Case+32+-+Mr.+Harper's+Music+Class

== Mr. Harper is the music teacher for an elementary school that includes grades kindergarten through fifth grade. Mr. Harper has been performing the same spring concert for the past eight years with much success. The students learn many songs, play some handheld instruments, and even recite short skits about spring. Even though Mr. Harper has taught with much success, there have been numerous complaints to the principal from the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) that they were sick of having their children performing the same show year after year. The principal has asked Mr. Harper to prepare a show this year that is completely different than any other. When Mr. Harper asked the principal for funding to support the shows renovations, he was denied due to funding shortages. As a solution to the funding issue, Mr. Harper has decided to make this years show theme based. In order to accomplish this, he has decided to copy some songs and lyrics along with some script lines to perform skits from the play __Beauty and the Beast__ which he attended in the fall. ==

== When looking at the Copyright Act, Mr. Harper’s situation would be able to fall under “fair use” when considering all factors of this situation. While trying to determine if Mr. Harper is protected by “fair use”, there are several factors to consider while evaluating fair use of copyrighted material. Mr. Harper’s purpose of using the material from the play __Beauty and the Beast__ is purely for educational purposes and not for profit. Mr. Harper is only going to be selecting certain pieces from the show and will not be recreating the same exact play by any means necessary. Due to this, the amount of copyrighted work that will be copied will be minimal and will only be used to demonstrate what the children have learned in regard to performing arts. This situation will have minimal negative effects upon the market value for the copyrighted material. If anything, Mr. Harper is enhancing the value of the copyrighted material by encouraging others to see the entire play or purchase the actual songs through his presentation of the material. ==