Case+19+-+Mr.+Brown+&+His+Newspaper

__ Case Study-Mr. Brown __ Mr. Brown is an elementary school teacher who teaches fourth grade social studies. He is very good with technology and always incorporates it in his lessons. With the 2008 presidential election underway, Mr. Brown has created a voting system using the Smartboard for the children to vote. He would like the students to investigate the candidates and decide who would be the best president for the United States. In order for the students to participate in the election, Mr. Brown is asking the students to research the candidates and to provide a substantial amount of information on the elects. Mr. Brown has a created a class website, where students can go to find resources about the election and blog about ideas. Mr. Brown is a subscriber to a local newspaper. As a way to help the students find out more information about the candidates, he scans various newspaper articles and posts them to the class website. The articles are strictly about the candidates and obviously relate to the subject matter. Mr. Brown is concerned that he is breaking copyright laws by scanning local newspaper articles onto his class website. However, this has only been spanning over the last two weeks and he has not copied the entire newspaper. He is also only using the articles for his class use only. __ Commentary __ After reviewing the four factors of fair use, Mr. Brown does not seem to be violating Fair Use. The purpose in which Mr. Brown is using the articles is strictly for educational purposes. He is limiting access to these articles to only the students in his class. The articles provided are only fact based, which weighs in favor of fair use. Lastly, Mr. Brown is not reproducing these articles to make a profit, but instead to enhance his lesson. Mr. Brown would have to worry if he continues to utilize the same newspaper, because then it can be considered a violation of Fair Use. In conclusion, Mr. Brown has not violated Fair Use.