See UD’s Copyright and Fair Use in Instruction Policy
See UD Library, Museums and Press Research Guide to Copyright Basics
See the UD Library, Museums and Press Copyright Questions for Teaching a Course Remotely
Note: Nigel references a previous version of the University’s Copyright Policy. The Research Guide linked above is extensive and is periodically updated.
From Nigel Caplan
April 9, 2015
I’d like to send out this reminder about copyright, especially as pertains to unauthorized copying from textbooks.
This document is the University’s interpretation of U.S. copyright law and court precedents. In particular, I’d like to draw your attention to the following:
1. “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.”
We should take this to mean that any and all copying of pages from ESL textbooks that are not assigned for your course is a violation of the copyright policy. The vast majority of ESL textbooks are considered workbooks under this provision since students can and do write answers in the book. This is why we expect students to buy new or clean books. So, they are consumable, even if they are not labelled as a workbook.
2. There is a Fair Use provision in the Copyright Act. (However, it does not apply to consumable textbooks, as stated above.) You may copy brief portions of other materials, generally defined as a chapter or <10% of the words, with certain other stipulations (p. 5), but please note:
“Copying shall not: i.substitute for the purchase of books, publisher’s reprints or periodicals; ii. be directed by higher authority; or iii. be repeated with respect to the same item by the same teacher from term to term”
This means you cannot create a “pack” of copyrighted resources and use them every session or give them to colleagues. (And also “the voices in my head made me do it” appears to be ruled out by item ii.)
Coursepacks produced UD Printing are exempted from these rules because the appropriate permissions are sought, and authors/publishers are compensated as required by law.
We are not exempt from copyright law under a blanket “educational purposes” provision or because “it’s only a page/a few pages/<10% of the book”. This is not a criticism of anyone — goodness knows I’ve broken all these rules at some time! — but please view this reminder as an opportunity to improve our practices, and maybe reduce paper use as well.
If you are photocopying from other books because of weaknesses with your current textbook(s), please talk to your level coordinator and/or contact Mikie Sarmiento, Chair of the Textbook Committee. The committee is always willing to consider requests to pilot new and improved books.
Thank you for your attention to this public service announcement. CEA standards require all teachers to be aware of copyright policy, and best practices dictate that we should be models of appropriate source use while we are teaching our students about the importance of academic honesty and avoiding plagiarism.
Cheers
Nigel