1. By Dee Arnold

2. Copyright infringement is the act of violating any of a copyright owner’s exclusive rights granted by the federal Copyright Act. There are three elements that must be in place in order for the infringement to occur. The copyright holder must have a valid copyright. The person who is allegedly infringing must have access to the copyrighted work. The duplication of the copyrighted work must be outside the exceptions. The legal penalties for copyright infringement are: Infringer pays the actual dollar amount of damages and profits. The law provides a range from $200 to $150,000 for each work infringed. Infringer pays for all attorneys fees and court costs. The Court can issue an injunction to stop the infringing acts. The Court can impound the illegal works. The infringer can go to jail. PENALTY FOR COPYRGHT INFRINGEMENT

3. Fair use is one of the exceptions in copyright which allows use of copyrighted materials without obtaining permission as long as the use can be considered fair. There is a four-factor analysis which must be applied to each use to determine whether the use is fair. Each factor is given equal weight. The goal is to achieve a balance between the rights of the copyright holder with the rights of the public. Fair use is also technologically neutral so the same analysis may be applied to any medium. It is important that the four factors be understood and applied diligently. Should someone claim that their copyright has been infringed, the court can reduce the amount of money damages if the alleged infringer can show that they understood the fair use analysis and made a good faith determination that their use was fair. FAIR USE

4. Section 107 contains a list of the various purposes for which the reproduction of a particular work may be considered fair, such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Section 107 also sets out four factors to be considered in determining whether or not a particular use is fair: 1 The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes. 2 The nature of the copyrighted work. 3 The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole. 4 The effect of the use upon the potential market for, or value of, the copyrighted work. CONDITIONS FOR DECIDING FAIR USE

5. Examples of multimedia use NOT likely to be considered "fair" would be: Using a song downloaded with P2P file sharing software OR "ripped" into another format (like mp3) from a CD the student owned in a PowerPoint presentation, and then posting that presentation (including the used audio file) on a publicly accessible internet website. Using a trademarked logo (like a Disney cartoon character) in a published student project, which is subsequently posted online. Creating an online gallery of photos or scanned images, including ones for which permission for redistribution / online sharing has not been obtained in writing by the original author(s) or copyright holder(s). Creating a school logo or other customized image using a trademarked logo, and then selling t-shirts with the logo transferred onto them as a fundraiser. Examples of multimedia use LIKELY to be considered "fair" would be: Utilizing graphics copied from internet websites in a PowerPoint presentation shared with a limited audience, either strictly face to face or online in a password protected website. Using sound clips or entire songs in a multimedia presentation, shared under the same restrictions as #1 above. MULTIMEDIA IN THE CLASSSROOM

6. The Teach Act (Technology, Education, and Copyright Harmonization Act) was signed into law by President George Bush on November 2, 2002, It provides specific educational use copyright exemptions, largely applicable to distance education contexts. It also limits the liability of educational institutions for instances of copyright infringement by academic instructors under certain circumstances. It imposes requirements on educational organizations, however, which must be followed for these authorized uses and liability limitations to be in effect. Find the copyright owner and ask. There are no special forms that must be used, and permission can be oral or written, though it is good practice to obtain permission in writing. The copyright owner is free to charge whatever fee he or she wishes, though the user is likewise free to try to negotiate a lower fee. Most major publishers and periodicals have a "permissions desk" or a "rights editor," and a written request addressed in this way will usually find its way to the right person. You should specify the publication you wish to take from; the precise pages, chapters, photographs or the like you want to use; how many copies you want to make; and the purpose of your use. Many permissions desks now accept requests by e-mail or through the publisher's website. PERMISSION TO USE

7. You should abide by the following principles when you access a database or other electronic source of information from your own computer. You are free to read, watch or listen to any material to which you have authorized access, even if it is copyrighted. (In some cases you may have to pay a fee to do this.) Because downloading material to your own computer necessarily makes an electronic copy of it (and because printing what you've downloaded makes another copy), a copyright owner is entitled to prohibit downloading and printing. Remember that the site owner is not necessarily the copyright holder of the site's content. A site owner may hold the copyright to some materials but not others, or to none of it. Requests for permission should be directed to the copyright holder, not necessarily the website owner. Look for a copyright notice on the material. The notice may be on the opening screen, a home page, an "About this Program" screen, or at the beginning or end of individual items (such as an article or a graphic) within the database. If you are in a commercial database that charges a fee for searching material, and also permits you to download or print the material through mouse or key-stroke commands, you may assume that the copyright owner has authorized the operator of the database to allow users to download and print. You may pay an additional fee for this privilege. Multiple copies for classroom use may require additional fees. CONDITIONS, GUIDELINES AND RULES FOR USING OTHER WORKS

8. Creating original images from drawing and painting programs. The best way to obtain images is to create them in a drawing or other image creation program. In doing so, however, it is best to start from scratch rather than from someone else's creation. Even if an image is significantly altered, the new image may infringe upon the copyright in the first image by being a "derivative work." Taking images from third-parties. The simple rule is, "Don't steal someone else's images." The moment an original image (or string of text) is fixed on a hard drive for the first time, it is protected by copyright. Any unauthorized copying of a protected image is an infringement of the creator's copyright, unless the use falls within one of the very limited exceptions to the copyright law, such as "fair use." In most cases, it is unlikely that the incorporation of an image into a commercial web-site would be considered a fair use. Licensed images from the Internet. Some images, such as Microsoft's "Internet Explorer" logo, may be copied, but only if the would-be copier accepts the terms of a license defining the permissible uses of the image. Often such licenses provide that the copier cannot alter the appearance of the image in any way, and may use the image as a link only to certain designated sites. (An example of a logo license agreement can be found on MSNBC's web-site.) Clip-art Libraries Provided with Software. Other sources of licensed images include clip-art files, such as those provided with Claris Home Page, Microsoft Front Page, and Adobe PageMill software. Incorporating clip- art from these libraries into a page does not violate copyright law, as these images are licensed to the purchaser of the software for this purpose. To avoid liability, however, a webmaster must be careful to obey the terms of all applicable license agreements. For instance, the license may not allow a user to alter the images in any significant way. Free Images Off the Internet. Some web sites provide images that are for use by others. These images may be used in a web page, as long as the terms proposed by the image creator are followed. Typically, these sites only require that some type of credit is given to the author, including a link back to the author's site. However, there remains the possibility that the images were misappropriated at some point and were not original creations of the alleged author. In these cases, use of the images may infringe the copyright rights of the original author. CONSIDERATIONS FOR WEBSITE CREATORS

9. According to the Fair Use Doctrine (Section 110 (5) of the Copyright Act of 1976), it is allowable to use "limited portions" of a copyrighted item for works such as commentary, news reporting, academic reports, and the like. But you still have to give credit. You cannot claim the work as yours. You must cite where it came from. The tricky part is that there is no set number of words that equal "limited portions." It's a tough call. My suggestion is to be fair to the person with the copyright Don't post the whole site and give credit on only one page. The copyright laws that apply to written material, photographs, and a myriad of other items apply on the Internet too. You cannot just take and use what ever you feel like. CONCLUSION

10. Office of General Counsel: Harvard University http://ogc.harvard.edu/pages/copyright-and-fair-use Purdue University Copyright Office https://www.lib:.purdue.edu/uco/CopyrightBasics/penalties.htm l Tools for TEKS: Integrating Technology in the Classroom http://www.wtvi.com/teks/02_03_articles/copyright.html REFERENCES