Brandon Butler on Copyright and Fair use -- Challenging some Urban Myths

If you are one of the folks who has been concerned about fair use and what that means for your use of other folks' materials in your teaching, you may find Brandon Butler's reading of the law a breath of fresh air.

Butler, from the Association of Research Libraries, has worked with copyright and fair use for many years.  He came to Auburn University at the end of October to provide us with a new way of thinking about fair use.

Lesson 1:  Do not worry about percentages or how much you can take

These seemingly set in stone rules are simply special agreements that were created for particular cases and then got lives of their own.

Lesson 2:  Think about transformation and community practice.

So, instead of getting hung up on how many words, pages, or seconds you are using, think instead about
Is the use of the material transformative, that is, am I providing a new framework, or perspective for it that let's us experience the material in a new way, different from the original intent.  For example, if I take an image of an art work and add it to my web site for beautification, then I am not really changing the original intent of the art work.  However, if I am then discussing the image in the critical light of a social, cultural, historical context, the image is transformed.

And if you are a member of a community that does things in a certain way, has always done things in a certain way (eg, display multiple choices on a draft board) then moving this kind of display online does not change the community practice -- key is that the practice has to be accepted.

Some more Resources

Butler shared a couple of handouts with us
Infograph about Fair Use
Online Resources
Video of Butler's Talk