Case+65+-+Mrs.+Smith's+Test+Stress

Article Mrs. Smith is a fourth grade teacher who is trying to prepare her students for the upcoming state testing. In fourth grade, students are assessed on their reading, writing, math and science skills. Since this covers a wide range of subject matter, Mrs. Smith uses a variety of materials to help prepare her students. She will pick and choose different pages from a variety of workbooks, most of which have copyright rules which states they should not be copied or shared. Mrs. Smith feels that she may be breaking the law by copying these pages because it does clearly state that they should not be. They are however used for nonprofit educational use.

Commentary Given this situation, we can look at the four factors of fair use, to determine whether or not Mrs. Smith is following the Fair Use Law. Clearly, Mrs. Smith is not copying the material for distribution or to make a profit; she is only using the copies to help prepare her students for the demanding tests that are required by the state. There are many workbooks published to help prepare students for state testing. Many times however, due to budgets, the workbooks might not be reordered the following year, so teachers will not allow the students to write in them, which in turn cause the teacher to make copies. Also, as long as Mrs. Smith is only copying pages or parts of pages here and there rather than cover to cover than she is not breaking any Fair Use rules. Finally, these workbooks have either been given to her by the administration or colleagues or she has purchased them. Either way they were purchased by someone so it should not be affecting their value on the market. So many different prep workbooks are purchased around the country every year that a little sharing will not hurt those companies making them.