5. ✪ Individuals can be held liable for their own actions if they copy and distribute other copyrighted works without permission. ✪ Educational institutions, including libraries can also be held liable for the actions of their employees or anyone who accesses the internet on their machines. ✪ Any employee or student must be aware of their responsibility of complying with copyright law and any policies in place at their educational institution. ✪ Any complaint of copyright infringement is subject to prompt investigation. Educators that ignore policy are likely to be responsible for their own defense.
6. ✪ You as an individual are as susceptible to being sued, not just the educational institution with which you are employed. ✪ Courts can award up to $150,000 for each separate act of willfull infringement. ✪ Ignorance of copyright law and policy does not excuse you from being liable for damages as well as attorney fees. ✪ If you disregard advice a court would be free to award the highest level of damages available. ✪ If policy, you are an excellent target for lawsuit. ✪ The Good Faith Fair Use Defense – a special provision of the law that requires a court to refuse to refuse to award any damages even if the copying was not fair use. It is only applicable if the person who copied the material reasonably believed that what she or she did was in far use. ✪ Ignoring any institutional policy or terms of licenses may limit the institution’s ability to defend you according to the statutes and Constitution of Texas.
7. ✪ Policy does not apply and anyone is free to use works not protected from copyright, which include: works that lack originality, works in public domain, freeware, U.S. Government works, facts, and copyright is not extended to any idea, procedure, processes, method of operation, system, or concept. ✪ If a work is copyright protected, check with your library to see if the campus or district already has a license for it. If not, check to see if its available freely on the web, meaning with an implied license. ✪ Implied License- the author of any material posted, uploaded understands that it will be read, downloaded, printed, forwarded , and even used as the basis of other works, with the exception of other works. ✪ Express License- spell out in detail what rights the author wants readers, viewers , or listeners to view. This can be done by attaching a creative commons license to materials posted or uploaded to any website. ✪ Fair Use- may be determined by utilizing the four fair use factors: What is the character of the use? What is the nature of the work to be used? How much of the work will I use? What effect would this use have on the market of the original or for permissions if the use were widespread? ✪ It is best to rely on implied and express licenses rather than fair use. Search for works with creative commons licenses and limit searches to search for materials for use by educators and students.
8. References: Harper, Georgia K. (2007) Building on Others’ Creative Expression; Copyright Crash Course. Retrieved from http://copyright.lib.utexas.edu/ By Corina Carmona Applications of Technology 6340.62 Fall 2011 Instructor: Yolanda Martinez
