. It's unclear whether the terms of service on a site where users never clicked "I Agree" are legally enforceable. Many people use media from these sites in classes and educational presentations.

Subscription services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, and others also have Terms of Service, almost all of which also limit use to personal and/or non-commercial use. With subscription services, users usually do actively agree to the terms of service at some point, so they may be legally binding.

Some copies of media files - such as files downloaded after purchase - may come with their own terms of service. Purchasers usually actively agree to those terms in some way during the purchase, so they may be legally binding.

Terms of service, if they are binding, are legal contracts. No one really knows whether educational uses violate these terms of service. Is your teaching personal, non-commercial use? Maybe! It is common practice to play public online content, such as YouTube videos, in many different educational settings, though not all such users may be aware that the terms of use present questions about such uses. Most service providers have not directly answered questions about these issues. Some of the subscription service providers have, and they usually indicate that they think educational use would need additional permissions.

A service provider can sue users that violate the terms of service, but that’s very uncommon. What’s more common with a contract violation is for the site providing the service to either discipline users (e.g., by limiting access to an account), or end the business relationship (e.g., by terminating the account.)

If you want to use subscription streaming media in class, the most clearly legal option is to have students watch it on their own accounts, or watch with friends.

Sharing copies of video and audio with students

Fair use may cover making media clips and sharing them with students on Canvas/Kaltura or other streaming or download options. Where there are no other options, fair use may sometimes extend to sharing a copy of an entire work, but that will generally only be true for unusual outliers.

Courts haven't done much to interpret how fair use might apply to educational use of video and audio, but they have allowed fair use copying of images in other contexts - sometimes even commercial ones - especially when accompanied by criticism or commentary.

Media that are encrypted (like DVDs, Blu-Rays, and most streaming video) can present additional legal issues related to "anticircumvention" provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Student Assignments

Fair use does likely cover some copying from video and audio for course assignments, especially when students are using media to create new works, or criticizing or commenting on the source material.

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4 September 2019

The Copyright Implications of Teaching with Videos

Copyrightlaws.com is excited to share Sara Benson’s article on the copyright implications of teaching with videos, both face-to-face and online. Educators and librarians in the U.S. who deal with copyright issues related to teaching with videos will benefit from the information she shares.

Ms. Benson is a Copyright Librarian and Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois Library. In fall 2019 the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) is publishing the book she has edited, a compliation titled Copyright Conversations: Rights Literacy in a Digital World.

Copyright Implications of Teaching with Videos

There are many pedagogical reasons faculty members choose to teach using video clips or even by showing full-length movies to their students during class. Often, it’s one thing to tell the students about a particular event and a very different experience for the students to watch either a documentary about or a fictional rendition of it.

Regardless of the reason, the connection between video and teaching is here to stay. And so, as librarians or faculty, we need to think through the copyright implications of teaching with videos.

Face-to-Face Teaching and Section 110(1) of the U.S. Copyright Act

When teaching in a classroom face-to-face with students, the law provides educators with a straightforward exception to copyright in Section 110(1) of the U.S. Copyright Act. As long as the video came from a lawful source, you can show an entire movie to your enrolled students without asking for permission or paying for public performance rights.

So, for instance, if an instructor wishes to show the entire movie “A League of One’s Own” in a feminist studies class and the professor owns their own copy of the film, they can show the movie without obtaining public performance rights or otherwise paying a licensing fee. Or, if the library owns a copy of the DVD, the professor could borrow the library’s copy of the movie and show it during class.

Section 110(1) is a limited exception to copyright in that it only permits the use of copyrighted works in the face-to-face classroom. However, it is also a fairly broad exception in that it permits both teachers and students to display or perform any work within that environment. Note that it doesn’t permit the faculty or students to make reproductions or copies of the works.

If the professor wishes, however, to show only clips of the movie during face-to-face classroom teaching, they would not be within the Section 110(1) exception because in order to make the clips the professor would need to break the technological locks (if any) on the DVD, and make a copy of the DVD’s contents. This brings us to our next topic for discussion, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act

In the digital age professors often teach online. Things get quite complicated relating to copyright in the online course environment. One complication arises from the DMCA.

The DMCA protects intellectual property owners who place digital lock protection devices onto DVDs and other discs to stop consumers from making copies of the works. Generally, the DMCA and the Copyright Act would be violated by making a copy of a DVD of a movie.

In the face-to-face teaching context, no copy is necessary, because the professor can easily pop in the DVD and play the entire movie for the class (or fast forward to specific parts of the movie for quick viewing). However, to show a movie online, an educator would need to:

Break the technological locks on the DVD, to
Make a digital copy of the work to stream to the class.

Luckily, the Copyright Office has recognized a few exemptions to the DMCA for breaking technical video locks for teaching purposes.

One exception is to create subtitles for hearing impaired students when there are no subtitled versions of videos available through a vendor at a fair price or in a timely manner and

the accessible versions are provided to students or educators and stored by the educational institution in a manner intended to reasonably prevent unauthorized further dissemination of a work.

Another exception is to “make use of short portions of the motion picture ... for educational purposes” when the person breaking the technology locks reasonably believes that non-circumventing methods of capturing the information would be insufficient “to produce the required level of high-quality content.” This exception, while very helpful for online courses, does limit professors to making use of only “short portions” of the entire movie or film.

Application of the DMCA to Online Teaching

So, let’s take our first example. The professor teaching feminist studies wishes to show students clips from the movie “A League of One’s Own” in an online class session. In order to make the clips, the professor must break the technological locks on the DVD, download the contents of the DVD, and then create clips to show and discuss during class. Note that if the professor was comfortable using screen capture technology, which might be blurry, then the DMCA would not be an issue as no technological locks would be broken.

Let’s assume, though, that the professor wants the clips to be high quality and does break the technological locks. Can they show the clips during class? The answer depends on the length of the clips.

Are the clips “short”? What is the definition of “short” for purposes of the DMCA? There’s no easy answer to this question except to say that the U.S. Copyright Office, in enacting the “short portion” requirement in the exemption, sought to mimic the fair use doctrine’s requirements of small amounts of works used without permission so long as they don’t usurp the market value for the original work. (See Recommendation of the Acting Register of Copyrights, Section 1201 Rulemaking p. 48.)

The use of “short” portions, then, would presumably meet both the DMCA exemption requirement allowing for the breaking of the technological locks, as well as the fair use of the work without license or permission, as the use is not usurping the market value of the work.

The DMCA and TEACH Act

Note that in the online teaching environment, campuses that comply with the TEACH Act or Section 110(2) of the Copyright Act could avoid the assertion of a fair use argument. I have found that my campus is generally not TEACH Act compliant, but for those that are able to meet the numerous TEACH Act requirements,

such as the obligation to limit transmissions to officially enrolled students and to institute copyright policies and apply TPMs [technological protection measures] that reasonably prevent unauthorized further dissemination of a work to others[,]

the TEACH Act could operate to allow for the streaming of the digital video clips. See Section 1201 Rulemaking .

Fair Use

While the above exception does permit both the technological locks to be broken and a copy to be made in some circumstances, the DMCA doesn’t operate in a legal vacuum. Just as fair use can operate in tandem with Section 108 (exceptions for libraries), so too can it operate in conjunction with the DMCA. See, for example, Chamberlain Group, Inc. v. Skylink Technologies, Inc., (Fed. Cir. 2004 ).

Chamberlain’s proposed construction would allow copyright owners to prohibit exclusively fair uses even in the absence of any feared foul use ... [c]opyright law itself authorizes the public to make certain uses of copyrighted materials ... [w]hat the law authorizes, Chamberlain cannot revoke).

In a recent survey of academic libraries, I found that some librarians are willing to make a copy of an obscure film that’s unavailable by a streaming vendor for purchase in order to stream the entire film to an online class under a fair use analysis. In other words, where no streaming license is available and, therefore, there’s no market to harm from the streaming of the video, some librarians are comfortable asserting a fair use right to stream entire films to online classrooms. Fair use is decided on a case by case basis and is considered a risk management decision.

The issue of streaming videos online in an academic setting is complicated further by the DMCA provisions, but all is not lost. Librarians can still flex their fair use muscles, where reasonable, and can exercise DMCA exemptions authorized by the U.S. Copyright Office.

Checklists for Copyright Implications of Teaching with Videos

Face-to-face teaching checklist.

Institution is a nonprofit educational institution
Work is being used in a classroom or other similar teaching place devoted to instruction
Work is being displayed or performed by teacher or students
If a movie, the copy of the movie was obtained lawfully (the person showing the movie didn't have reason to believe it wasn’t made lawfully)

DMCA Exemption for Teaching with Videos Checklist

Other methods of displaying work not feasible (such as screen capture)
Circumventing technical locks to display “short” portions of the work
For educational purpose
By college and university faculty and students or K-12 educators and students (where the K-12 student is circumventing under direct supervision of an educator)
For the purpose of criticism, comment, teaching, or scholarship

Looking for More Information?

You can find the current DMCA exemptions, a video about the DMCA, and frequently asked questions on the site of the U.S. Copyright Office.

For in-depth knowledge and practical strategies on managing copyright issues, see our comprehensive online course, Copyright Leadership Certificate .

About Copyrightlaws.com

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FOR TEACHERS
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GRATUITOUS VIOLENCE
MOVIES IN THE CLASSROOM
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TALKING AND PLAYING WITH MOVIES: AGES 3-8
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COPYRIGHT FOR USING MOVIES

In the classroom.

Classrooms in Public Schools and Nonprofit Educational Institutions:

Rented or Purchased Movies May Be Played By Teachers Without a License

Section 110(1) of Title 17 of the United States Code grants a specific exemption from the copyright laws for:

performance or display of a work by instructors or pupils in the course of face-to-face teaching activities of a nonprofit educational institution, in a classroom or similar place devoted to instruction, unless, in the case of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, the performance, or the display of individual images, is given by means of a copy that was not lawfully made under this title, and that the person responsible for the performance knew or had reason to believe was not lawfully made ….

This means that no license from the copyright holder is required when a teacher at a public school or non-profit educational institution uses a lawfully purchased or rented copy of a movie in classroom instruction. It doesn’t matter who purchased or rented the film, so long as it was legally obtained. The exemption is granted for “face-to-face” teaching activities only. This means that the teacher (or a substitute teacher) must be present. The exemption covers a “classroom or similar place devoted to instruction.” This gives teachers some flexibility. For example, it is likely that a gymnasium used for large educational presentations in which several classes are convened together would be covered so long as a teacher presented the film. Note that remotely accessing a film from a central memory storage facility is probably not permitted. See 17 U.S.C. § 1201(a).

For streaming services such as Netflix, HBO, Disney+ or others, teachers the rights of teachers to use those services in the classroom will be governed by their contracts with the service providers.

TWM is not familiar with the rules regarding the use of film in on-line instruction and can make no comment on that. There have been some changes in that area. See Technology, Education and Copyright Harmonization Act, Pub. L. No. 107-273, § 13301, 116 Stat. 1910 (2002) (to be codified at 17 U.S.C. §§ 110(2) , 112(f) ).

It is illegal to circumvent technological measures that effectively control access to copyrighted works, such as digital locks, to make compilations of scenes from various movies. Title 17 U.S. Code § 1201(a)(1)(A). However, renting or purchasing a movie and showing a small portion of it does not involve circumventing any type of lock.

Snippets: Fair Use in Any Context

Snippets of movies can be shown in the classrooms of public schools and non-profit educational institutions without a license pursuant to Section 110(1) of Title 17 quoted above. In other contexts, short snippets of films may be used under the Fair Use Doctrine. Section 107 of Title 17 contains a list of the various purposes for which the reproduction of a particular work may be considered “fair use” and, as such, does not require a license. “Fair Use” is limited to relatively small portions of copyrighted materials used for criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. The statute 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. amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and 4. the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

The distinction between “fair use” (which is permitted) and infringement (which is not permitted) is unclear and is not easily defined. There is no specific number of words, lines, or notes that may safely be taken without permission. Acknowledging the source of the copyrighted material does not substitute for obtaining permission.

Fair use does not entitle a person to break any electronic locks.

Snippets: Breaking Electronic Locks

Most copies of movies (DVDs, electronic copies, etc.) have digital locks that prevent the use of snippets and, except in a few specific circumstances, it is illegal to circumvent those locks. 17 U.S.C. 1201(a)(1)(A). The only exception relating to the classroom is for the film or media studies department of a university.

In Title 17 of the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations, Section 201.40 the Librarian of Congress determined that “during the period from November 27, 2006 through October 27, 2009, the prohibition against circumvention of technological measures that effectively control access to copyrighted works set forth in 17 U.S.C. 1201(a)(1)(A) shall not apply to persons who engage in non-infringing uses of . . .

(1) Audiovisual works included in the educational library of a college or university’s film or media studies department when circumvention is accomplished for the purpose of making compilations of portions of those works for educational use in the classroom by media studies or film professors.”

There is an exception in 17 U.S.C. 201(d) which provides that “A nonprofit library, archives, or educational institution which gains access to a commercially exploited copyrighted work solely in order to make a good faith determination of whether to acquire a copy of that work for the sole purpose of engaging in conduct permitted under this title [17 U.S.C.A. S 1 et seq.].” This would include the educational use permitted by Section 110(1) or fair use. However, the exception only applies to making a determination of “whether to acquire a copy” of the work, not to the use of the work.

N.B.: The analysis on this web page applies only to copyrights in the United States of America. Copyright law may be different in other countries.

This analysis should not be construed as legal advice and, any person, before acting on it should seek advice from their own attorney..

James A. Frieden

Video in the Classroom

Let me get this straight. using the four factors, i can only use small portions of a work, such as a video. what about showing videos in class.

This is a great question. How is it that teachers can show a whole movie in the classroom? To explain this, we need to learn a little bit more about the copyright law and the classroom use exemption.

What’s the classroom use exemption?

Copyright law places a high value on educational uses. The Classroom Use Exemption ( 17 U.S.C. §110(1) only applies in very limited situations, but where it does apply, it gives some pretty clear rights. In-class viewing is a public performance, but it’s permitted under the Classroom Use Exemption.

To qualify for this exemption, you must: be in a classroom (“or similar place devoted to instruction”). Be there in person , engaged in face-to-face teaching activities, and be at a nonprofit educational institution . Sounds a little restrictive?

If (and only if!) you meet these conditions , the exemption gives both instructors and students broad rights to perform or display any works. That means instructors can play movies and music for their students, at any length (though not from illegitimate copies!). Instructors can show students images, or original artworks. Students can perform arias, read poems, and act out scenes. And students and instructors can do all these things without seeking permission, without giving anyone payment, and without having to deal with the complications of fair use.

Sounds great, right? But this law doesn’t apply to all situations. The Classroom Use Exemption does not apply outside the nonprofit, in-person, classroom teaching environment! It doesn’t apply online—even to wholly course-related activities and course websites. It doesn’t apply to interactions that are not in-person—even simultaneous distance learning interactions. It doesn’t apply at for-profit educational institutions.

The Classroom Use Exemption also only authorizes performance or display . If you are making or distributing copies (i.e., handing out readings in class), that is not an activity that the Classroom Use Exemption applies to.

Video: In this video, the Library of Congress explains the classroom use exemption

So if I am a teacher, I can’t show a movie as a reward?

Fair use and the classroom use exception have one important thing in common—they support teaching and learning through media like videos. If the video meets your learning objectives for your classroom and content area, than those laws apply. There are many videos that do! As current and future teachers, it is important to make intentional choices of our use of technology.

Video: What’s the educational purpose of your movie? Learn more in this video.

Ok. So I found a blockbuster video related to my content, and I want to show the entire movie to my students. What’s next?

Some school districts have policies or forms about showing movies in the classroom. One great strategy is to send home a note or email describing the movie and how it fits into your curriculum. You can also let parents know the rating of the movie and how to opt out if that is an option.

Some school districts also subscribe to movie services for their teachers. These websites may come with handouts and worksheets that go along with the movie! The library may also have movies purchased for the school or a process for purchasing educational videos.

Also consider how you are going to integrate the movie into a learning activity. Will you have students completing an assignment? A reflection? Will you be stopping the movie to discuss? Good planning is key to an effective learning experience.

Permission Resources

Sample Permission Form

What about video clips or parts of a movie?

This is covered under the four factors of fair use and the classroom use exemption. There are many ways you can use shorts bits of video or audio for student learning, from a introductory hook at the beginning of a lesson to a video that inspires a reflective homework assignment. Watch the video for more ideas. Also, many TV channels have streaming video clips to that you can show in the classroom.

Video: Listen closely to these two teachers sharing amazing ideas for using video clips for engagement and critical thinking.

Video Clip Resources

Discovery Education
History Channel

Share This Book

Copyright and Fair Use: Showing Movies in Class and On Campus

Showing Movies in Class and On Campus
Copyright & Online Teaching
Copyright Concerns of Students
Plagiarism and Academic Integrity
Rights of Authors
The Public Domain
Creative Commons
Copyright Claims Board

Showing Movies in Class and On Campus - What You Need to Know

When you want to perform, display, or show a film, video, or TV program, whether it be as part of a course, at a group or club activity, at an organization event, or as a training exercise, you have to consider the rights of the those who own the copyright to the work you want to use. This consideration must be made regardless of who owns the video or where you obtained it. Copyright owners have the exclusive right to publicly perform their works and so there may be situations when permission must be obtained before a copyrighted work is publicly performed.

When you're using a film, video, or TV program in a classroom for teaching or educational purposes , such performance or display of the entire work may be allowed without permission under the face to face teaching exemption at 17 U.S.C. §110(1).

When showing a film in an online class , it may be considered fair use depending on how much of the film is being shown and for what purposes . If fair use does not apply, you will need a streaming license or view the film through a licensed streaming film provider.

In most other cases , especially when the film, video, or TV program is being shown as part of an event, you need permission --often in the form of a public performance rights (PPR) license --to perform or show the copyrighted work.

This section of the LibGuide is adopted from work Christine Fruin did while employed by the University of Florida.

Do I Need a Public Performance License?

YES -- you need public performance rights:

If the showing of the video is open to the public, such as a screening at a public event, OR
If the showing is in a public space where access is not restricted, such as a showing of a film for a class but in a venue that is open to anyone to attend, OR
If persons attending are outside the normal circle of family and friends, such as a showing of a film by a club or organization.

NO -- you do not need public performance rights:

If you are privately viewing the film in your home with only family and friends in attendance, OR
If you are an instructor showing the film in class as part of the course curriculum to officially enrolled students in a classroom that is not open to others to attend, OR
If the film is in the public domain

If PPR is required, there are two ways to obtain that permission or license:

2. Contact the licensing service representing the particular studio or title (note - this will generally be required for all feature length films). Services vary in the types of licensing offered and the scope of materials represented.

Finding Free and Legal Streaming Film

There are many sources for streaming video content available that students can access on their own. For instance, subscription services Netflix and Hulu offer thousands of documentaries, mainstream film titles, and television programs on a streaming basis for an affordable monthly fee that most students likely already pay. Additionally, sites like Amazon and iTunes offer inexpensive streaming video rental. Instructors are encouraged to investigate availability of videos through these subscription services that they wish students to view and require students, as part of the class, to have one of these low-cost monthly services or to rent movies on their own time. There are also many online sources for free and legal streaming content:

Frequently Asked Questions about Showing Movies

I own the DVD that the club I am a member of wants to show. Do I still need to get PPR? It doesn't matter where the film you are planning to show comes from -- your own collection, the library's or the corner video rental shop. The analysis is the same. If an exception under copyright law does not apply (e.g. fair use, face to face teaching), then you must obtain PPR prior to showing the film.

What does "Home Use Only" mean? Does it mean I cannot show this DVD to my class? Under copyright law, copyright holders have the exclusive right of performing or displaying their copyrighted works, including films or videos. The "Home Use Only" warning at the beginning of most DVDs refers to this exclusive right of performance and display. However, the law also has an exception for performing or displaying works in a face to face teaching situation where the work being performed or displayed is related to the curriculum and only being performed or displayed for students enrolled in a course at a non-profit educational institution. Therefore, under this exception, DVDs with the "Home Use Only" warning can be played in a face to face classroom. For online courses, refer to fair use for determining how much of the film can be shown.

Instructors who plan to show films as part of their class, particularly when the class is taught online, are encouraged to investigate the availability of films through Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, and other subscription or short term rental streaming services and to require their students to access that content on their own through their own subscription or account.

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Copyright and Fair Use: Examples: Video

Copyright in the Courts
Myths and Legends
Request Copyright Permissions
Public Domain
Examples: Textual Materials
Examples: Video
Examples: Images
Examples: Sound Recording
Classroom Use Exemption
Plagiarism This link opens in a new window
Share Your Work - Creative Commons Licenses This link opens in a new window
Copyright for Reserves
Special Collections and University Archives

Fair Use Factors

When determining whether or a use of copyrighted content is fair, it is important to weigh the following four factors:

The purpose and character of the use
The nature of the copyrighted work
Amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the entire work
Effect of the use upon the potential market value

Fair Use Guidelines for Digitizing Videos

The library will not digitize videos in the collection for online student viewing. If your students need to view a film for educational purposes, then it may be possible to make a fair use argument to digitize the material yourself, so that students may view it through a streaming service.

Make sure that the video content serves a pedagogical purpose; do not use it as entertainment.
Check to see that video cannot already be rented through a commercial vendor such as NetFlix or Amazon Prime. Copies should not be made of material that is commercially available at a reasonable cost. If this is possible, its unlikely fair use applies.
Check to see if the video is available online through YouTube or through a service the library maybe able to license a digital copy. If this is possible, link to the video, which is ordinarily not a violation of copyright.
Check to see if the video you would like to use is out of print. This would favor a fair use argument.
The video you are digitizing must be owned and not licensed/ rented.

If you determine its possible to make a fair use argument, if copying a video,please consider the following to put yourself in the best position to assert a fair use argument.

do not use any more of the video than the amount needed to serve your purpose.
place the video in the context of the course, explaining why it was chosen and what it was intended to illustrate.
limit access to the video to students enrolled in the course. limit access to the video to students enrolled in the course only during the time it is needed during the course. Put it up and take it down according to this timeline.
use streaming (such as Panopto through Blackboard) to limit students' ability to download, copy, or redistribute the material. Students should only be able to stream the video.
notify students that videos are being made available for teaching, study, and research only.
provide attributions to known copyright owners of the videos.

The library has licensed digitized videos that can be found through the library catalog.

Tips for using video in online education

To best position yourself to assert a fair use argument when using video, consider doing the following:

Link to the video if possible rather than making an electronic copy available to students. Linking to materials is ordinarily not a violation of copyright but rather a technological instruction for locating materials.
If copying a video, do not use any more of the video than the amount needed to serve your purpose.
Avoid copying videos from materials created and marketed primarily for use in courses such as the one at hand (e.g. from a textbook, workbook, or other instructional materials designed for the course). Use of more than a brief excerpt from such works on digital networks is unlikely to be transformative and therefore unlikely to be a fair use.
Make sure that the video content serves a pedagogical purpose; do not use as entertainment.
Place the video in the context of the course, explaining why it was chosen and what it was intended to illustrate. Recontextualize the video when appropriate through the addition of background readings, study questions, commentary, criticism, annotation, and student reactions.
Limit access to the video to students enrolled in the course.
Use streaming or other technologies that limit students' ability to download, copy, or redistribute the material.
Notify students that videos are being made available for teaching, study, and research only.
Provide attributions to known copyright owners of the videos.

Resources for using video in online education

Society for Cinema and Media Studies' Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use in Teaching for Film and Media Educators (2008)
Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education
Streaming of Films for Educational Purposes (2010) This issue brief from the Library Copyright Alliance examines the permissibility of the streaming of entire films to a remote, non-classroom location.
Internet Archive's Moving Image Archive Online library of free movies, films, and videos. Contains over a million digital movies uploaded by Archive users. These include classic full-length films, news broadcasts, cultural and academic films, commercials, cartoons, and concerts. These videos are in the public domain or are available with Creative Commons reuse rights.
This link opens in a new window
Library of Congress American Memory American Memory provides free and open access through the Internet to written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music that document the American experience. Most material is not protected by copyright.
IMDB.com List of Films in the Public Domain in the United States List created by IMDB.com user olicool10 of "films that certain cited sources believe are in the public domain in the United States." An addition to the list is available at http://www.imdb.com/list/i7iwnmMTuLQ/ .
Wikimedia Commons Wikimedia Commons is a database of millions of freely usable media files. Some files are in the public domain, while others are licensed with Creative Commons licenses.
USA.gov YouTube channel The official YouTube channel of the U.S. Government, linking to videos across government. Most content produced by the government falls in the public domain.
YouTube After performing a search for video content, you can "filter" by Creative Commons license to find content with reuse rights.
The Open Video Project The purpose of the Open Video Project is to collect and make available a repository of digitized video content for the digital video, multimedia retrieval, digital library, and other research communities. "The Open Video repository provides video clips from a variety of sources, especially various video programs obtained from U.S. government agencies such as the U.S. Records and Archives Administration and NASA. Although the government agency videos were produced with public funds and are freely available from the Archives, no copyright clearance has been obtained for audio or video elements in these productions. We encourage researchers to use the data under fair use for research purposes."

These examples are intended to model the thought processes instructors should engage in when determining whether an intended use is fair given the particular facts at hand. A final determination of fair use can only be made in a court of law. These pages were created to provide basic copyright information and are not a substitute for legal advice.

Video example #1

Professor Wang is teaching an online Introduction to Film Studies course. Her face-to-face version of the class meets Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays for 50 minutes, with three-hour film screening sessions on Tuesday evenings. Students in the class learn about formal analysis, genre studies, film history, and theory. Through class lectures and readings, watching films, and several short papers, students gain the basic critical tools necessary for understanding and analyzing the language of motion pictures. The films studied in the course are: Casablanca (1942, Michael Curtiz), Touch of Evil (1958, Orson Welles), Breathless (1960, Jean-Luc Godard), The Virgin Suicides (1999, Sofia Coppola), The Bicycle Thieves (1948, Vittorio De Sica), and Walk Hard (2007, Jake Kasdan).

The online course is being offered over the summer. Many students are working full time or have moved home, therefore they are not able to go to the Media Resources Center in the university library to watch the films there. So that students can view the assigned movies, Professor Wang asks the library to upload their DVD copies of the films to the university's streaming server. The streamed films will be available to students through Brightspace for the duration of the summer semester only. Only students registered for the course will be able to access the films, and students will not be able to download or copy the films. Is this fair use?

1. Did the use "transform" the material taken from the copyrighted work by using it for a broadly beneficial purpose different from that of the original, or did it just repeat the work for the same intent and value as the original?

Yes, Professor Wang's use is transformative, since she is using films originally produced for entertainment purposes to educate students about film history and theory. The professor and the students are subjecting the films to critical commentary and detailed analysis in a noncommercial educational context.

2. Was the material taken appropriate in kind and amount, considering the nature of the copyrighted work and of the use?

These films are creative works, and they were used in their entirety, which would tend to weigh against fair use. However, given that the use is transformative and takes place for educational purposes, the use is more likely to be fair. Students are not normally expected to purchase copies of films as course materials; rather they rely on the copy acquired by the university library. In this way, Professor Wang's streaming of the films did not cause market harm to the copyright owners.

Fair use: Yes.

Note: The transformative and educational nature of Professor Wang's use of the films and the facts that access was limited to students enrolled in her class and that students could not copy or download the films support a fair use argument. This does not mean, however, that the copying of video content to university servers in order to stream it to students will not be challenged by rightsholders. In fact, the Association for Information Media recently sued the University of California Los Angeles for copyright infringement for doing exactly this. The case was dismissed on procedural grounds , so no decision was rendered on the legality of streaming.

UCLA faculty produced a strong statement of principles on the use of streaming videos and other educational content, asserting that "streaming video is an essential type of content for instruction" that "must be available in the virtual classroom," and that "streaming technologies serve the purpose of time-shifting for students and faculty alike." They believe that "if it would be lawful for a teacher to show a particular piece of multimedia to students enrolled in a class that meets in a physical classroom, it should be fair use to permit the viewing or hearing of that multimedia, through time-shifting technologies, in a virtual classroom that restricts access to those same enrolled students."

In the 1984 case Sony Corp. v. Universal City Studios, Inc. , the Supreme Court held that time shifting was fair use in connection to the noncommercial home recording of television shows for delayed viewing because it did not deprive the copyright owners of revenue.

An Issue Brief from the Library Copyright Alliance on the streaming of films for educational purposes suggests that "courts are likely to treat as fair use many instances of streaming video to students logged in to class sites." The brief's authors write, "Courts likely would treat educational uses of entertainment products, such as uploading a feature film to a course website so that students could stream it for purposes of analysis, as repurposing" [i.e. as transformative use]. The brief goes on to suggest that "educators could buttress their fair use claim by recontextualizing works on course websites through selection and arrangement and the addition of background readings, study questions, commentary, criticism, annotation, and student reactions."

Video example #2

Professor Soleway is teaching an online course on the depiction of divorce in popular culture. His course notes are posted online in Brightspace along with background readings and other course content. For a segment on divorce in popular film, Professor Soleway digitizes short clips from each of three movies: Divorce American Style (1967, Bud Yorkin), Kramer vs. Kramer (1979, Robert Benton), and The Squid and the Whale (2005, Noah Baumbach). He uploads the clips to the university's streaming server and embeds them in his course notes in Brightspace.

Professor Soleway's course notes set the context for each clip by prefacing it with an explanation of what he wants students to watch for. After each clip, he elaborates on what he thinks it illustrates about the popular representation of divorce. After viewing the clips, students are given a list of questions that require them to critically reflect on the content of the clips. Students post their responses in the discussion section of the course site. Is this fair use?

Yes, Professor Soleway's use is transformative, since he is using films originally produced for entertainment purposes to examine cultural representations of divorce. The fact that he surrounds each film clip with commentary that places the clip in the context of his broader argument and that students are required to critically analyze the clips' contents strengthens the transformative nature of his use, as does the fact that his use takes place in a noncommercial educational context.

These films are creative works, but limited portions of each were used, just enough to convey how the film treated the topic of divorce. Given that limited portions of each film were used, that Professor Soleway's use is transformative, and that the use took place in a noncommercial educational setting, the use is likely to be fair.

Video example #3

Professor Mercer is preparing to teach a face-to-face nursing class. She plans to use Brightspace to post the course syllabus and grades and to allow students to hand in assignments. As she's working on her syllabus, she receives in the mail an examination copy of Mosby's Nursing Video Skills - Student Version DVD , 4th Edition (Elsevier, 2013). She reads the description on the back of the DVD: "With high-definition videos demonstrating how to perform nursing procedures, Mosby's Nursing Video Skills provides up-to-date, step-by-step instructions for the most important nursing skills. Printable procedure checklists and interactive screens of required equipment make it easier to learn and remember skills, and new animations show what’s happening inside the patient’s body. For each skill, NCLEX exam-style review questions help you assess your knowledge." Noting that five of the procedures she will be covering in class are included on the DVD, she asks the library to copy these segments and upload them to the university's streaming server so that she can embed them in Brightspace for students to view. Since there are a total of 130 procedures on the DVD, she's using less than 5% of the content. Is this fair use?

No, Professor Mercer's intended use is not transformative. The original purpose of the DVD is to instruct nursing students in how to perform certain skills, and Professor Mercer wants to use the video for the same purpose.

This video is a work of nonfiction, which favors fair use. However, the DVD is marketed for nursing students. It is likely that Professor Mercer's intended use of the video (and other uses like hers, were they to occur) would damage the market for the DVD, since students would rely on the streaming content instead of purchasing their own copies of the DVD. Thus the amount she wants to use, though a small part of the total, is not appropriate.

Fair use: No.

Note: According to the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Academic and Research Libraries , "Closer scrutiny should be applied to uses of content created and marketed primarily for use in courses such as the one at issue (e.g., a textbook, workbook, or anthology designed for the course). Use of more than a brief excerpt from such works on digital networks is unlikely to be transformative and therefore unlikely to be a fair use." The fair use argument is helped, however, by the fact that the videos were placed in Brightspace and limited to students enrolled in the course.

As explained in the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for OpenCourseWare , "'Bright line' tests and 'rules of thumb' are not appropriate to fair use analysis, which requires case by-case determinations made through reasoning about how and why a new use recontextualizes existing material." Thus, while amount used is an important factor in whether any use is fair, fair use cannot be decided by relying on the specific percentage of a work used or similar guidelines.

Video example #4

Professor Gutierrez is teaching an online women's studies course. Week three covers the depiction of women in advertising. Professor Gutierrez plans to assign students two articles and one book chapter as required reading and to have them watch the documentary Killing Us Softly 4: Advertising's Image of Women (2010, Jean Kilbourne). Students will be required to answer questions and share their reactions about the readings and the film through the discussion section of the course website on Brightspace. Professor Gutierrez will then facilitate a real-time class discussion through Brightspace's web meeting function.

Since the class is fully online, Professor Gutierrez hopes to load the documentary film on the university's streaming media server. She speaks with the Media Resources librarian, who confirms that the university library has purchased the DVD at the college and university rate of $295. The librarian does some more investigation and learns that the distributor of the film, the Media Education Foundation , offers a 1-year streaming subscription to the video for $150 and a 3-year streaming option for $295. Their streaming videos can easily be embedded in learning management systems like Moodle, Blackboard, and Brightspace. But since the library has already purchased a copy of the film, the librarian proceeds to upload it to the university's streaming server for Professor Gutierrez . Is this fair use?

No, Professor Gutierrez's intended use is not transformative. She is using the documentary for the same purpose as it was intended: to educate students about the depiction of women in advertising. Indeed, she is using the film to convey the content of the course to the students instead of, for example, compiling her own examples of women in advertisements and incorporating them into lecture notes that she herself wrote.

This video is a work of nonfiction, which favors fair use. However, the DVD is marketed as an educational tool, thus its use for in an educational context is not transformative.

An argument for fair use could nonetheless be made on two grounds:

Because the DVD is marketed to institutions, not individual students, to stream the university's lawfully-purchased copy to students causes no market harm to the rightsholder through the loss of DVD sales and is therefore an educational fair use.
UCLA faculty have argued that "streaming technologies serve the purpose of time-shifting for students and faculty alike." In the 1984 case Sony Corp. v. Universal City Studios, Inc. , the Supreme Court held that time shifting was fair use in connection to the noncommercial home recording of television shows for delayed viewing because it did not deprive the copyright owners of revenue. (See video example #1 above.)

The fact that the Media Education Foundation offers a streaming option, though, would weaken this argument for fair use since they could show market harm through the loss of streaming revenue.

Fair use: Probably not.

Video example #5

Professor Peterson is teaching an online English seminar that examines discourses surrounding anti-drug messaging. In the course, he and his students will critically evaluate public service announcements, anti-drug campaign material from government agencies and non-profit advocacy groups such as the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, and selected articles from newspapers and popular magazines warning of the dangers of drug use. He plans to begin the course by examining one of the earliest pieces of anti-drug propaganda, the 1936 anti-marijuana film Reefer Madness . Fortunately, the university library owns a copy of this cult-classic. Professor Peterson asks the media librarian to upload the video to the university's streaming media server so that the students in his online class can access it. Is this fair use?

A fair use analysis is probably not necessary. Reefer Madness is listed on a number of websites as being in the public domain. If this is the case, Professor Peterson is free to use it without restriction.

Note: Determining whether a work is in the public domain can be difficult and time-consuming. For more information, see the " Use resources in the public domain " box on this guide.

Professor Peterson need not bother to ask the library to upload its copy to the streaming server. The film is freely available online in multiple locations, including the Internet Archive , Amazon.com , and YouTube .

Attribution

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. It is adapted from University of RHode Island University Libraries- Fair Use and Copyright for Online Education .

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Last Updated: Aug 23, 2023 11:28 PM
URL: https://researchguides.uic.edu/copyright

The Educator’s Guide to Copyright, Fair Use, and Creative Commons

Author By Kathleen Morris
Last modification date Updated On August 24, 2021
152 Comments on The Educator’s Guide to Copyright, Fair Use, and Creative Commons

It has never been easier to publish online or consume digital content. This comes with many advantages and can make teaching and learning so much more targeted and impactful. Living in a digital world also brings up many questions — one issue that is very important to understand is copyright. Whether you’re an educator, student, or blogger, copyright is a topic that is often overlooked as it can be confusing or just not considered important.

Unfortunately, there are also a lot of myths about copyright circulating amongst the education community. Maybe you’ve heard that you can use any images or texts you find online if you’re using them for education? Or perhaps you’ve heard that you can use any songs in your videos as long as you use less than 30 seconds? Yep, both not true.

Copyright is important for all teachers, students, and bloggers to know about. And it doesn’t have to be as complicated as you think. We’re here to break down the basics of copyright and other related topics like fair use, public domain, and Creative Commons.

There’s a lot to learn in this post so remember to bookmark it and use the menu below to navigate.

Copyright Rules To Remember

What Is Copyright?

What Is Fair Use

What Is Public Domain?

What Is Creative Commons

Finding Creative Commons Images

Copyright And Music

Copyright Infringement

Copyright Considerations When Publishing Online

Using Quotes In Blog Posts

Adding Your Own Creative License

Conclusion And Summary Slideshow

Let’s get started with the basics.

Let’s begin with the 5 main rules you need to remember about copyright.

1) Just because you found it online, doesn’t mean it’s free to use (even if you’re a teacher or student).

2) There are a lot of resources you can use freely including work that has a Creative Commons license or is in the public domain.

3) You have a right as a creator to have your work protected from copying and you can also give your own content a Creative Commons license.

4) If in doubt about using content, ask the creator for permission, find a free alternative, make your own material, or purchase an alternative that has the usage rights you’re after.

5) Instead of looking for loopholes, consider whether you’re being the most responsible and ethical digital citizen you can be.

📌 Want a poster for your classroom or staffroom? Download a letter-sized poster of the 5 rules to remember here.

Copyright is a form of legal protection offered to creators by default. That means, in many countries (like the USA and Australia), you don’t have to register your work to have it protected by copyright.

Some creators do register their work with the U.S. Copyright Office (or the equivalent in their own country). Usually, this is to provide strong evidence to a court that the creator is the copyright holder if there is ever an infringement case. You don’t need to have registered your work with the Copyright Office in order to pursue a copyright infringement case.

It’s a myth that you have to display a copyright symbol © to protect your work.

Can Others Use Your Copyrighted Work?

If you’re a copyright owner, someone else can’t copy your work without your permission. They also can’t perform the work, distribute copies of the work, display the work publicly, or create derivatives.

If someone does use work that’s protected by copyright without permission, that’s called copyright infringement. We’ll cover this later.

Who Owns The Copyright?

Usually, the creator of a work is the copyright owner but the copyright can also be sold, traded, or inherited.

What Does Copyright Cover?

Copyright covers both published and unpublished works that are tangible in format. So, all tangible original work is protected by copyright whether it’s a blog post, music, artwork, photo, play, poem, novel, dance choreography, movie, software, architecture, or more.

Copyright does not protect works that are not tangible, like facts or ideas. Copyright only protects the tangible expression of your ideas. So you might have a great idea for a blog post about teaching 5th grade math but unless you actually write the post, you can’t protect the idea that’s floating around in your head. And you can’t stop others from writing about the same idea.

You can read more about the basics of copyright on the U.S. Copyright Office website (or on your own country’s official site). There are some variations between countries.

What Is Fair Use?

So now you understand that most of the work you’re accessing online or in books is going to be protected by copyright (images, text, videos, music, and more). This means you can’t necessarily use these materials freely on your class blog, website, or with your students in your classroom.

“But fair use applies here doesn’t it”, I hear you ask? Because you’re using images, text, videos, or music for educational purposes, that’s okay, right? Teachers and students don’t have to worry?

Not necessarily.

The more you dig in to the topic of fair use, the more you come to realize it is a gray area.

As the U.S. Copyright Office explains, The Classroom Use Exemption 17 U.S.C. §110(1) allows you to use copyrighted material when you meet certain criteria.

For “fair use” to apply, the copyrighted material must be used:

for performances or displays (e.g. acting a play, reading poetry, watching a movie, listening to music)
as part of face-to-face teaching activities
in a nonprofit educational institution
in a classroom or similar place devoted to instruction
using a lawful copy of the works (e.g. a movie you purchased legitimately)

If you’re teaching online or wanting to hand out copies of work, then you may not be covered by this exemption. Furthermore, these fair use laws are specific to the U.S. so if you’re in another country, you may not be covered. Some countries don’t have a fair use law or they may be more specific or broad than the U.S.

For example, in Australia, there is “ Fair Dealing ” which is an exception to copyright infringement that’s a little more specific than in the U.S. You may be able to use portions of copyright material without permission for the purpose of:

research or study
criticism or review
parody or satire
reporting news, or
enabling a person with a disability to access the material

Overall, fair use isn’t as simple as it seems, right? Instead of trying to find loopholes with fair use, a better approach is to look for materials that you can use freely.

The best place to start is with public domain or Creative Commons materials. So let’s dig into that.

What Is The Public Domain?

In general, in the U.S. , copyright lasts for the life of the author plus seventy years after the author’s death.

What happens to work after the copyright expires? Well, it becomes part of the public domain. Works can also enter the public domain if they are factual (e.g. charts or calendars), they are published before a certain date, or a creator has assigned their work to the public domain.

When something is in the public domain it means the work is owned by the public and you don’t have to get permission to use it. This is great for educators looking for materials they can freely use with their students.

Example Public Domain Resources

There are many places online where you can find books, images, audio, and videos that are in the public domain.

Some popular choices for public domain materials include:

Project Gutenberg : 60,000+ eBooks that can be downloaded (most are older works with expired copyright).
Faded Page : 5,000+ eBooks that are in the public domain in Canada.
Metropolitan Museum of Art : includes more than 400,000 images from The Met collection.
Smithsonian Institution Public Domain Images : a collection of 3,000+ images housed on Flickr.
Librivox : public domain audiobooks that are read by volunteers from around the world.
Prelinger Archives : thousands of public domain films (advertising, educational, industrial, and amateur).

What Is Creative Commons?

Sometimes creators (copyright holders) are happy for others to use their work, as long as they meet certain conditions.

A creator can place a Creative Commons license on their work which describes the terms of using, modifying, and sharing the works. A simple license removes the hassle of others having to ask the creator for permission.

Creative Commons is an international organization that made this system possible. The mission of the Creative Commons organization is clear,

By helping people and organizations share knowledge and creativity, we aim to build a more equitable, accessible, and innovative world.

If a creator decides to attach a Creative Commons license to their work, there are six Creative Commons licenses to choose from.

I have written a post on my own blog about copyright and Creative Commons that includes a poster to simplify the licenses.

The poster includes a Creative Commons license so you’re welcome to use the poster in your classroom or share it with your colleagues (a poster about Creative Commons licenses that includes a Creative Commons license — meta, right?). There is a PDF version of the poster on my blog.

👉🏽 If you’d like to learn more about Creative Commons licenses, the video below by McLaughlin Library is a good place to start. You can learn more about Creative Commons Licenses on the official website of the organization as well.

If you need images for your blog, website, videos, or other projects, Creative Commons images are a good choice. As long as you’re using the image according to the license with attribution, you won’t be infringing copyright.

If you’re looking for images that have a Creative Commons license, there are an increasing number of options out there. We’ll show you some of the more popular options, but first, it’s important to understand attribution.

All Creative Commons resources require attribution unless they’re licensed with the least restrictive Creative Commons Zero license. That means no attribution is required and you can use the resource however you like.

Let’s take a look at how to attribute Creative Commons images. The same instructions apply to other works (text, videos, etc.).

How To Attribute Creative Commons Images

When you use a resource with a Creative Commons license, you have to attribute it in a particular way. Attributing means sharing the details of the work and giving credit.

The acronym TASL can help us remember what to include.

T itle of the image or material (don’t worry if there is no title)
A uthor or creator of the image/material
S ource of the image/material. Where is it from? Include a link if possible so others can find it
L icense — include which of the six Creative Commons licenses applies to the work

Here’s a photo I found on Wikimedia Commons of a bridge in Western Australia. You can see I included the attribution below the image.

If you use images from Wikimedia Commons , getting the attribution information is easy. As you go to download the image, you’re prompted to copy the attribution information.

Screenshot showing attribution information

You can copy the attribution information either in plain text format (as in caption above), or as HTML as shown below.

If you insert HTML into your blog post, it’ll become hyperlinked. Learn more about inserting custom HTML in Edublogs/CampusPress/WordPress block editor here.

👉🏽 If you’d like to learn more about attribution and explore some examples of ideal, acceptable, and unacceptable attributions, check out this page on the Creative Commons wiki . There’s also a handy PDF about attribution on the Australian Creative Commons website.

Now you know the basics of attribution. Let’s take a look at where you can find images and music that have a Creative Commons license. We’ll begin with images that don’t require attribution.

Creative Commons Zero Images

(No Attribution Required)

There are a number of websites where you can find images that are free to use without attribution (Creative Commons Zero).

I’ve written a post on my blog about the best websites to find Creative Commons images that either don’t require attribution or the attribution is included within the image like the example below from Photos For Class :

The sites reviewed in my post and the summary diagram below are:

Photos for Class*
Openclipart
Pics4Learning

* Photos For Class currently has fewer options than it used to. The team has told us they aim to improve this in mid-2020. 🤞🏽

Here’s a summary poster that you’re free to use in your own teaching.

The one issue that a lot of educators overlook is that a lot of these free image sites are age-restricted. So if you teach younger students, many sites are not going to be suitable.

Another thing to consider is that even though the images from these sites don’t need to be attributed (or they include the attribution information within the image) it’s still a good idea to teach students about copyright, Creative Commons, and attribution. As producers and consumers on the web, these are really vital understandings for students and all internet users. Just remember, even if attribution isn’t required, it’s always appreciated by the creator.

Creative Commons Images That Require Attribution

Apart from the sites listed above with images that don’t require attribution, there are other places to find images with one of the six Creative Commons licenses that do require attribution.

Creative Commons Search Engine

The first place you might want to look is the search engine on the official Creative Commons website. This is an excellent tool that was updated in 2019. It allows you to search through millions of CC images from more than 20 different sites.

When using the search engine, you can easily filter the search results — for example, you can filter by file type, use, or license.

There’s also a Creative Commons search browser extension that allows you to look for Creative Commons images on the go.

Wikimedia Commons

We already mentioned Wikimedia Commons above in the section about attribution. Wikimedia Commons has a large collection of images, audio, and videos that are free to use. Most require attribution.

Wikimedia Commons collections are included in the Creative Commons search engine so that tool really is a one-stop shop.

Search For Creative Commons Images On Google

Sadly, it is common practice for many teachers, students, and bloggers to take images straight from Google. Most images on Google are protected by copyright and using these images is illegal and unethical.

You may know that you can do an advanced search on Google to find Creative Commons images, although it does require a few steps. First, you need to filter your search results to find images that can be reused.

This video from Jurupa School District explains how to do that.

Then the next step, that is not shown in the video, is you have to click through to the site the image is from, look for the Creative Commons license, and attribute your image correctly.

As we saw above, using the Creative Commons search engine or Wikimedia Commons makes it really simple to attribute your chosen image. All you really have to do is copy/paste. Using Google search doesn’t make it easy to attribute Creative Commons images. So this is not the way we’d recommend finding Creative Commons images online.

No doubt there have been many times when you want to use music on your blog, in your content, or in class. When you’re creating a video it can be extremely tempting to use popular music that reflects the mood and emotion of the footage. Or maybe you want students to play popular music at a performance or public event.

As you probably know, most music is protected by copyright. It doesn’t matter if you paid for a song or not, it’s still protected by copyright. It doesn’t matter if you’re only using 30 seconds or less of a song, it’s still protected by copyright.

Let’s take a look at some specific examples of music and copyright.

Using Music In Projects Like Videos

Normally, you can’t just use any music you like in your projects or videos.

However, in many countries, there are exceptions. For example, in the U.S. and Australia , you are allowed to copy music to add to a video if:

a) it’s for educational purposes and b) you’re not sharing your video publicly (or selling it!)

So, if you make a video with music that’s protected by copyright, it’s not okay to publish this on a public blog, social media, YouTube, and so on. And you couldn’t show your video at a public event. However, it’s okay if the video is just being shown privately to teachers, students, and families at home/school.

It’s also important to note that background music is not considered “educational use”.

Summary graphic -- can I use a copyrighted song in my video

Paying For Music And Streaming

There are popular sites and apps where you can pay to download or stream music legally — for example, Apple Music, Google Play Music, and Spotify.

You can listen to your downloaded music yourself, but can’t upload the music to your blog or to a video or other project you’re working on.

It’s fine to stream music videos on sites like YouTube too but it’s not usually legal to download the audio from a YouTube video as explained in this article.

Also, streaming music is meant for personal use — not for a public broadcast.

As Spotify says,

…it’s not possible to use Spotify in public places (such as bars, restaurants, stores, schools, etc.). You may only make personal, non-commercial, entertainment use of the content.

Most streaming services are similar.

Embedding Music Videos

Embedding a music video from a site like YouTube or Vimeo into your blog is usually allowed.

As Richard Byrne says,

If the host provides an embed and you embed it using their code according to their rules (usually that means not trying to hide branding), you can embed it without violating copyright.

You can also link to music files or videos that are publicly available on the web.

Using Purchased CDs

Some people still listen to music by buying a CD or borrowing one from the library, although, of course, digital music is becoming a lot more popular than CDs in many parts of the world.

Again, you can’t copy the music from a CD and use it for another public project (e.g. upload it to your blog or add it to a public video). It doesn’t matter if you have purchased the CD legitimately.

👉🏽 If you’d like to learn more about using music in education for other purposes including school concerts and online learning, check out this fact sheet from the National Association of Music Education.

Creative Commons Or Copyright Free Music

Even though most music out there is protected by copyright, there are many places online to find Creative Commons or other copyright free music options.

You might first like to check if your district has any subscriptions you can make the most of. For example, Soundzabound .

If this isn’t an option, there are lots of other sources of free music online.

Three options for free music and audio are:

Dig CC Mixter

Youtube audio library, bbc sound effects.

Let’s take a look at how these three sites work.

Dig CC Mixter offers thousands of hours of free music.

The music on this site has different Creative Commons licenses so you need to check whether you need to attribute the music or not.

Educational Blogger Richard Byrne explains in a video how to use Dig CC Mixter and filter by license.

YouTube has a great library of music you can use. Visit the Audio Library on YouTube to browse the selections.

If you click on Attribution, you can filter your results to find music that does or doesn’t require attribution.

You can preview the music to see what it sounds like and download the music you want to use.

Here’s an example called Sunshine in my Heart by Jingle Punks.

During 2018, the BBC made over 16,000 sound effects available to use. These sound effects are not actually Creative Commons — they’re protected by copyright but the BBC gives permission for the sound effects be used for personal, educational, or research purposes.

You can browse by category to find the sort of sound effect you’re after for your project.

You should put a link in your project or blog post to say that your sound effects are from the BBC and link to their site.

Here is an example of a sound clip. This is the sound of the surf at Bondi Beach, Sydney, Australia.

Copyright And Videos

Where would we be without all the awesome video content we now have at our fingertips on the web? In the education world, extensive video libraries like YouTube are becoming priceless.

Video copyright can be complicated as video can draw together multiple elements — video footage, images, music, sound effects, and so on. When using, sharing, or creating video, you need to make sure all of these elements are not protected by copyright.

Can You Link Or Embed Videos?

You are free to embed any video from sites like YouTube , Vimeo , TeacherTube , TedED etc. on your blog or website as long as it gives you the embed option. It’s a good idea to add a link to the video as well.

Linking or embedding from YouTube or other sites on the web is not considered copying. Just make sure the videos aren’t violating copyright. If they are, they’ll probably be taken down by the site eventually but some content gets through.

Can You Download Videos From Sites Like YouTube?

While linking and embedding videos is okay, you shouldn’t download videos from YouTube. Sometimes this is tempting for teachers especially if they have unreliable internet connectivity, they’re worried about a video being removed in future, or they want to add a video to a learning management system. However, downloading videos raises many legal questions and generally violates copyright.

Additionally, you can’t necessarily use parts of videos from YouTube (or other sources) to make mashups or remixes. If you want to cut or remix videos, it is better to use Creative Commons content, public domain content, or request permission from the copyright holder.

Uploading Your Own Videos To YouTube

If you want to upload your videos to a site like YouTube remember to respect copyright. You should only upload videos that you made or that you have permission to upload. Make sure there aren’t copyrighted elements (e.g. music or images) in your videos. Of course, get permission from your school or district if these videos are being used professionally.

Educators should be especially careful about permission if using footage of students. Some teachers use the blurring tools available in YouTube to blur student faces and identifying objects. Richard Byrne shares a demonstration of how to do this on his website.

👉🏽 If you’re a creator and would like to learn more about videos and copyright, YouTube has a useful playlist of eight videos on their YouTube Creators channel.

Showing Videos To Students

Teachers can show videos in class for educational reasons, such as videos legally uploaded to YouTube (however, some districts don’t allow YouTube to be used in schools).

If you have a legitimate copy of an offline video (e.g. DVD), you’re allowed to use this in class for face-to-face teaching as long as it’s for educational purposes (not for entertainment or a reward).

Remember, this would be in line with the U.S. fair use policies we described above, so check your own country’s guidelines if in doubt. If you’re in Australia, a useful website for all things copyright is https://www.smartcopying.edu.au

Copyright And Text Or Curriculum Materials

Say you’ve purchased a textbook or other teaching materials. You can obviously use these materials in class and you might be able to make photocopies, however, in most cases you can’t upload purchased curriculum or books to a public site. That means don’t put scans, photos, or PDFs of textbooks, worksheets, posters, picture books, novels, or other learning materials on your public blog or website.

If in doubt, seek guidance from the company you purchased the curriculum materials from about reuse.

Marketplaces Like Teachers Pay Teachers

Not so long ago, we were all purchasing our curriculum materials from professional organizations. Now anyone can be a creator and with the rise of sites like Teachers Pay Teachers, new copyright questions have arisen. As Education Week has pointed out, copyright infringement is rife on this popular marketplace.

What does this mean for you? Well, if you’re uploading to a site like Teachers Pay Teachers you need to make sure you have permission to use all your elements including fonts and images.

If you’re downloading resources from Teachers Pay Teachers, you need to seek clarification about how these can be used. And also keep an eye out for resources that look like they could be violating copyright before you use them (e.g. copies of a published textbook). There is limited vetting of copyright materials on Teachers Pay Teachers. As a savvy internet user, we all need to have an awareness of the larger copyright traps that are out there.

Link To Curriculum Resources

Linking may be a useful alternative to copying curriculum materials. If third-party text, articles, or other content is available on the web, teachers or students could include a link to the content on their blog or website.

Like embedding, linking is not a copyright activity because you’re not “copying” the content. You’re just providing a path to the original location that the readers can access themselves.

Creative Commons Textbooks And Curriculum

Another option to avoid copyright violations is to use curriculum materials that have Creative Commons licenses. One example is OpenStax . You can browse to find textbooks for a range of topics and the materials are free to use however you see fit.

You’ll find some more open textbooks and course materials listed on this Open Washington page.

We know that most images, text, music, and other content are protected by copyright by default. Using work protected by copyright without permission is called copyright infringement. This is unethical and illegal. “Using” the work might involve reproducing, displaying, distributing, performing, or making your own derivatives.

But I Won’t Be Caught…

If only that were true.

Google makes it incredibly easy for companies and content creators to seek out those posting their work on the web. In fact, most large companies now aggressively patrol the internet looking for copyright infringement.

Sadly, we are also noticing more and more “law firms” and organizations out there looking for copyrighted content as a way of generating business. They then contact the copyright holder offering their services to get the content removed (for a fee of course). It is a ruthless (and apparently profitable) practice.

Another issue that is important to be aware of involves Creative Commons Zero sites. There have been cases where people have used images from free image sites like Unsplash and then were hit with a copyright infringement case. Sometimes people put images up on these sites in order to sue. They leave the images up on the site until they are downloaded multiple times and then remove them. This is a dark side of Creative Commons Zero that’s important to be aware of.

What If I Am Caught?

In many countries, copyright infringement brings hefty penalties including fines of hundreds of thousands of dollars and imprisonment, depending on the situation.

Of course, a good offense is your best defense. Check your blogs and class websites for any potentially offending material. Has anyone uploaded images straight from other websites or Google? Are there are educational materials (e.g. copies of textbooks) that shouldn’t be there? Has copyrighted music been used publicly? If you find anything, just remove it.

The law requires copyright holders to give you (and the host of your site, such as Edublogs, WordPress, etc.) an official notification. Take these seriously and act quickly to remove what they want if you are in the wrong. That should be the end of it.

Here at Edublogs and CampusPress, we’re contacted about copyrighted materials regularly. These are mostly images from Google, curriculum documents, or PDFs (e.g. textbooks or sheet music), or music files.

We were once notified about a teacher with a blog on Edublogs that had a harmless world map image on his blog that he had presumably found using Google image search. When we contacted him telling him why we had removed the image, he asked if he and his students could write an apology letter to the copyright holder.

It was excellent – turning what could be a bit of an embarrassing mistake into a teachable moment for his students. Now this teacher had a good reason to discuss copyright and Creative Commons with his students.

Even if you haven’t done anything wrong, having a space to publish online like a blog or website is one of the best ways students can learn about copyright and Creative Commons.

Whether you’re a teacher, a student, or a regular blogger, when you’re publishing online you must do your best to be a responsible digital citizen. This means respecting others’ work and respecting copyright.

Here are three key things to remember when publishing online to be a legal and ethical digital citizen:

1) Steer Clear Of Google Images

Don’t copy images off Google or other websites. Even if you include an attribution it is still illegal and unethical.

If you like an image and don’t know where it originally came from, a reverse search might help.

If an image is created by someone that you can contact, you could always ask their permission to use it.

Remember the best bet is to find Creative Commons or public domain images. Otherwise, take/make your own images or purchase some from a stock photography website.

2) Embed Or Link To Audio Or Video Clips

If you’re going to include a video or an audio clip, embed the file from the source and include a link as well. Don’t download audio or video files as this brings up many questions about copyright.

If you’re embedding from a site like YouTube, make sure the content doesn’t violate copyright law. YouTube is usually pretty good at cracking down on this but there is some content on there that does violate copyright — e.g. copies of television shows.

3) Never Copy Someone Else’s Blog Post

You might find this a little hard to believe but unfortunately people copy posts from other blogs and publish them on their own site all the time. Or they publish the blog post in another format such as a PDF document or slideshow.

And in case you’re wondering, copying someone’s blog post and then including an attribution does not make this okay.

If you do want to share someone else’s blog post on your own blog, consider writing a short description of the post on your blog and then inviting readers to click on a link to read the post themselves. In your own post, you could include some key points about what you agreed or disagreed with. Or maybe you can expand on the topic in a different direction. All this would be perfectly acceptable and no doubt the author would appreciate the interaction.

Hopefully you now know that you definitely can’t copy and paste someone else’s whole blog post or image, but you can include a quote of some text.

Here are a few points to be aware of that we included in our post on The Edublogger about quotes :

Make it obvious which words are your own, and which words belong to someone else by using quotation marks or block quotes.
Make your quotes brief. There are no universal rules here. Some larger organizations have guidelines around how much you can quote (e.g. Hubspot’s rules are 75 words). If you’re unsure or think you might be using too much of someone’s article, contact them to ask permission. Never copy the whole post.
Always include the person’s name, and link to their site, article, or book if you can.
If you’re using blockquotes, the attribution could be before the quote, inside it, or below it.
If you shorten a quote, use an ellipsis (…) in place of the missing words.
If you’re adding any words or corrections to the quote, use brackets.

Adding Your Own Creative Commons License To Your Work

Earlier, we looked at the six types of Creative Commons licenses available to creators. If you’re publishing online, you’re a creator too! And you don’t have to be a professional. Maybe you share memes or lesson resources on social media? Perhaps you write blog posts? Maybe you take your own photographs that you share online?

Have you ever considered adding a Creative Commons license to your own original work?

As the Creative Commons organization explains,

When you apply a CC license, you give permission to anyone to use your material for the full duration of applicable copyright and similar rights.

This is therefore a serious decision but an important one. You can contribute to building a collection of art and knowledge that’s accessible to anyone in the world. How cool is that! You remain in control by choosing your own license, and people who like your work can use or share it without having to contact you for permission.

Before you choose a Creative Commons license, you need to make sure you are the copyright owner and the work is copyrightable (e.g. in a tangible format).

If you’re unsure which license to choose for your own work, there is an interactive tool on the Creative Commons website . This tool suggests a license after you answer a few questions. It also gives you a CC button that you can attach to your work to display your license.

If you would like to display your creative commons license on your blog, the easiest way is to use a text widget in your sidebar.

From your dashboard, go to Appearance > Widgets and select a Text widget to add to your sidebar. Paste the code provided by your Creative Commons license provider in the widget’s text box, and click “Save”.

Adults aren’t the only ones who can add Creative Commons licenses to their work. In many countries, children can too. What an authentic way for students to learn about copyright and sharing online.

Perhaps a whole class or school could make a library of Creative Commons content (e.g. images or music) that can be used freely by the education community? Talk about authentic learning!

If you’ve made it this far into the guide you will have realized that copyright is a vast and complex topic, however, you don’t need to be an expert to understand the basics.

We’ve made a collection of slides which you’re welcome to use in your own classroom or perhaps you’d like to use them as part of your professional development program. Want to make a copy? Scroll down for instructions (don’t request access).

Want a copy of the Google Slides presentation? Don’t request access, just follow the steps below.

1) Click on this link: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1jK-_bTIBa9CZAC-bqKd0PQc7ohG9L47KSdcvfHgIxqw/copy?usp=sharing

2) You will be prompted to make a copy (screenshot below).

3) The Slides will be saved in your Google Drive.

4) You can edit the Google Slides to suit.

Before we conclude, take a moment to reflect back on the rules to remember about copyright.

Just because you found it online, doesn’t mean it’s free to use (even if you’re a teacher or student).
There are a lot of resources you can use freely including work that has a Creative Commons license or is in the public domain.
You have a right as a creator to have your work protected from copying and you can also give your own content a Creative Commons license.
If in doubt about using content, ask the creator for permission, find a free alternative, purchase an alternative, or make your own material.
Instead of looking for loopholes, consider whether you’re being the most responsible and ethical digital citizen you can be.

Do you have any other tips to add about copyright for educators, students, or bloggers? Be sure to leave a comment and let us know. We’d love to hear your suggestions.

For any specific questions regarding your own copyright dilemmas, please consult professional legal advice.

Edublogs is the oldest and most trusted web publishing platform for students and teachers around the globe. We have helped create and publish more than five million blogs, websites and portfolios since 2005 while providing teacher-friendly, student-safe WordPress solutions at scale.

We offer both cost-efficient and free options, along with site development, hosting, security, plugin and theme support to ensure your digital presence is meeting your goals in a fast-changing digital world.Want to learn more? Contact us to receive more information.

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152 thoughts on “ the educator’s guide to copyright, fair use, and creative commons ”.

Thank you so much for this wonderful guide! I have been teaching about copyright and fair use for years, but this is the most comprehensive guide I have found to date. I am also grateful for the list of sites with items in the public domain. I want to share these with my students since we will be blogging this year for the first time, and I want to make sure they don’t infringe on anyone’s copyright.

yah i get realy confused on copywrighting

This is an awesome post! I am currently taking ITEC 7455 where I am teaching students about Digital Citizenship! Copyrights was actually one of my lessons given this semester. Thank you for sharing!

Thank you so much for posting this! I am currently taking ITEC 7455 where I have to teach digital citizenship to my students. This was a great post! Thank you!

Thank you for all the information. Very important to know about copyright and the myths that can make us confused about it.

Thank you for this information! This is definitely useful as teachers and students create documents or presentations.

This is great, and this will actually help a lot of people in their real life!

Welcome to my blog! It would be very difficult to image education without technology. As the pace of technology continue, we will find it more and more difficult to keep our students as unique leaders in a highly digital, web-based environment. That is our first challenge.

E’ una bellissima guida. Peccato che non ci sia in italiano, perchè i miei studenti ( di scuola elementare) non hanno un livello di inglese che permetta a loro di capire le slide. Spero che riuscirete a tradurla in diverse lingue.

When you allow a copy of your Google Slides presentation to be copied, does that mean you give permission for it to be used on a website if full attribution is given? What about a closed teaching platform, like Schoology. When you copy the slides you create a new link online and you are literally copying the work. So, it is a little confusing as to what permission is given.

You are so right Shannon, copyright is a complex topic. The key takeaway from this is that when in doubt about using content, ask the creator for permission, find a free alternative, purchase an alternative, or make your own material.

Question: What if you try to replicate a piece of work not by copying the original material, but by making your own version of it.

Hi, that’s a very good question! It’s important to keep in mind that representing someone else’s ideas as your own, even when rewording, could be problematic. Once you rewrite a sentence, either through paraphrase or a summary, it is important that you cite the original source. I hope that helped!

Hi, I am a school librarian. I am creating a professional development course for my teachers on copyright, and I would like to use your site and content during my PD. I just wanted to check on permission.

Hi Jennifer! As long as any content used has the necessary accreditation it will be fine. We would love to see the final product, all the best! Barry.

Thank you SO MUCH for this post and the resources! I’ve been so lost trying to navigate the world of copyright for that last two months. I wish I had come across this blog sooner.

Thank you so so much. Very helpful.

Thank you for providing this useful information about copyright laws.

What about read aloud and storytelling? There are plenty of people (most of them are teachers) reading books for kids on YouTube. Is that considered fair use?

Good question, Renata. During these extraordinary times there have been questions about read alouds and some exceptions to the rules.

If you’re in the USA, you should be covered by “fair use” as outlined by EdSurge .

Some publishers have been allowing teachers to read books to their students during school closures but I’m unsure if this is going to be an ongoing thing? Kate Messner explains here .

Hope that helps!

Thanks for the reply, Kathleen! I see people doing it everywhere and not necessarily for their students since it’s an open video on YouTube. Some of them just read the book, others do it with a twist (with an activity, a game, comments etc). I understand that the fair use is only for your students, isn’t it? Or is the twist what changes it all? Another question is what if the book and the publisher is in English (from the US), but the person’s channel is not? Just curious.

Hi Renata, I wish I knew! I really feel like it’s such a grey area at the moment. You might even need to check with the publisher of specific books as I don’t think there are blanket rules. If you do find out anything useful please let me know! 🙂

What about writing about a novel or giving a book review? I want to share the books I am reading in class with other educators, but I don’t know if uploading a photo I took of the cover and writing about it is OK.

Hi Jax, it doesn’t sound like there would be any copyright issues with sharing a photo of a book and writing a review. I’m sure you’d link to the book/author too. Enjoy!

I wrote a long comment but I think it got deleted. Short answer is: yes, it’s probably violating the publishing company or book cover artist’s copyright to use the book cover in a blog post. But they would never ever sue you because you’re doing free marketing for them. Imagine if a publishing company decided to sue every book blogger and bookstore site using the covers without permission. No one would ever review those books again and sales would tank!

Check with your Teacher-Librarian! Many Library Management Systems have the ability to store book covers. Sometimes there is an exclusion which allows libraries to use book cover images for promotion of books.

Copyright is the most important factor while using the image or graph. Just because we found it on the net does not mean that is free to use, is a point worth remembering. For that purpose images can be used from free sites or they are free for educational purposes

This post was very helpful explaining what copyright is and you really dove into all of the specific vocabulary and important things to know. It shows you really put in the time to learn about the different sorts of laws and how to avoid getting in trouble through safer resources.

You should seek permission before using copy right resources. This should be a topic taught in schools to educate the students on using copy rights resources on blogs. The information is very useful and informative to all. As individuals we must take time to read and learn more about copy right resources.

Copyright for Libraries: Videos/Movies

General Information
ALA Resources and Advocacy
First Sale Doctrine
Videos/Movies
Special Topics

Use of Videotapes/DVDs/Video Files

Please note that ALA cannot give legal advice. If you need legal advice, you should contact an intellectual property attorney.

The Copyright Act of 1976 governs the rights of reproduction, adaptation, distribution, and public performance and display. Several sections of this act have implications for videocassettes, DVDs and computer file formats.

When libraries purchase a videocassette or a DVD, or make a video file accessible to patrons for a specific rental period, they own the physical object but not the copyright. Copyright law, therefore, determines what libraries can and cannot do with the videotapes/DVDs/video files they own without infringing upon the copyright they do not own. However, the law also includes exceptions and limitations to the exclusive rights of the rights holder that allow libraries to lend, preserve and replace videos and allow non-profit educational institutions the right to publicly perform videos in the face-to-face classroom, and under certain conditions, in the distance educational classroom via digital networks. When libraries want to use a videotape/DVD/video file in such a way that would infringe upon the copyright, permission must be sought from rights holder in the form of a license agreement. Permission fees are likely.

Codes of Best Practices in Fair Use Created by the Center for Social Media and The Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property, Washington College of Law, both at American University. This is a series of “Codes of Best Practices” or “Principles” for fair use in specific professions or use groups, such as journalism, academic and research libraries, poetry, and documentary filmmakers. These codes are jointly developed by affected stakeholders, with guidance from PIJIP and the AU Center for Social Media.

Library Loan/Rental of Videos

Libraries may loan/rent videos, in whatever available format, to patrons for their personal use. This is true even if the video is labeled "For Home Use Only." The first sale exception (§109) copyright allows an owner of a work to lend, rent or other depose of the work. Because of this, libraries can lend, people can sell videos or books at their garage sale, Amazon call sell new and used books, and second hand book stores are a legitimate business.

Libraries should not knowingly loan a video to groups for use in (non-educational) public performances. If a patron inquires about a planned performance of a video, he or she should be informed that only private uses of it are lawful.
If libraries are aware that library patrons are checking out videos or DVDs in order to copy them, the patron should be advised that the use is not lawful. Having a policy regarding the lending of works, especially those works that can be easily copied should be developed. In this way, if a librarian has reason to believe that works are copied without authorization, she can invoke the policy and suspend lending privileges.
Libraries can charge a nominal fee for use of videos.
While not required by law, librarians can label videos and DVDs with a copyright warning statement such as "This work may be protected by copyright. Further reproduction and distribution may be an infringement under the copyright law (17 U.S.Code)."

Classroom Use of Videos

Public performances of a video/DVD in the face-to-face classroom is an exception to the public performance right §110 (1) and therefore lawful. The following conditions apply:

The teaching activities are conducted by a non-profit education institution
The performance is in connection with face-to-face teaching activities.
The performance takes place in a classroom or similar place devoted to instruction.
The person responsible for the performance has no reason to believe that the videotape was unlawfully made.
Performance of or Showing Films in the Classroom This piece was written in hopes of clarifying one aspect of the confusion—digital delivery of content to the “physical” classroom.

Motion Picture Licensing

Motion Picture Licensing Corporation (MPLC) and Movie Licensing USA

Unless a library purchases a video that comes with public performance rights, it is a copyright infringement for the library to use that video for in-house viewing or programs. Typically, the videos and DVDs purchased through normal retail channels or from video rental stores do not carry the necessary public performance rights, and it will be necessary to obtain those rights in writing from the copyright holder or from a licensing agent. If your library or school plans to show videos frequently, you may wish to consider a site license.

Movie Licensing USA Movie Licensing USA® provides Public Performance Site Licensing to K-12 schools and public libraries on behalf of the major Hollywood motion picture studios.
Motion Picture Licensing Corporation The Umbrella License grants organizations permission to show legally obtained audiovisual programs without the need to report titles, dates or times of exhibition.

Library Use of Videos

Library Use of Videos Most public performances of a video in a public room (including library meeting rooms), whether or not a fee is charged, are an infringement of copyright. Such performances require a public performance license from the rights holder. There are few exceptions to this rule unless the public performance is determined to be a fair use.

Libraries that permit patrons to watch videos, DVDs, or video files in private viewing rooms should strictly limit the viewing to one individual or a very small group and should not levy charges or fees.

Previewing a video before borrowing or purchasing it should be done in a private space.

Notices may be posted on video recorders or DVD players or on computer monitors used in the library to educate and warn patrons about the existence of the copyright laws. Such a notice might read:

Resources for Librarians and Educators

The Best of Copyright and VideoLib This article provides responses to five copyright scenarios—institutional pricing, the face-to-face classroom, video copying and replacement, film clips and streaming video—that are frequently faced by librarians who manage and acquire media.
Copyright - WorldCat list A list of publications on copyright available from libraries across the country and around the world.

General Questions

School and academic libraries do not require public performance rights if the titles will be shown only for non-profit, educational purposes.

Are libraries required to purchase videos or DVDs at the higher institutional price? No. Vendors or publishers often use tiered pricing, but the library does not have to pay the higher fee unless it is getting something in return (discounted replacement copies, etc.) Many libraries by their own choice pay the institutional price for ethical reasons, recognizing that many people will use the video and a higher fee may be warranted.

Can libraries buy videos or DVDs at retail outlets, such as Wal-Mart or Sam’s Club? Yes, these videos can be added to the collection, loaned and shown for non-profit, educational purposes.

Why are some videos/ DVDs labeled "Home Use Only?" Vendors or publishers want to remind consumers that videos and DVDs should not be shown to the public as this is an exclusive right of the rights holder. There is an exception to the public performance rights that allows non-profit, educational institutions the right to publicly perform videos/DVDs for non-profit, educational purposes.

Can I show an entire DVD in the distance educational classroom via digital networks? The Technology, Education, and Copyright Harmonization (TEACH) Act of 2002 says only portions of DVDs can be screened in the distance classroom. However, fair use may apply when it is necessary to show the entire film to meet the teaching need.

What if I obtain a video or DVD via a license agreement? In general, a license agreement (even those that are non-negotiated such as a "click-on" license) override the copyright law. This means that contract terms will define what you can or cannot do with the copy.

Educators and students use YouTube videos for classroom or assignment purposes. Are these uses lawful? If associated with a license agreement, it may be a breach of contract (but not an infringement of copyright) to use the videos for anything but private, non-commercial use. However, the use of YouTube videos in non-profit, educational settings is wide spread and common. Rights holder have not sued educational institutional for this use, so it may be a use that rights holders tolerate or find relatively harmless since there are no market implications. Using YouTube videos outside of the educational environment, especially for commercial purposes, may require permission.

Is it lawful to make film clip compilations for use in the classroom? Yes, this use is a fair use. Screen capture is an easy way to accomplish this. You must be a higher educational faculty member or college student studying media or film studies if you wish to circumvent technological measures employed by the rights holder (such as Content Scrambling System (CSS)), This rule may change or be expanded based on federal rules determined by the Librarian of Congress in conjunction with the Copyright Office’s triennal rulemaking on the circumvention of technological protection measures. §1201(a)(C).

With the increased use of DVD systems it has been suggested that we convert our VHS library of educational videos in VHS format to DVD. Is it a copyright violation to convert to DVD and discontinue use of the VHS tapes? In most cases, yes, it would be a copyright violation. Reproducing a VHS to DVD without the prior permission of the rights-holder is an infringement of copyright. This kind of reproduction is not exempt because it is not "fair use" and it does not qualify as a lawful reproduction. However, in a situation where the VHS tape is lost, stolen or deteriorating or is in an obsolete format (a 3/4" tape is obsolete because the equipment is no longer being sold, but a VHS tape is not obsolete) and is not available in the DVD format in the market for a reasonable cost, the library can make a reproduction. But if the reproduction is in a digital format (DVD is digital), then that copy cannot leave the library premises. Please see "Preservation Copying" under the Special Topics tab.

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Last Updated: Jun 21, 2023 12:02 PM
URL: https://libguides.ala.org/copyright

Our Mission

Using Video Content to Amplify Learning

New teachers often struggle with finding multiple ways for students to access course content, and video clips can help.

A video projector sitting on a cart, displaying something in front of a group of students

Teachers are always striving to show more and tell less when introducing students to new information, concepts, and skills. Education researcher Pauline Gibbons tells us, “Rather than trying to simplify information, amplifying the curriculum means finding as many ways as possible to make key information comprehensible.”

New teachers often struggle to find ways to amplify their curriculum. Video clips can be a great tool to assist students in gaining that deeper understanding of content. It’s important to be mindful of how often and how much we use video—it’s important to have a clear purpose for using that film, documentary, or news clip.

Purposes for Using Video

Building background knowledge on a topic. We know that students learn best when they take in information via multiple modalities —through reading, drawing, listening to the teacher’s oral explanations, and viewing visual media. We also know, from much research, that using visuals is key for those acquiring a new language. In California and many other U.S. states, we have a large number of English language learners (ELLs) in our schools. Images and videos support the learning of new content, concepts, and ideas.

An example: In a level one English language development class, students are in the early stages of their journey acquiring English. They’re working on a unit on weather, learning the words hurricane and tornado . The teacher turns on a five-minute video clip that shows examples of hurricanes and tornadoes and how their aftermaths differ. Students discuss what they saw in the video clip and write sentences using the new vocabulary.

Enriching a text or text excerpt. Whether they’re reading a piece of fiction or nonfiction, students benefit from contextualizing the person, place, or thing they’re learning about. Video clips can assist them in visualizing an event or a person, while setting the context historically, politically, socially, and emotionally.

An example: An 11th-grade history class is reading an article about the civil rights movement and Jim Crow laws. Before they read, the teacher shows an excerpt from Ava DuVernay’s award-winning documentary 13th that highlights the segregation and restrictive conditions of the South in the post–Civil War period. The visuals and audio reinforce students’ reading, enhancing their understanding of the need for a civil rights movement.

Deepening or solidifying students’ learning. Child-friendly how-to or instructional videos are readily available on the internet. Typically under seven minutes, these can serve to reinforce what students have learned or are already learning. YouTube, TeacherTube, and BrainPop, for example, provide brief instructional videos on different academic topics and subjects, such as how to do short division or how to write a letter. Watching a short instructional video created for kids is a nice break for students—and something novel or fresh can really stick with them.

An example: Fifth graders have been writing narrative essays. The teacher has provided instructions, a couple model essays, and a graphic organizer to help them write their first drafts. While they do that, she adds to the instructional mix a humorous five-minute video on the dos and don’ts of narrative writing as told by teenagers dressed as famous storybook characters.

Tips for Using Video

Be selective. A clip can have a big impact, so you’ll want to pick the most dynamic and telling parts of the film, news segment, or documentary to show students. Be first clear on your purpose—that will help you determine what to show and how to frame it for students.

For upper grades, there might be a film that has value but is too racy or controversial. You don’t have to dismiss it—just be strategic. In the film Schindler’s List , for example, there’s a lot of intense violence and some adult sexual content. So I showed only a few select clips to amplify my 10th graders’ understanding of the Holocaust.

Provide a mission. How can we make sure students actively watch? Provide a mission before playing the video. For example, “As you watch, I want you to pay attention to....” Setting a goal for what students are about to watch will keep them accountable and attentive.

Pause to ponder (and write). Give students time to reflect by pausing the clip. Avoid having students do a task like writing notes or answering questions while they watch. This is especially difficult for ELLs. (For all of us, frankly. Try it.) Watch a few minutes and then pause the video to ask students to discuss what they just saw, write down reflections, or answer a question you provide. Pausing every few minutes allows students time to process what they’re viewing, which is especially valuable if it’s an information-packed video, or if you teach an early elementary grade.

Turn on closed captioning. Students can read along as they watch. For content-packed video clips, consider including the transcripts, as a handout or digital copy, especially if your students are going to be required to apply the information they learn from the video.

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College Minor: Everything You Need to Know

14 fascinating teacher interview questions for principals, tips for success if you have a master’s degree and can’t find a job, 14 ways young teachers can get that professional look, which teacher supplies are worth the splurge, 8 business books every teacher should read, conditional admission: everything you need to know, college majors: everything you need to know, 7 things principals can do to make a teacher observation valuable, 3 easy teacher outfits to tackle parent-teacher conferences, using movies for effective instruction.

Teachers have always shown movies in the classroom, but most of the time we associate those movies with dead time, or non-instructional time. However, with the age of digital everything, the right movie can capture the attention of students and make a concept more concrete for student understanding. Study.com says that movies can enhance student learning but also be a poor use of time if not planned extremely well. The key is to choose the right movie.

Pros of using movies for learning:

Movies that tie in well with content can definitely enhance learning for students.
At times, a concept such as the Holocaust can be vague and unfamiliar. Showing a movie after reading a book on this event can really help students to understand the magnitude of this historical time.
Movies can motivate students by sparking conversations about deeper topics that would probably not have happened without this media.
They support the concept of Gardner’s multiple intelligences by blending words with sounds, pictures, and senses.

Cons of using movies for learning:

Some parents object to using movies for instructional purposes, so make sure to get permission first.
It can be a time waster even when we don’t intend for it to be.
Remember that movies are fanciful representations of reality, so be sure that the movie you plan to show is actually historically correct. If you decide to show one that is not because portions of it are helpful for understanding, point out the exaggerated parts to the students.

There are without a doubt many educational movies and documentaries that will expand the knowledge of events and concepts that students might have difficulty understanding. Mr. Needleman, writing for creatinglifelonglearners.com , says, “Movies from YouTube, Teacher Tube, iTunes podcasts, and commercial DVDs that I show in frequent short bursts in the classroom with adults and children to help make my points and show visual examples of what I’m talking about.”

There are specific ways to use movies and other media in the classroom:

Watching a movie should be as challenging as reading a book. Using them for Friday fun day defeats the purpose of learning from them.
Showing a movie at the beginning of a unit instead of at the end can give background information that is helpful as the students progress through the learning unit.
Stay engaged during the movie. This is not the time for you to check your phone.
Spell out clearly how the movie relates to what you are learning.
Have students write down one thing they found interesting and one question they had. Afterward, use the questions to guide the research in the unit.
Keep the remote handy because you should be stopping the movie to point out interesting facts or discuss something controversial. These stopping points can actually help students retain what they see and hear better.
Students must recap and evaluate what they learned from the movie and how it helped in their understanding of the subject.

With movies on Netflix and many other streaming services, you can even download a movie to show for class if streaming is not possible during the school day. The common consensus is that movies can be strategic instructional tools if used wisely.

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Films and Videos

Updated 20 July 2021

Teachers regularly use films and videos for educational and other purposes. The films or video content could be from a range of sources such as Netflix, YouTube, Stan, Google Play, Amazon Prime, iTunes or Apple TV.

What is a film?

In this section, the term film refers to all audio-visual material such as films, videos and DVDs that show moving images with or without sound.

Examples of films include:

feature, short and documentary films
animations or cartoons
on demand television programs offered by subscription services
film trailers
television advertisements
corporate or education videos
video and computer games
podcasts and vodcasts of audio visual material.

We are not talking here about television broadcasts, which include any audio-visual material that is:

broadcast on free-to-air television
free-to-air television content made available online by the broadcaster at the same time or after the broadcast of that content
scheduled broadcast content on subscription TV (eg Foxtel), excluding any on demand content offered by those subscription services (eg Foxtel On Demand and Kayo Sports).

If you are using television broadcasts, you may be able to rely on the Statutory Broadcast Licence . For more information see Radio and Television Broadcasts .

It is essential that films played in schools are obtained from legitimate sources. Films, for example, may be purchased or hired from non-theatrical film distributors, licensed lending libraries or educational sources for screening on school premises or downloaded from legitimate film sites (eg iTunes).

Playing pirated copies puts you, your school, your principal and your educational body at risk of serious civil penalties which include payment of compensation to the copyright owner as well as criminal penalties. For this reason, schools should not accept donations or loans of DVDs or videos from students or parents. We recommend that schools source their own films to ensure that they are not pirated copies.

Playing films

Teachers and students at schools or TAFE can play films (eg stream from YouTube, Netflix or Stan or play from a DVD) in class under a special exception in the Australian Copyright Act (section 28) provided it is:

in the course of education and is not for profit; and
the people in the audience or class are giving or receiving instruction or are directly connected with the place where instruction is given.

Teachers can upload films to a school intranet or DTE in order to play them in class, but they should remove them from the DTE , or remove access to the films by students, as soon as the class is over.

For further information on s 28, schools should see Performance and Communication of Works and Audio Visual Material in Class: What am I allowed to do? ’ and TAFE institutes should see Performance and Communication of Works and Audio Visual Material in Class: What am I allowed to do?

For non-teaching purposes

S 28 will not apply to teachers and students playing films for non-teaching activities (eg at camps, on bus excursions or for lunchtime entertainment on rainy days).

Co-Curricular Licence

The Australian school sector has negotiated a voluntary blanket licence , called the Co-Curricular Licence , with Roadshow Public Performance Licensing (‘Roadshow’) for the playing of films by schools for non-educational purposes. This includes:

at school for entertainment purposes (eg at lunchtime on a rainy day)
on bus excursions, where the school provides the DVD (not the bus company)
at school camps and excursions, including outdoor screenings at camp, where the school provides the DVD (not the camp)
at after-school care and holiday programs conducted at and by the school.

Not all schools in Australia are covered by the Co-Curricular Licence . Schools that are not covered by this Licence must seek permission from the non-theatrical distributor of the film to play the film for non-educational purposes. To find out whether your school is covered by the Co-Curricular Licence , contact your local copyright advisor . Note that this agreement does not apply to TAFE.

For further information on the Co-Curricular Licence , see information sheet Playing Films for Non-Educational Purposes . TAFE institutes will need to obtain a licence to play a film for non-teaching purposes.

Boarding Schools

It is generally fine for students in a boarding house to screen a film for their own private purposes as it won’t be considered a public performance.

Making a copy of a film and uploading it to a school’s DTE

If a teacher wants to make a copy of a film for a specific educational purpose (eg they want to upload a documentary on World War II to the school’s DTE in order to show it to a year ten history class), they may be able to do this under the flexible dealing exception provided:

they, or the school, own a copy of the film , but the copy is not in a format that they require and they are not able to buy it in the required format
the film can only be viewed by the teachers and students in the relevant class (i.e. the film is accessible to students in one course as opposed to the students enrolled in the entire institute)
the teacher removes the film from the DTE or disables access by the students to the film immediately after the class.

Some examples of uses that are permitted under the flexible dealing exception include:

making a digital copy of a DVD to upload to a school’s DTE in order to play to a geography class
compiling extracts of audio-visual material for use in class (eg making a compilation of short extracts of several films for an English class) when it is not possible to buy a similar teaching resource
downloading a YouTube video to play in class. For information on downloading YouTube videos see Youtube – Using .

Labelling copies

It is good practice to label copies made under the flexible dealing exception with words similar to:

‘This material has been copied and communicated to you in accordance with the educational use provisions of the Copyright Act. Any further reproduction or communication of this material by you may be the subject of copyright protection under the Act. Do not remove this notice [insert date material has been copied and made available to students].’

For further information see Flexible Dealing .

Other copyright exceptions

Teachers may also be able to rely on one of the copyright exceptions when a copying films or videos for specific purposes.

Fair dealing

Teachers and students may be able to copy and communicate films under the fair dealing for research and study exception . Teachers will only be able to rely on the fair dealing exception in limited circumstances, (ie it must be for their own research and study and not the research and study of their students), but students using films as part of their study will generally be able to rely on the fair dealing exception of research and study .

For more information see Copyright Exceptions.

Disability exceptions

If you are copying or communicating films in order to make them accessible to a student with a disability, you may be able to do this under the disability exceptions .

For more information see Disability Access Exceptions.

Exam copying

Teachers are allowed to copy and communicate films for use in online and hardcopy exams. This exception does not extend to practice papers. You can only rely on this exception to copy and communicate text for actual exams and assessments.

For more information see Copying for Exams .

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Can I Legally Use YouTube Clips In My Training Sessions? By Robert Bacal

The answer is "it depends". While it's unlikely that a case for copyright infringement will actually go to court if you violate the law, if you are caught, you or your employee may be asked for a fee retroactively to avoid going to court. That can cause huge problems for you if you are a trainer working for someone else, since your employer may be upset at your violation, and can even result in losing your job.

The Important Copyright For Trainers Information

If the clip is a movie, television program, or for that matter, any other media (music, MP3, jpg or other graphic or picture, you cannot use it without explicit permission. It doesn't matter who uploaded it. Don't use it.
Fair use for "educational purposes" usually applies ONLY to accredited educational institutions (schools, universities). It does NOT apply to training in most settings, although many trainers believe that it does.
Some material on YouTube is released under a Creative Commons (CC) License. There are different flavors with different restrictions, but most do NOT allow use for commercial purposes, but what constitutes such use is not always clear.
Be alert to the fact that people often upload material to YouTube which is copyright by the original owner, and then label it as free to use. Remember that the ONLY entity that can give you the rights to use a clip is the one that OWN the copyright. For example, if someone uploads a clip from a television program, they can label it any way they like, but they don't own it in the first place. THEY are violating copyright, and if you use it, even unwittingly, YOU are violating copyright.
YOU are responsible for sorting out who owns what, and who you need to contact for permission. Do NOT be mislead by finding clips uploaded by someone who represents the clip as free to use.
If you work for someone else, YOU are the representative of that company. If YOU break the law, your company breaks the law. Doing so puts your employer at risk, and that can cause you to lose your job or suffer the wrath of an angry employer.

Abiding by copyright is not just a legal issue, but an ethical one. The likelihood of being sued is small. Also, be aware that if you show a video illegally in a training classroom, you may be challenged by someone in your participant group as someone who is breaking the law. It's embarrassing, and a poor image to project.

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Fair use and copyright for online education.

Examples: Textual Materials
Examples: Images

Tips for using video in online education

Video example #1, video example #2, video example #3, video example #4, video example #5, resources for using video in online education.

Examples: Sound Recordings
Alternatives to Fair Use
Additional Resources

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To best position yourself to assert a fair use argument when using video, consider doing the following:

Link to the video if possible rather than making an electronic copy available to students. Linking to materials is ordinarily not a violation of copyright but rather a technological instruction for locating materials.
If copying a video, do not use any more of the video than the amount needed to serve your purpose.
Avoid copying videos from materials created and marketed primarily for use in courses such as the one at hand (e.g. from a textbook, workbook, or other instructional materials designed for the course). Use of more than a brief excerpt from such works on digital networks is unlikely to be transformative and therefore unlikely to be a fair use.
Make sure that the video content serves a pedagogical purpose; do not use as entertainment.
Place the video in the context of the course, explaining why it was chosen and what it was intended to illustrate. Recontextualize the video when appropriate through the addition of background readings, study questions, commentary, criticism, annotation, and student reactions.
Limit access to the video to students enrolled in the course.
Use streaming or other technologies that limit students' ability to download, copy, or redistribute the material.
Notify students that videos are being made available for teaching, study, and research only.
Provide attributions to known copyright owners of the videos.

The examples below are intended to model the thought processes instructors should engage in when determining whether an intended use is fair given the particular facts at hand. A final determination of fair use can only be made in a court of law. This guide is not intended as legal advice. If you have legal concerns about a particular use at the University of Rhode Island, please contact the university's General Counsel .

2. Was the material taken appropriate in kind and amount, considering the nature of the copyrighted work and of the use?

Fair use: Yes.

Fair use: No.

This video is a work of nonfiction, which favors fair use. However, the DVD is marketed as an educational tool, thus its use for in an educational context is not transformative.

An argument for fair use could nonetheless be made on two grounds:

Because the DVD is marketed to institutions, not individual students, to stream the university's lawfully-purchased copy to students causes no market harm to the rightsholder through the loss of DVD sales and is therefore an educational fair use.
UCLA faculty have argued that "streaming technologies serve the purpose of time-shifting for students and faculty alike." In the 1984 case Sony Corp. v. Universal City Studios, Inc. , the Supreme Court held that time shifting was fair use in connection to the noncommercial home recording of television shows for delayed viewing because it did not deprive the copyright owners of revenue. (See video example #1 above.)

The fact that the Media Education Foundation offers a streaming option, though, would weaken this argument for fair use since they could show market harm through the loss of streaming revenue.

Fair use: Probably not.

Note: Determining whether a work is in the public domain can be difficult and time-consuming. For more information, see the " Use resources in the public domain " box on this guide.

Society for Cinema and Media Studies' Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use in Teaching for Film and Media Educators (2008)
Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education
Streaming of Films for Educational Purposes (2010) This issue brief from the Library Copyright Alliance examines the permissibility of the streaming of entire films to a remote, non-classroom location.
Internet Archive's Moving Image Archive Online library of free movies, films, and videos. Contains over a million digital movies uploaded by Archive users. These include classic full-length films, news broadcasts, cultural and academic films, commercials, cartoons, and concerts. These videos are in the public domain or are available with Creative Commons reuse rights.
Library of Congress American Memory American Memory provides free and open access through the Internet to written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music that document the American experience. Most material is not protected by copyright.
IMDB.com List of Films in the Public Domain in the United States List created by IMDB.com user olicool10 of "films that certain cited sources believe are in the public domain in the United States." An addition to the list is available at http://www.imdb.com/list/i7iwnmMTuLQ/ .
Wikimedia Commons Wikimedia Commons is a database of millions of freely usable media files. Some files are in the public domain, while others are licensed with Creative Commons licenses.
USA.gov YouTube channel The official YouTube channel of the U.S. Government, linking to videos across government. Most content produced by the government falls in the public domain.
YouTube After performing a search for video content, you can "filter" by Creative Commons license to find content with reuse rights.
The Open Video Project The purpose of the Open Video Project is to collect and make available a repository of digitized video content for the digital video, multimedia retrieval, digital library, and other research communities. "The Open Video repository provides video clips from a variety of sources, especially various video programs obtained from U.S. government agencies such as the U.S. Records and Archives Administration and NASA. Although the government agency videos were produced with public funds and are freely available from the Archives, no copyright clearance has been obtained for audio or video elements in these productions. We encourage researchers to use the data under fair use for research purposes."
<< Previous: Examples: Images
Next: Examples: Sound Recordings >>
Last Updated: Sep 25, 2023 5:28 PM
URL: https://uri.libguides.com/fairuse

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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Fair use on YouTube

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Fair use is a legal doctrine that says use of copyright-protected material under certain circumstances is allowed without permission from the copyright holder.

YouTube gets many requests to remove videos that copyright holders claim are infringing under copyright law. Sometimes these requests apply to videos that qualify for copyright exceptions or seem like clear examples of fair use.

If the use of copyright-protected material in a video qualifies as a copyright exception, then the video is considered lawful and non-infringing. This is why we often ask copyright holders to think about whether copyright exceptions apply before submitting a copyright removal request to YouTube. If a copyright holder believes a video doesn't qualify for an exception, then they must provide us with an adequate explanation as to why.

Copyright exceptions around the world

While international rules about copyright exceptions are often similar, they can differ. Different countries and regions may have different rules about when it's OK to use copyright-protected material without the copyright holder’s permission.

In the United States, works of commentary, criticism, research, teaching, or news reporting may be considered fair use. In the EU, more limited exceptions are recognized and the use must fit into specific categories, such as quotation, criticism, review, caricature, parody, and pastiche. Other countries/regions have a concept called fair dealing that may work differently.

Ultimately, courts decide fair use cases according to the facts of each unique case. You’ll probably want to get legal advice from an expert before uploading videos that use copyright-protected material.

Four factors of fair use

In the United States, judges decide what’s considered fair use. A judge will consider how the four factors of fair use apply to each specific case. The four factors of fair use are:

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 relative to the whole copyrighted work, 4. the effect of the use upon the potential market for, or value of, the copyrighted work, example of fair use, youtube’s fair use protection initiative.

In rare cases, we’ve asked YouTube creators to join an initiative that protects some examples of “fair use” on YouTube from copyright removal requests. Through this initiative, YouTube indemnifies creators whose fair use videos have been subject to removal requests for up to $1 million of legal costs in the event the removal results in a copyright infringement lawsuit.

The goal of this initiative is to make sure these creators have a chance to protect their work. It also aims to improve the creative world by educating on both the importance and limits of fair use. Because of the variation in the rules governing such uses by different countries/regions, as described above , we're only able to offer this initiative to creators living in the United States who agree to have their videos are only available in the United States.

Reinstated fair use videos

You may be aware of some notable cases where we’ve asked copyright holders to reconsider removal requests and reinstate fair use videos. For example:

This video by the Young Turks, which shows short clips from a heavily criticized commercial as part of a conversation on why it offended viewers.
This video by Secular Talk, which criticizes a political figure for endorsing an unproven treatment for diabetes.
Buffy vs Edward: Twilight Remixed -- [original version] , a remix video that compares the ways women are portrayed in two vampire-related works targeted at teens.
"No Offense" , a video uploaded by the National Organization for Marriage, which uses a clip of a celebrity as an example of rude behavior.

If you’d like to learn more about fair use, there are many resources available online. The following sites are for educational purposes only and aren't endorsed by YouTube:

Center for Media and Social Impact’s “ Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Online Video ”
Digital Media Law Project's detailed explanation of the Four Factors
US Copyright Office’s fair use index

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A Guide to Licensing Educational Videos for Your Online Courseware

These days, videos are everywhere. S ocial media, mobile apps, streaming platforms, blogs—wherever there’s a screen, videos are sure to follow. They're also becoming central to many educational tools, particularly now as more learning goes digital. As a result, online education providers may be finding themselves suddenly grappling with questions about copyright. If you’re in this boat, you might be asking yourself questions like:

What is copyright?

How does it apply to videos?

Can I just use what I find on the internet in my product?

How do I obtain the rights to use videos?

These aren’t easy questions to answer—especially not in a single blog post. Copyright law is complicated stuff, but we’ll help break down some of the most common questions and misconceptions.

Let’s start with the most basic, but legally also the hardest, question:

Literary works (e.g., computer software, books, essays)
Dramatic works (e.g., plays, musicals)
Musical works (e.g., songs, sounds, spoken word)
Artistic works (e.g., paintings, drawings, photographs)

Copyright is a legal protection provided to the creator(s) and owner(s) of the original work of authorship, and is granted from the time the work is created, regardless of whether it is published or not.

Let’s take a non-video example. Say Joe is an avid photographer, and birds are his favorite subject. He hasn’t formally published any of his images, but he sent a few of his favorites to fellow bird enthusiasts. One day Joe is thumbing through a coffee book of exotic birds and is shocked to see one of his photographs staring back at him! Because the government extends copyright even to unpublished works and grants ownership to the original author, Joe has a legal recourse to pursue damages on the grounds of copyright infringement.

What are some exceptions?

Not everything is protected by copyright. Works that exist in the public domain (i.e., not protected by copyright law) include:

Titles, names, familiar symbols
Ideas, methods, concepts, principles
Works consisting of entirely self-evident facts (maps, calendars, etc.)
Works whose copyright has expired

How does copyright apply to video?

Videos are complex. Unlike still images, videos are made from many different parts that can influence the rights associated with the use of those videos.

For example, let’s say Jill creates a 5-minute video about exotic birds for the educational company she works for, EduFly. About a minute into the video, Joe appears on camera for just a few seconds to talk about the Atlantic Puffin. Joe signed a personal release, giving Jill permission to use his image in the video for EduFly’s purposes only. This means that although EduFly can use the video in their website and place it on their Youtube page, if YOU wanted to use that video in your educational product, EduFly would either need to edit it to remove Joe’s image or reach back out to Joe to obtain his permission. Now what if Jill’s bird video doesn’t just include one individual, but dozens, each of whom need to be contacted? That’s a lot of permissions to manage.

But the complexity doesn’t stop there. Each location, each piece of music used in the score, each piece of personal property, artifact, and trademark is also protected by copyright, so before you could use the video, each work within that single video would need to be cleared.

That’s a big NO. Although you may easily view a video on YouTube, this does not mean that the content is readily available for YOUR use within YOUR educational product.

A couple of common misconceptions about using content found on the internet are:

If content can be found on one medium, it is clear to use by all others.
If the public has already seen the material on YouTube or another site, it is publicly accessible and therefore in the public domain.

Both of these assumptions are FALSE. Even if you see a video on a website, that still doesn't mean that the copyright owner of this material has the legal right to allow you to add it to another platform and commercialize it.

Just because content has been viewed a million times, it’s not “out there” and “available” for you to use. That is not the definition of public domain. It doesn't matter how popular that content is or how many times it's been viewed online; it also doesn’t matter if you found it on seemingly “public” online places like Facebook, or YouTube, or your friend’s blog. Content only becomes public domain if the copyright has expired (typically the life of the author plus 70 years after their death, although this varies by country).

Before assuming a piece of content falls in the public domain, you need to do your research, which requires locating the original source of the content, which can take some digging. Sorry, but a YouTuber’s claim that their post falls into the public domain doesn’t count as valid research of source. Even well-intentioned YouTubers sometimes mistakenly post material that they should not, and the remedy to the content owner if they ever find the material is a take-down. (Should that video be in your online course, your learners now see an error message where an educational video used to be. Not a great user experience!)

Looking for copyright cleared videos for educational use

How do I obtain the rights to use a video?

Before you use any content in your educational product, you need to make sure you can legally use that content. This is called rights clearance.

Like copyright itself, rights clearance is complicated. Established academic publishers have entire departments (typically Rights and Permissions) whose job is to ensure all appropriate licenses and permissions are in place before third-party content is used in their products, whether that content is images, text, music, or videos. While these positions may not exist in smaller publishers and education companies, those companies are no less liable should they inadvertently infringe upon a copyright owner’s protection. They must be just as rigorous in their efforts to minimize risk, even if they have less resources to do it.

Rights clearance involves too many nuances to be covered here, but generally speaking, those steps involve:

Identifying the protectable content . In the case of videos, you’ll need to consider both the work in its entirety as well as each copyrightable element (music, images, etc.)
Determining who owns the rights . This is sometimes straightforward, but because rights are transferable, it’s often not as obvious as it may appear. Just because a video appears on a content provider’s web page, does not mean it was produced by that content provider. They may have licensed that video from the original creator, who remains the copyright holder. You’ll need to do your research, and if you still can’t find the right’s holder, you might need to engage a professional search firm who can help you find the source.
Evaluate whether to seek permission. There are some circumstances where it’s not necessary to seek permission from the rightsholder, such as when a video falls into the public domain (copyright has expired) or is covered by fair use (this is complicated, but essentially involves material that may be used for a limited and transformative purpose - e.g., a parody). For everything else, you’ll need to get the copyright(s) cleared before you can add the video to your product.
Seek permission. Approach the rights holders you’ve identified in step 2. Email is generally the best approach, as it allows you to keep a written record of the permissions you receive. Be sure each of the following terms is addressed in your correspondence:
Term - The total length of time you are allowed to use the video
Territory - Geographic region you can use each clip
Scope of use - How much of the content you are using and for what purpose
Payment - How much you are expected to pay the copyright holder
Media - How are you using the content and how will the end client access the content? Will it be downloadable? Streamed subscription video on demand (SVOD)? Free video on demand (FVOD)? Advertising-based video on demand (AVOD)?
Keep track of your permissions. You’ll need to develop a system to help you track permissions and ensure the videos you’ve used in your courses do not exceed the terms you establish in step 4. If you secure a 3-year term on a video, you’ll either need to go back to the copyright holder to extend the terms leading up to the 3-year mark or remove the video before the term expires to avoid copyright infringement. Because of the complexity involved, you may need to invest in a media asset system or contract management system to help you keep tabs on the permissions you have in place.

This seems like a LOT. How can I simplify and save time??

Copyright clearance isn’t for the faint of heart. Some education providers avoid using video in their digital courses precisely because the process is so burdensome. It’s easier not to use videos at all than to track down permissions from each individual rights holder or risk potential infringement (even inadvertent!). But in a world where both students and teachers expect video in their online learning , ignoring video ultimately only hurts your product.

You could create your own videos as an alternative, but that’s an expensive, resource-heavy proposition that comes with its own set of headaches. Plus, it won’t get you off the hook for rights clearance, sadly. That music you want to use? You’ll need permissions for that. That image you want to use? More permissions. Those individuals on camera? Yep, you’ll need permissions from them, too. You could just ensure that every element within your video is previously rights-cleared, but you’ll need to keep tabs on those assets. This requires developing or using a system that can alert you to expirations lest you have to take down your video or (worse) pay damages.

The easiest way to include high quality, engaging educational videos in your courses is to have a third party do the heavy lifting for you. That’s where Boclips comes in. We’ve already established relationships with over 200 top video brands (the likes of AP, PBS NewsHour, MinuteEarth, LearnZillion, etc.), clearing the rights to over 2 million educational clips to make them available to you under one simple, single educational license. With our standard license, you can use any video clips from the Boclips library in your educational platform (be it web-based, app-based, or an offline product) for a 5-year term with worldwide distribution. Depending on the original content provider, our agreements allow you to edit downloaded videos to suit your specific learning objectives and use assets to promote your products or services.

A recent Kaltura report showed that 82% of teachers see students demand for video in education as increasing ( Kaltura, 2019 ). So, whether you decide to tackle rights clearance yourself or choose to bypass the hassle altogether by getting a single license through Boclips, don’t let copyright get in the way of your video ambitions. Just make sure you’re covered!

Want to learn more about how we can help you get up to speed? Schedule a free consultation to talk to us about your video needs.

Integrating Video in Remote Learning Platforms

Jessica Swope

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Capture your student’s attention in class or in a Zoom meeting. Create memorable and impactful e-learning modules. Drive engagement and communicate in a language that resonates with today’s generational needs.

Teach smarter, not harder.

With attention spans being what they are, especially with remote learning, today’s educators are constantly challenged with finding new and creative ways to not only get their students attention, but keeping it. Many have turned to short video as a way of engaging their students, but teachers and professors are spending countless hours scrolling through YouTube, dealing with ads and losing sleep over copyright issues.

MovieComm has thousands of legally approved, ad free, easy to find movie clips that include some of the best movie scenes, from some of the most inspirational movies, ever made. Our innovative tool helps today’s educators connect in a way that students want to be connected with…via short, entertaining and memorable video.

Here's a Fan Fav

Would you like to teach students about the importance of accountability?

Ways to use MovieComm

Capture your students attention with a clip before, during or after class be it face to face or on Zoom
Load into Powerpoint to have a more engaging presentation or webinar
Embed a clip as part of your e-learning modules
Reinforce your key messages on any internal communications platform

Results you can expect

More motivated and inspired students
Higher student engagement
Stickier and more memorable messages
Captivated audiences
Increased impact with your presentations

How it Works

As a trainer or educator, we know you’re super busy, so we’ve developed a very simple three step process to help you find the perfect clip:

What do you want to say?

Start by deciding on your key message. Whether you want your audience to embrace change, make better principle based decisions or get the importance of collaboration, we help you in capturing people’s attention, coaching them up and boosting motivation. Whatever message you’re looking to drive, we’ve got the perfect clip for you.

Got it. What's next?

Find the perfect movie clip with our easy to use, AI-driven search engine. Browse by movie, actor, theme, keyword, key phrase and so much more. Trim the clip to your desired length. Tee up a personalized message in text or video (which actually plays before the clip!!) And get the conversation flowing with our optional internal chat feature.

Use a little Hollywood Magic

Once you’ve picked that perfect movie moment, simply choose a URL or embed code. Then copy and paste it into an email, text, blog, power point, social post, Slack conversation, Zoom meeting or any way in which you communicate.. And you should be good to go.

The Reviews are in

MovieComm is fantastic ! What a great way to use movie clips to keep students engaged. And so easy to use! Instead of going on the internet to find clips that often don’t even work (or worse, break copyright rules), MovieComm let’s me find clips that keep students learning while having fun. Such a great way for teachers to be successful whether in the classroom or online. Thanks, MovieComm!

Sandy Bravo

Senior Lecturer, Babson College

MovieComm is shattering old paradigms and creating new ways forward. Movies move us. They help us connect emotionally which helps my messages become sticky. Brilliantly thought out, simple and actionable.

Dr. Brad Shuck

Associate Chair, Program Director, University of Louisville

Just outstanding! Our students loved the use of movie clips in the classroom and in Zoom. Their feedback showed that the clips really enhanced their learning experience by increasing motivation and interest and providing different perspectives on the top and fostering critical thinking. Keep them coming!!

Robin Moore

Adjunct Professor, American Public University

In Need of a Customized Solution?

Hectic schedule? No worries…our clip specialists are here to help. From movie mashups to e-learning videos to clip selection, our team of experts are standing by.

Who Uses MovieComm?

IMAGES

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How To Use Movie Clips on YouTube Without Copyright [ Movie
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Use movie clips, short films, and movie trailers to sequence, determine

VIDEO

Movies in the classroom!
Learn English Expressions with Movies: My Speaking and Listening is getting better with the Practice
SEE THE RESULT OF OVERACTING AT THE END 🤣🔚 #funny #comedy #youtubegrowth #watsaapstatus
Learn English with 32 Movie clips, the most common expressions in English
🎬 Unthinkable (2010) #movie #shorts
importance of education short film

COMMENTS

Copyright and Fair Use : Showing Films, Videos, and TV Programs
When you're using a film, video, or TV program for teaching or educational purposes, this is often considered a fair use under U.S. copyright law. In other cases, especially when the film, video, or TV program is being shown as part of an event, you need permission--often in the form of a public performance rights license--to show the work ...
Teach with Movies
Location of the Clip in the Movie, Film or Video; Step-by-Step Instructions; Search hundreds of movies organized by subject that TWM recommends as the best of the best in meeting curriculum standards while providing students with stellar educational experiences. CREATE LESSON PLANS IN CHARACTER EDUCATION, ETHICS, AND MORALITY FROM MOVIES AND FILM!
Teachers' Essential Guide to Showing Movies and Videos in the Classroom
Minari and SEL: A Movie Guide and Lesson Plan -- This movie and guide can get students thinking about family dynamics, culture, and identity. AI Movies, Books, and Podcasts to Discuss in the Classroom -- Have important conversations about artificial intelligence using media and provided discussion questions.
A Teacher's Guide to Copyright and Fair Use
Purchase enough copies for each student, or obtain permission from the owner to make copies. Avoid copying and distributing "creative material": Novels, plays, movies, and poems are far more likely to be exempt from fair use. Use published sources: Never copy and distribute unpublished material.
Copyright on Campus: Showing Movies in Class and on Campus
When you're using a film, video, or TV program in a classroom for teaching or educational purposes, such performance or display of the entire work may be allowed without permission under the face to face teaching exemption at 17 U.S.C. §110 (1). When showing a film in an online class, it may be considered fair use depending on how much of the ...
Educational use of images, video and audio
Educational use of images. Images can be powerful teaching tools as illustrations related to a class, or for studying concepts outside of the course context. Most of the time, showing things to students from physical media in in-person classes at the University of Minnesota is totally okay. There's a legal exception that only applies to ...
The Copyright Implications of Teaching with Videos
There are many pedagogical reasons faculty members choose to teach using video clips or even by showing full-length movies to their students during class. ... for educational purposes" when the person breaking the technology locks reasonably believes that non-circumventing methods of capturing the information would be insufficient "to ...
Copyright for Using Movies in The Classroom
Rented or Purchased Movies May Be Played By Teachers Without a License. Section 110 (1) of Title 17 of the United States Code grants a specific exemption from the copyright laws for: performance or display of a work by instructors or pupils in the course of face-to-face teaching activities of a nonprofit educational institution, in a classroom ...
Video in the Classroom
There are many ways you can use shorts bits of video or audio for student learning, from a introductory hook at the beginning of a lesson to a video that inspires a reflective homework assignment. Watch the video for more ideas. Also, many TV channels have streaming video clips to that you can show in the classroom.
Copyright and Fair Use: Showing Movies in Class and On Campus
When you're using a film, video, or TV program in a classroom for teaching or educational purposes, such performance or display of the entire work may be allowed without permission under the face to face teaching exemption at 17 U.S.C. §110 (1). When showing a film in an online class , it may be considered fair use depending on how much of the ...
Why You Should Use Movie Clips in Your Lessons
If used correctly, using movie clips in your lessons can be invaluable for fostering greater student learning and understanding. However, like anything else, movies can be used both effectively and ineffectively. For tips on using movies in your lessons and where to find educational movie clips, see the links below. This entry was posted in ...
ClassHook
We've curated over 7,400 educational videos and organized them by standards, topic, and unit for you. Skip the late nights and countless hours spent searching. ... Anytime I see a clip in a movie that I could use, I try and make a mental note but usually have a hard time accessing the movie. ... while YouTube is a general-purpose video platform ...
Examples: Video
However, given that the use is transformative and takes place for educational purposes, the use is more likely to be fair. Students are not normally expected to purchase copies of films as course materials; rather they rely on the copy acquired by the university library. ... Professor Soleway digitizes short clips from each of three movies ...
The Ultimate Guide to Copyright, Creative Commons, and Fair Use for
2) Embed Or Link To Audio Or Video Clips. If you're going to include a video or an audio clip, embed the file from the source and include a link as well. Don't download audio or video files as this brings up many questions about copyright. If you're embedding from a site like YouTube, make sure the content doesn't violate copyright law.
LibGuides: Copyright for Libraries: Videos/Movies
Using YouTube videos outside of the educational environment, especially for commercial purposes, may require permission. Is it lawful to make film clip compilations for use in the classroom? Yes, this use is a fair use.
Using Videos in the Classroom to Amplify Learning
Using Video Content to Amplify Learning. New teachers often struggle with finding multiple ways for students to access course content, and video clips can help. Teachers are always striving to show more and tell less when introducing students to new information, concepts, and skills. Education researcher Pauline Gibbons tells us, "Rather than ...
Using Movies for Effective Instruction
Spread the loveTeachers have always shown movies in the classroom, but most of the time we associate those movies with dead time, or non-instructional time. However, with the age of digital everything, the right movie can capture the attention of students and make a concept more concrete for student understanding. Study.com says that movies can enhance student learning but also be a poor use ...
Films and Videos
Updated 20 July 2021 Teachers regularly use films and videos for educational and other purposes. The films or video content could be from a range of sources such as Netflix, YouTube, Stan, Google Play, Amazon Prime, iTunes or Apple TV. What is a film? In this section, the term film refers to all audio-visual material
Can I use YouTube Clips For Training? (Copyright For Trainers)
If the clip is a movie, television program, or for that matter, any other media (music, MP3, jpg or other graphic or picture, you cannot use it without explicit permission. It doesn't matter who uploaded it. Don't use it. Fair use for "educational purposes" usually applies ONLY to accredited educational institutions (schools, universities).
Examples: Video
The original purpose of the DVD is to instruct nursing students in how to perform certain skills, and Professor Mercer wants to use the video for the same purpose. 2. Was the material taken appropriate in kind and amount, considering the nature of the copyrighted work and of the use? This video is a work of nonfiction, which favors fair use.
Fair use on YouTube
The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes. ... YouTube indemnifies creators whose fair use videos have been subject to removal requests for up to $1 million of legal costs in the event the removal results in a copyright infringement lawsuit.
A Guide to Licensing Educational Videos for Your Online ...
Approach the rights holders you've identified in step 2. Email is generally the best approach, as it allows you to keep a written record of the permissions you receive. Be sure each of the following terms is addressed in your correspondence: Term - The total length of time you are allowed to use the video.
Movie Clips for Students and Teachers
MovieComm has thousands of legally approved, ad free, easy to find movie clips that include some of the best movie scenes, from some of the most inspirational movies, ever made. Our innovative tool helps today's educators connect in a way that students want to be connected with…via short, entertaining and memorable video. Request a demo.

Copyright and Fair Use : Showing Films, Videos, and TV Programs

What Are Public Performance Rights (PPR)?

Films, Videos, and TV Programs

When Showing Is Not Part of a Course or Class

Student Groups, Clubs, and Organizations

Film Series

Training Programs

Showing Clips or Excerpts

Obtaining a PPR License

Commercial films

More about PPR Licenses

Further Reading

LINCOLN UNIVERSITY

PROUD PAST, PROGRESSIVE FUTURE

Copyright on Campus: Showing Movies in Class and on Campus

Showing Videos in Class and on Campus - What You Need to Know

Do I Need Public Performance Rights

Finding Movies with PPR at the UF Libraries

How to Obtain Public Performance Rights

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I Show a Video to My Online Class?

Resources for Free and Legal Streaming Video

Educational use of images, video and audio

Educational use of images

Lecture recordings and streaming with students

Terms of service affect media use

Sharing copies of video and audio with students

Student Assignments

The Copyright Implications of Teaching with Videos

Copyright Implications of Teaching with Videos

Face-to-Face Teaching and Section 110(1) of the U.S. Copyright Act

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act

Application of the DMCA to Online Teaching

The DMCA and TEACH Act

Fair Use

Checklists for Copyright Implications of Teaching with Videos

DMCA Exemption for Teaching with Videos Checklist

Looking for More Information?

About Copyrightlaws.com

Copyright Courses

COPYRIGHT FOR USING MOVIES

N.B.: The analysis on this web page applies only to copyrights in the United States of America. Copyright law may be different in other countries.

Video in the Classroom

What’s the classroom use exemption?

So if I am a teacher, I can’t show a movie as a reward?

Ok. So I found a blockbuster video related to my content, and I want to show the entire movie to my students. What’s next?

What about video clips or parts of a movie?

Share This Book

Copyright and Fair Use: Showing Movies in Class and On Campus

Showing Movies in Class and On Campus - What You Need to Know

Do I Need a Public Performance License?

Finding Free and Legal Streaming Film

Frequently Asked Questions about Showing Movies

University of Illinois Chicago

Search UIC Library Website

Copyright and Fair Use: Examples: Video

Fair Use Factors

Fair Use Guidelines for Digitizing Videos

Tips for using video in online education

Resources for using video in online education

Video example #1

Video example #2

Video example #3

Video example #4

Video example #5

Attribution

The Educator’s Guide to Copyright, Fair Use, and Creative Commons

Copyright Rules To Remember

What Is Copyright?

Finding Creative Commons Images

Copyright And Music

Copyright Infringement

Copyright Considerations When Publishing Online

Using Quotes In Blog Posts

What Is Fair Use?

What Is The Public Domain?

Example Public Domain Resources

What Is Creative Commons?

How To Attribute Creative Commons Images

Creative Commons Zero Images