• Introduction
• Course Management
  • Course Settings
  • Content Areas
    • Copyright & Fair Use
    • Adding Content
    • Copying Content
    • E-Reserves
  • User Management
• Assessments
• Grade Center
• Tools

Copyright & Fair Use

How does copyrightlaw and fair use apply when posting third-party materials to a Blackboardcourse site?

Faculty policy on copyright and electronic course content

The law permits faculty to provide access to copyrighted material for registered students using a Blackboard course site, but they must consider the application of copyright restrictions and exceptions when deciding how to proceed; these general measures and associated resources can help with that consideration:

• Linking to authorized copies on the Internet is always acceptable.  These copies may be posted to free sites by the rights holder (often government agency or NGO sites), or they may be contained in a licensed database to which the library subscribes (JSTOR, Academic Search Premier, etc.).  Creating links into these licensed databases.

• Video excerpts should be streamed, not made available for download.  It is almost never permissible to stream an entire film without permission, but limited portions will often be allowed under the TEACH Act.  Find out about applying the TEACH Act with a copyright review flow chart and a TEACH Act Checklist.
  

• Short excerpts of text, video and other copyrighted material may be permitted as fair use, a flexible exception to U.S. copyright law.
  • The Duke faculty has adopted guidelines regarding fair use for electronic course content available.
  • Fair use allows for short excerpts and is not intended to posting of material in lieu of a reasonable expectation that students should buy the work in question.
  • Access to such material must be limited to students registered for the specific course; it is important that “guest access” not be allowed when copyrighted material is included on the site.

• Where no exception seems to authorize the use, permission from the rights holder should be sought.  In the case of text, the Copyright Clearance Center,  can often help.  The library staff can also assist in locating the appropriate copyright holder from whom to seek permission.