WCCC Library: Copyright Policy

The links below are offered as additional resources regarding copyright law and infringement. 

404 COPYRIGHT POLICY

Warren County Community College shall comply with the 1976 Copyright Act through the following guidelines and standards of educational fair use as specified under Section 107 of H.R. 2223.

404.1  GUIDELINES FOR CLASSROOM COPYING WITH RESPECT TO BOOKS AND PERIODICALS

I Single Copying for Teachers

A single copy may be made of any of the following by or for a teacher at his or her individual request for his or her scholarly research or use in teaching or preparation to teach a class:

1. A chapter from a book;
2. An article from a periodical or newspaper;
3. A short story, short essay or short poem, whether or not from a collective work;
4. A chart, graph, diagram, drawing, cartoon picture from a book, periodical, or newspaper;

II Multiple Copies for Classroom Use

Multiple copies (not to exceed in any event more than one copy per pupil in a course) may be made by or for the teacher giving the course for classroom use or discussion; provided that:

1. The copying meets the tests of brevity and spontaneity as defined below; and,
2. Meets the cumulative effect test as defined below; and,
3. Each copy includes a notice of copyright

DEFINITIONS:

Brevity:

1. Poetry

(a) A complete poem if less than 250 words and if printed on not more than two pages or,
(b) from a longer poem, an excerpt of not more than 250 words.

2   Prose

(a) Either a complete article, story or essay of less than 2,500 words, or

(b) an excerpt from any prose work of not more than 1,000 words or 10% of the work, whichever is less, but in any event a minimum of 500 words.

[Each of the numerical limits stated in 1 and 2 above may be expanded to permit the completion of an unfinished line of a poem or of an unfinished prose paragraph.]

3.  Illustration

One chart, graph, diagram, drawing, cartoon or picture per book or per periodical issue.

4.   “Special” works: Certain works in poetry, prose or in “poetic prose” which often combine language with illustrations and which are intended sometimes for children and at other times for a more general audience fall short of 2,500 words in their entirety.

Paragraph 2 above notwithstanding such “special works” may not be reproduced in their entirety; however, an excerpt comprising not more than two of the published pages of such special work and containing not more than 10% of the words found in the text thereof, may be reproduced.

Spontaneity:

1. The copying is at the instance and inspiration of the individual teacher, and

2. The inspiration and decision to use the work and the moment of its use for maximum teaching effectiveness are so close in time that it would be unreasonable to expect a timely reply to a request for permission.

Cumulative Effect:

1. The copying of the material is for only one course in the school in which the copies are made.

2. Not more than one short poem, article, story, essay or two excerpts may be copied from the same author, nor more than three from the same collective work or periodical volume during one class term.

3. There shall not be more than nine instances of such multiple copying for one course during one class term.

[The limitations stated in 2 and 3 above shall not apply to current news periodicals and newspapers and current news sections of other periodicals.]

III. PROHIBITIONS TO I AND II ABOVE

Notwithstanding any of the above, the following shall be prohibited:

A. Copying shall not be used to create or to replace or substitute for anthologies, compilations or collective works. Such replacement or substitution may occur whether copies of various works or excerpts therefrom are accumulated or reproduced and used separately.

B. There shall be no copying of or from works intended to be “consumable” in the course of study or of teaching. These include workbooks, exercises, standardized tests and test booklets and answer sheets and like consumable material.

C. Copying shall not:

a. substitute for the purchase of books, publishers’ reprints or periodicals;

b. be directed by higher authority;

c. be repeated with respect to the same item by the same teacher from term to  term.

D. No charge shall be made to the student beyond the actual cost of the photocopying.

404.2 GUIDELINES FOR CLASSROOM COPYING WITH RESPECT TO MULTIMEDIA  WORKS

Creators of multimedia products for course-related work may prepare a total of three copies, one of which is for preservation and replacement purposes only. One of the copies may be placed on Library Reserve. Fair Use status expires two years after the first instructional use of a particular multimedia product.

Multimedia products should contain an opening screen notice that credits the sources, displays the  copyright notice and copyright ownership information if shown in the original source. Crediting the source must adequately identify the source of the work, giving a full bibliographic description where available. The copyright notice includes the word “Copyright” or the copyright symbol, the name of the copyright holder, and the year of first publication. Any alterations of copyrighted items must be noted.

There are quantitative portion limitations that specify how much of copy-right protected sources may be included in multimedia products prepared by students or faculty for course-related work. Use of larger portions requires permission from copyright owners.

1. Text
   Up to 10% or 1000 words of a source, whichever is less. An entire poem of less than 250 words, but no more than 3 poems or excerpts by one poet. No more than 5 poems or excerpts from one anthology.
2. Music, Lyrics, Music Video
   Up to 10% but not more than 30 seconds total from an individual work
3. Motion Media
   Up to 10% or 3 minutes of a source, whichever is less.
4. Ilustrations, Photographs
   No more than 5 images by one artist or photographer. No more than 10% or 15 images, whichever is less, from any single published work.
5. Numerical Data Sets
   Up to 10% or 2500 fields or cell entries, whichever is less.
6. Internet Sources
   Though it can be difficult to determine what is copyright protected and what is in the public domain, the multimedia creator is responsible for adhering to copyright law.
7. Opening screen notice
   “Certain materials are included under the fair use exemption of U.S. Copyright Law and have been prepared according to the educational multimedia fair use guidelines and are restricted from further use.”