Case+04+-+Bob+G.+Makes+Copies

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 Bob G. teaches the New Pathways to Teaching in New Jersey Program alternate route to teaching classes at Raritan Valley Community College. His purpose is to teach prospective students how to become more effective teachers by learning the psychology of their students and to tailor their instruction to each child's needs. Once upon a semester, the required Educational Psychology books did not arrive on time for the first part of the course. Bob decided to make 27 copies of chapters 2 and 3 (out of 18 total chapters) for use in his classes and used the school's copy center for the job. He used this material for the duration of the course, which was 6 weeks and worth 4 credits, and did not use the copies again because books were available in the bookstore for future classes. Bob made sure that along with the chapters, he copied the title page of the book so that the students knew who wrote and copyrighted the material. Bob believed that this was a fair use of the material and that he was following established copyright law and educational best practices. ======

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 Bob only used two chapters out of 18, which satisfies the guidelines for how much of a particular work can be copied. He also only used the information for educational purposes and for one "class" during the summer. The students still had to purchase the full textbook, so the copying had no effect on the market for the sale of the entire work. Bob provided a page that clearly showed the names of the author and publisher, and that the book had been legally obtained for the course (this was shown in the course curriculum, which every student received). Finally, the book is factual and nonfiction based and would not be considered a highly creative work under any circumstances (trust me). It is clear, then, that Bob's use of the two chapter of this book falls squarely under acceptable fair use guidelines. There are many similar situations where a teacher could go overboard and break the fair use rules. ======

Bob Grundfest

//**Additional Comment**// //When reproducing copyrighted material, especially with music, you are allowed one educational copy per purchased copy of the material. In this case, though, Bob G.'s students had to eventually purchase the legitimate copy anyway. One could argue that with that many copies out, the students could share these with other people, and there is no control over the reproduced material. Since the students had to purchase individual copies, these reproductions could be considered as one educational copy, with which the responsibility for proper use now falls on the student. I concur that this is fair use of the text.//