Case+30-+Fair+Use+in+an+Elementary+Art+Class

An art teacher's dilemma

Teri is an elementary art teacher. She wants to introduce her students to an array of different artists and styles. The school’s library is limited to a small collection of art books and the school is tightening its budget strings. Since Teri does not have much to work with to show her students famous images of art that will help broaden their artistic horizons, Teri decided to use the Internet to print out images of several famous art pieces. She then used these images to distribute to students for discussion, critique, and eventually the images were used in an art project. After a class discussion and critique of the artwork, she instructed the students to incorporate the artwork handout and who produced the artwork into an art project of their own (making a puzzle out of the picture, using the picture as a background for their piece, etc). The finished pieces were then displayed in the school’s hallway.

Commentary This is a case of fair use in the sense that Teri is using the printed materials (images of famous artwork) from the Internet for an educational purpose. The fair use provisions for copyrighted work or an image states that “for the purpose of criticism, comments, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship or research is not an infringement of copyright.” Also, it is not an infringement of copyright to display the artwork under Section 110 of the U.S Copyright statute. It says that the “display of a work by instructors or pupils in the course of face-to-face activities of a nonprofit educational institution, in a classroom or similar place devoted to instruction.” In addition under Section 110 it continues to add that “ the performance or display is made by, at the direction of, or under the actual supervision of an instructor as an integral part of a class session offered as a regular part of the systematic mediated instructional activities” is not infringement of copyright. Teri’s case involving her art class and the use of Internet images of artwork is in fair use of the material under all the components of the U.S Copyright statute.