Course Management Systems and Copyright at IUPUI

A Project of the
IUPUI Copyright Management Center

Kenneth D. Crews, Associate Dean of the Faculties for Copyright Management
David Wong, Senior Copyright Analyst
Patrick Okorodudu, Esq. UITS Copyright Coordinator

Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis
530 West New York Street
Indianapolis, Indiana 46202
Voice: 317-274-4400 Fax: 317-278-3326
http://www.copyright.iupui.edu

 

Introduction
What is “Fair Use”?
How Does Fair Use Apply to IUPUI Course Management Systems?

1. Purpose of the Use
2. Nature of the Work
3. Amount of the Work
4. Effect on the Market for the Original

Permission to Post Materials
Alternative Methods of Information Delivery

1. Provide Links to Materials for Students
2. Traditional Coursepacks
3. Requiring Students to Purchase Materials
4. ERROL

Introduction
Placing articles and other materials on any university-supported Course Management System (CMS)1 such as Oncourse or Angel raises challenging questions about copyright. These systems must provide material within the context and limits of copyright law. ²

Current copyright law gives legal protection to nearly all readings and other course materials that an instructor might place on an electronic delivery system.³
Materials may be offered on such systems only if:

1 The instructor is the copyright owner of the material, ⁴ or
2 The copyright owner of the material grants permission, or
3 The use of the material is a "fair use" under the law, or
4 The material is in the public domain,⁵ or
5 The material falls within another statutory exception.⁶

What is "Fair Use"?
Fair use is a legal doctrine that allows the public to make limited uses of copyrighted works without permission. For information about fair use at IUPUI and Indiana University, see: Copyright Management Center: Fair-Use Issues.

Fair use may not be what you expect. Simple, clean, concise rules do not exist in the law of fair use. For example: Do not assume that a nonprofit, educational use is inherently fair use. Do not assume that giving credit for the source of the work inherently creates a fair use. Do not assume that limiting access tomaterials to students in the class inherently creates a fair use. On the other hand, proper application of fair use can prove to be extremely beneficial to the instructor, the students, and the educational process as a whole.

How Does Fair Use Apply to Oncourse, Angel, and other CMS?
The following are general standards suggested by the IUPUI Copyright Management Center to give fair use some practical application. Instructors and others at IUPUI who are using methods of electronic delivery of materials other than Oncourse and Angel should also consider these standards when evaluating whether their activities are within fair use.

Fair use depends on a balancing of four factors outlined in the copyright statutes. These factors may be addressed by a variety of means. Listed below with each factor are some suggestions that may be helpful in conducting fair-use analyses. Because each situation will be different, instructors must also consider other possibilities and weigh them in the balance for each fair-use determination. One need not necessarily take every possible precaution and satisfy all four of the statutory factors; hence, some adjusting of the implementation of the following procedure may still keep your activities within the boundaries of permitted use. For scenarios applying the factors of fair use, see: Common Scenarios of Fair Use Issues: Posting Materials on Course Management Systems.

To establish the strongest basis for fair use, consider and apply the four factors along the lines of these suggestions:

1. Purpose of the Use
• Materials should be placed or posted on the CMS only for the purpose of serving the needs of specified educational programs.
• Materials should be placed or posted on the CMS only at the specific request of the instructor.
• Access to materials should be limited by password or other means to deter unauthorized access beyond students enrolled in the specific course for which the materials are needed.
• Students should not be charged a fee specifically or directly for access to materials placed on the CMS, and no person or unit at the university should benefit monetarily from the use of the material.

2. Nature of the Work
• Only those portions of the work relevant to the educational objectives of the course should be placed on the CMS.
• The law of fair use applies more narrowly to highly creative works; accordingly, avoid substantial excerpts from novels, short stories, poetry, modern art images, and other such materials.
• Instructors should carefully review uses of “consumable” materials such, as test forms and workbook pages that are meant to be used and repurchased.

3. Amount of the Work
• Materials placed or posted on CMS will generally be limited to brief works or brief excerpts from longer works. Examples: a single chapter from a book, a single article from a journal, and individual news articles.
• The amount of the work placed on should be related directly to the educational objectives of the course.

4. Effect of the Use on the Market for the Original

• Try to avoid repeat use of the same materials by the same instructor for the same course.
• Materials posted on a CMS should include a citation to the original source of publication and a form of a copyright notice. For suggested forms of the notice, see: Copyright Management Center: Copyright Notices for Supervised Library Copying. The instructor should also advise students that the materials are made available exclusively for use by students enrolled in the course and must not be distributed beyond that limited group.
Access to materials should be limited by password or other means to deter unauthorized access beyond students enrolled in the specific course for which the specific materials are needed. ⁷
• The CMS should not include any material unless the instructor, the library, or another unit of the educational institution possesses a lawfully obtained copy.
• Materials on the CMS should not include works that are reasonably available and affordable for students to purchase—whether as a book, coursepack, or other format.

Permission to Post Materials
Permission from the copyright owner is an important option for posting materials on Oncourse. Instructors at IUPUI are ultimately responsible for securing permission to place material on Oncourse as needed. Consider your alternatives. The easiest is simply to link from Oncourse to any of the IU and IUPUI University Libraries licensed databases. A link may be made directly from Oncourse to the database that includes the desired material. The IU and IUPUI University Libraries can help you locate and make those links. Simple links to other Internet sites also generally do not raise copyright concerns. For more information about permissions, see: Copyright Management Center: How to Secure Permission to Use Copyrighted Works.

Alternative Methods of Information Delivery
Instructors may want to consider alternative methods of providing students with materials for various reasons. Some alternatives may avoid copyright problems; other choices may be best suited for your educational objectives.

1. Providing Links to Materials for Students. Linking to materials already lawfully posted on the Internet or available through library databases is often the most efficient method of providing materials to students. Consult with the librarians about the online availability of many journals and other full-text.

2. Traditional Coursepacks. Consider using coursepacks if permission to post materials electronically is denied by the copyright owner but permission is available for creating hardcopies of the same materials.

3. Requiring Students to Purchase Materials. Encourage students to purchase materials if available at reasonable cost. Simple purchases seldom raise copyright issues.

4. ERROL is the electronic reserve system operated by the IUPUI University Library. The University Library’s Reserves Team can assist you with using this electronic-reserve system, but it does raise significant copyright issues. For more information about applying copyright law to ERROL, see: http://errol.iupui.edu/

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1 Course Management Systems include: Oncourse, Angel, and other electronic information delivery systems.

2 Copyright law provides the owner of the copyright with the exclusive right to reproduce, distribute, perform, display or make derivative works of their materials subject to certain statutory exceptions. In most cases, posting copyrighted materials on a CMS implicates one or more of these rights.Return to text.

3 Copyright law generally gives automatic protection to "original" works that are "fixed" in any medium. Consequently, the law protects articles, books, photographs, software, music, and an enormous range of new works that are stored on paper, on disk, or in almost any medium. Return to text.

4 In general, the instructor will only be the copyright owner of materials created by that individual, and only then if the instructor has not assigned the copyright to another party. Faculty authors frequently assign their copyrights to publishers, most often under the terms of a publication agreement for a journal article or other work. Read the fine print in the contracts carefully to determine who may be the copyright owner of your own work. For further information, see "Guidance for Faculty on Copyright, Publication and General Research Dissemination," Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis, Circular 96-23, April 23, 1996. Return to text.

5 Some works are in the public domain and lack copyright protection typically because the copyright has expired or because the work is a "work of the U.S. Government." For more information about these possibilities, see: Copyright Management Center: Copyright Quickguide. Professor Laura N. Gasaway of the University of North Carolina has prepared a chart that succinctly summarizes when copyrights expire. Return to text.

6 The Copyright Act enumerates several exceptions to the exclusive rights held by the copyright owner. Many of the exceptions are narrowly constructed and compliance with the law will involve meticulous planning. For more information, see: Statutory Exceptions to the Exclusive Rights of Copyright Owners. Return to text.

7 This condition is identical to the condition stated with respect to the "purpose" factor. This one fact—limiting access—can be important to at least two of the four factors in fair-use law. Return to text.

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