Copyright
Definitions
Copyright – A copyright is a legal device that gives the creator of a literary, artistic, musical, 
or other creative work the sole right to publish and sell that work. Copyright owners have the 
right to control the reproduction of their work, including the right to receive payment for that 
reproduction.

Public Domain – If a work is in the Public Domain, you may use it without permission. All U.S. Government publications are in the Public Domain. Works published more than 75 years ago are usually in the Public Domain.

Fair Use – Students may use portions of lawfully acquired copyrighted works in their academic 
multimedia projects, with proper credit and citations. This is called fair use. They may retain 
them in personal portfolios as examples of their academic work. Fair use ends when the 
multimedia creator loses control of his product’s use, such as when it is accessed by others 
over the Internet. Educators and students need not write for permission if their presentation 
falls within the specific multimedia fair use guidelines.

Copyright for Multimedia Presentations Shown in a Classroom
Before using a picture, text, music, video, lyric, or illustration in your multimedia presentation, 
think about who owns that information and ask yourself if it’s legal to use.

You may use portions of copyrighted works in your multimedia projects with proper credit 
and citations. You may retain them in personal portfolios as examples of your academic work.

On the Internet, there is a mix of copyrighted works and works in the public domain. Just 
because it is technically easy to copy a picture from the Internet, does not mean that you have 
the right to use it without following certain guidelines.

Works in the public domain mean you can use them without following the guidelines. However, 
be cautious. Some works may be posted on the Internet without authorization of the copyright 
holder and it may appear that the works are in the public domain.

As a student, you can use copyrighted materials in multimedia presentations if you follow 
these guidelines:

  • portion limits are observed
    • motion - up to 10% or 3 minutes, whichever is less
    • text - up to 10% or 1000 words, whichever is less; poem less than 250 words; no 
      more than 5 poems of different poets from an anthology; only 3 poems per poet
    • music, sound - up to 10% but not more than 30 seconds
    • video - up to 10% but not more than 3 minutes
    • illustrations/photographs - no more than 5 images by an artist, or 10% or 15 
      images from a published collected work
  • opening slide
            The first slide of your project must include a notice that the following work 
            contains copyrighted  materials that have been incorporated under the fair use 
            exemption.
  • multimedia presentation citations

You must credit sources, giving full bibliographic information when available. Copyright information for images may be shown in a separate bibliographic section.

Copyright for Internet Pages
If you are going to publish a web page, there are a lot of items that you need to consider:

  • Copyrighted material

If you see an item you would like to use on your web page, you must ask permission to use it if it’s copyrighted. Example: If you wanted to use Mickey Mouse on your page, you would have to contact Disney and obtain a license to use the image. The license would spell out how you could use the image, how much you would have to pay, and any other conditions and restrictions.

  • Public Domain

If you see an item on some else’s web page that is in the public domain, you are free to download it and incorporate it into your web page.

  • Implied Public Access

You are able to attach hypertext links to any other location on the web and others have the permission to link to your web page.

  • Original Material

Your original text, graphics, audio, video are eligible for copyright protection as soon as you have placed them on the web.

Internet Sites for Additional Information on Copyright:

Copyright for Educators
Copyright in an Electronic Environment - North Carolina Public Schools
10 Big Myths about copyright explained
The Copyright Website
U.S. Copyright Office
 Crash Course in Copyright

Meridian High School Library