Copyright defined	According to the US Copyright Office of the Library of Congress, copyright is a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States (title 17, U.S. Code) to the authors of "original works of authorship," including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works. Titles, names, short phrases, slogans, logos, URL’s are not eligible for copyright protection.
Rights to the owner	A copyright owner is given rights to reproduce, distribute, adapt, publicly perform and display the original work. Copyright protection extends through the life of the creator plus 70 years.
History	The US Copyright Office also offers a brief history of copyright from the enactment by Congress of the first federal copyright law in May 1790 to the provisions of the (TEACH) Act of 2002.
Public domain	Older materials or US government publications are considered to lie in the public domain and may not be subject to copyright restrictions. This material may be used without permission but the original source should still be credited.
Copyright symbol	The absence of a copyright symbol © does not indicate that material is without copyright restrictions. Most nations follow the Berne copyright convention recognizing works created after April 1, 1989 to be protected whether or not a copyright notice is present
Fair Use	The fair use doctrine allows certain materials to be used for nonprofit, educational purposes without fees or permission and balances the exclusive protection of copyright law. The 1976 Copyright Act put forth four criteria to determine fair use: purpose and character of the use, nature of the work, amount used and effect of the use on the work’s potential market value.
Guidelines for educational multimedia	A 1994 Conference on Fair Use (CONFU) developed guidelines to determine fair use portions of copyrighted works in educational multimedia projects: Motion Media - Up to 10% or 3 minutes (whichever is less). Text Material - Up to 10% or 1000 words (whichever is less). Poem - An entire poem with less than 250 words, 3 poems by same author and 5 poems by different author. Music, Lyrics, Music Video - Up to 10% of an individual work (no more than 30 seconds per event). Illustrations and Photographs - Up to 5 images by an artist or photographer may be reproduced or incorporated. Up to 10% or 15 images (whichever is less) from a published collective work. Numerical data sets - Up to 10% or 2500 fields or cell entries (whichever is less) from a copyrighted data table may be incorporated.
Online copyright educational tools	Office of Information Technology Policy provides two online copyright education tools: Fair Use Evaluator helps users understand how to determine if the use of a protected work is a fair use. Exceptions for Instructors eTool guides users through the educational exceptions in U.S. copyright law.
Permission to use copyrighted material	In order to use an excerpt from an Internet document, you should list the source according to accepted bibliographic citation practice. However, acknowledging the source of copyright does not substitute for requesting permission to use an entire work or material not covered by the fair use guidelines. You should email the author of Internet material and include the following information: Your name and email address Request permission to use copyrighted work Identify the group to which Internet material will be distributed Explain how you will use material and how much you will use Indicate how many copies you wish to distribute You will usually receive a favorable reply to your request but do not assume that no reply equals permission. Keep received permission on file. Place a notice at the bottom of page or project crediting the original author, noting that you received permission on a particular date. Include the URL of the original source.
Implications	It is acceptable for a student to incorporate an approved portion of copyrighted material into a written or multimedia report or PowerPoint presentation. Such material should not be posted on a web site or included in a publication. Plagiarism of Internet material amounts to theft of intellectual property and can be dealt with the same as theft of physical property. Copyright is federal law. Violators can be fined and penalized.
Additional information	ALA Copyright Information - Updated news from American Library Association Copyright and Fair Use - Stanford University Libraries Copyright and Fair Use Guidelines for Teachers by Hall Davidson (pdf chart) Copyright & Fair Use in Teaching Resources - The Center for Social Media in the School of Communication at American University Copyright, copyleft, copyfree - A journey through the copyright maze Copyright: Ethical and Legal Issues - PowerPoint slide presentation from Carol Simpson at the University of North Texas Copyright friendly wiki pathfinder - Copyright-Friendly and Copyleft Images and Sound (Mostly!) for Use in Media Projects and Web Pages, Blogs, Wikis, etc. Copyright with Cyberbee - Linda Joseph’s excellent animated tutorial Library of Congress Copyright and Primary Sources information for teachers and Taking the Mystery Out of Copyright activity for students Michigan Library Consortium Copyright Links - updates on blogs, music copyright, orphan works, TEACH Act and more. Ten Big Myths about copyright explained - Brad Templeton A Visit to Copyright Bay - an informative and entertaining activity

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