The
concept of Fair Use, for educational
purposes, is often misunderstood. The
Copyright Office is deliberately fuzzy
about Fair Use, but Section 107 does
provide the ground work for
understanding:
Commercial nature or for Non-profit Educational Purposes
Are you going to use this to make money or is it just for educational or
non-profit use? If what you plan to do with the copyrighted work stands to make
a profit, it is not considered Fair Use.
The Nature of the Copyrighted Work
How much are you going to use? The entire book or all the pictures in a
book? This is prohibited. Generally you can use:
Images and Photographs - No more than 2 to 5 images by the same
author or no more than 15 images or 10% of a collection; whichever is less.
Written Text - 10% of the work or 1,000 words; whichever is less. You
can use 1 chart or 1 diagram per book. You must display the copyright symbol and
state who is the copyright holder.
If the copyright holder objects (you should have asked permission), then you
must remove the material, pay compensation to the copyright holder, or both.
Portion Used in Relation to the Copyrighted Work as a
Whole and Effect on the Market
You cannot use an entire page out of a workbook or consumable copyrighted
work. There is no amount that you could use that would not hurt the original
copyright owner.
And you can't use so much of the work that it would render the commercial
value useless.
These are only suggested guidelines adapted from The Technology and
Learning Web Site. They have a good Fair Use chart that you can download as
a PDF file. http://www.techlearning.com