THE COPYRIGHT LAW AND FAIR USE GUIDELINES FOR MULTIMEDIA NAME:

1. Define copyright law:

Laws designed to protect intellectual property rights and provide potential monetary rewards for
inventiveness and hard work.

2. The Copyright Act of 1976 protects certain original works of authorship, whether ________published______________
or __________unpublished____________________.
a. Protects works that are:

3. What does the copyright law cover?

literary works motion pictures

musical works sound recordings

dramatic works architectural works

pantomimes pictorial

4. What types of things are NOT covered?

ideas short phrases facts

titles names blank forms

5. Trademarks and Copyrights are different. Trademarks are not covered by the copyright law, but by the
___trademark________________ Law. What is a trademark? Give an example.

When you do “own” a copyright on work you’ve created?

You automatically own the copyright to any work you create as soon as it is fixed in a tangible
medium.
6.
a. How can you indicate ownership?
You can indicate ownership by using the expression “copyright by” or the © symbol.
b. Is it necessary to register with the U.S. Copyright office? Why or why not?
You can register for ownership with the U.S. Copyright office; this does provide you with
additional legal benefits.
7. Exception to Ownership: In the case of ________worls__________ ____made_____________for
______hire___________, the employer and ______not_____ the employee is considered to be the author. Section 101
of the copyright law defines a “work made for hire” as:
● A work prepared by an employee within the scope of his or her ___________employment_______________; or
● A work specially ordered or __________________commissioned
8. Rights of the Owner: Under normal situations, you have the right to:
a. _____reproduce_____________________ the work
b. Distribute ___________copies________________ of the work

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 THE COPYRIGHT LAW AND FAIR USE GUIDELINES FOR MULTIMEDIA NAME:

c. Make a “derivative” work—make ____________work________________ or ___________make

copies___________ from the original
d. Publicly __________perform____________________________ the work
e. Put the work on _________public_______________________ display.
If you perform any of these tasks and are NOT the copyright owner, you are infringing on their rights. List three
examples of copyright infringement.

9. When developing multimedia projects, we must always keep the copyright law in mind. There are several alternatives
when we are looking for music, images, video, etc. for our projects: Fair Use, public domain, royalty free.

10. Fair Use Guidelines for Educational Multimedia says that: ____________portions____________________,or in some
cases the ________entirety_________________ of copyrighted works may be used; the legitimate uses include:
_____criticism_____________, comment, ______news_________ ____reporting__________________, teaching,
scholarship, or _________research_________________.

a. For use to fall under the guidelines, the following factors must be considered: 1) Purpose and character of
use—is it for commercial or non-profit education use; 2) What is the nature of the copyrighted work; 3) The
amount of the portion being used; 4) The effect of the use on the potential market value of the product.

b. Fair Use Limitations:

Motion media 10% or 3 minutes, whichever is less

Text material 10% or 1000 words, whichever is less

Music 10% or 3 minutes, whichever is less

Photographs / 5 images per photographer/ artist; 10% or

Illustrations 15 images from a collective work

c.
d. The Fair Use Guidelines require that you _______credit____________ your sources. “Educators and
students are reminded to credit the sources and display the copyright notice and copyright ownership
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 THE COPYRIGHT LAW AND FAIR USE GUIDELINES FOR MULTIMEDIA NAME:

information . . . .”

11. Public Domain: property rights that belong to the _________community_____________ at large; are
______unprotected________________ by the copyright law and are subject to use by
________anyone______________.
a. Caution: Be sure you have _documentation that the item is in public domain before using it
b. _____Property rights that belong to the community at large, are unprotected by copyright or
patent, and are subject to use by anyone
You should have documentation that the item is in public domain before
using it
1. Anything published before 1923
2. Anything created by the U.S. Federal Government

c. Public domain is not the same as _________freeware_______________ or

_________shareware_________________.
Freeware: software that is provided _______________without a
charge_____________________________.
Shareware: ________copyrighted__________________ software that is available
__________________ of charge on a _______trial___________ basis.

12. Royalty-free: Prepared material that can be used ________legaly__________________ without paying a
___fee_________ to the artist, publishing company, etc. Some royalty-free material is available at ______________
______________; most material must be ________purchesed______________________. Royalty-free doesn’t
necessarily mean ____free________. You may have to pay for it.
⦿ REMEMBER: _______CREDIT_______________ your sources!
⦿ When you create a work, you ___own________ the rights to that work.
⦿ Creating projects for the classroom is not necessarily the same as creating projects for competition—know the
guidelines.
⦿ It is permissible to download limited amounts of material for use in a student project, but you can’t download
material from one web site and post it to yours.
⦿ Know that royalty-free doesn’t mean unlimited rights—but it does expand your options
⦿ There is a difference in personal use, educational use, and the workplace.

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