"Someone owns just about
everything, Fair use lets you use their
things - But not as much as you'd like"
UTexas
Copyright infringement is not okay,
even for a worthy cause such as education!
How can resource center staff explain
this to instructors?
Many duplications violate copyright
Thus an instructor's innocent request could be asking staff to do
something illegal
A convincing staff response:
It's comparable to speeding in a car which is fairly common: yet relatively
few people are stopped.
If you are caught speeding, you
pay your fine of a few hundred dollars,
complain for awhile,
have slightly higher insurance rates for a year or two,
and forget about it.
With copyright, very few people are "caught." But if you are the
one, you
Could be in court for years
and face steep legal fees.
The administration may or may not support you or your case.
Most people quickly understand that copyright infringement is a big risk.
The persistent instructor is likely to continue by saying "who will know."
Students could notice the credits and try to order materials used in class
for themselves (as supposedly happened at UMass). This could
lead a production company to notice that it had not sold the title
to any one at this school and investigate how the student came to see it.
This is most likely with expensive, specialized materials.
Microsoft "police" have scolded a local store manager for not checking school
affiliation carefully when quoting software prices, at the academic
rate, over the phone and warned of a consequence the next time.
An angry student or parent could be looking for revenge and report copyright
violations.
Someone may indeed want to fight a test case on fair use.
An example is Professor Sut Jhally at UMass who created a video
of MTV clips (with his narration) for his Media Literacy course. MTV threatened legal action but ultimately backed down. The video became well known and popular. He founded a non-profit organization to distribute it and other educational videos related to Media Literacy. See the history section of www.mediaed.org/about.