Case+60+-+Mrs.+C+da+Vinci+showing

Mrs. C teaches 6th grade history at a private school in New Jersey. Her next history unit will be on the Renaissance and how knowledge, art, and inventions from that time period are still known today. Mrs. C decides to introduce this unit by showing the students a variety of famous paintings that the students are already familiar with to get them excited about the time period and evaluate their prior knowledge on the topic. Mrs. C creates a Power Point showing 3 famous works of art by Leonardo da Vinci –The Mona Lisa, The Last Supper, and the Flying Machine. (Mrs. C found all three of these images using Google Images.) As Mrs. C begins to show the Power Point on her Smart Board, the other 6th grade history teacher comes into the classroom. The other teacher gets Mrs. C attention and calls her over to talk to her at the door. The other teacher is worried that Mrs. C will get in trouble for using the images of the paintings without permission. Can Mrs. C continue on with her Power Point for the class?

Commentary: Mrs. C is correctly using “Fair Use” because she is using the paintings for education purposes (factor 1) in her classroom. Also, since the students are viewing the pictures through the Smart Board and are not recreating the paintings on their own, factor 2 is fulfilled. Mrs. C also made sure that she used a limited number of da Vinci’s paintings so that she is not overusing the quantity that is allowed (factor 3). According to Fair Use, she cannot use more than 5 images at one time and she is clearly following that rule at the present time. Her students viewing of the da Vinci paintings may get them further interested in art and the time period so it is not negatively affecting the value of the paintings (factor 4). Mrs. C is covered by Fair Use and is excited to continue on with her Power Point and see the student’s reactions to the upcoming unit.