Shellie Brunsman

EOL 469

CTER - Fall

Mr. John Brown teachers junior high music. He has asked all of his students, all 38, to purchase a new edition of a book that he has used during the past 3 of the 9 years he has taught at Pine Pond Junior High School. Robert Johnson tells his parents that evening that he needs $62 to purchase the book. His older brother Larry tells him as he overhears the conversation that he has that book from 2 years ago when he took that class. Robert takes the book to class the next day, but notices that his book doesn't look like the other student's book. After class, Mr. Brown tells Robert that he has an older edition, and needs to buy the new edition. Robert tells him that his family can't afford to buy the new text and thus he will have to drop the class. Mr. Brown realizes how important the class is to Robert, an excellent saxophonist, and tells him that he will copy all of the additions, deletions or changes from his copy of the new edition and give them to Robert tomorrow. Violation?

Response:

My first response, as a teacher in a very low income school, is that is one expensive book! I hope he can use it for the next 10 or 12 years. But to direct my answer by the law I will use Title 17 Copyrights Chapter 1

Chapter 1. 17 USCS 107 (1999) Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use states

"In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include---

(1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;

(2) the nature of the copyrighted work;

(3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and

(4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

According to the above guidelines, I feel that Mr. Brown would not be violating the statute. He is using the copies of the extra additions for nonprofit educational purposes. Since the student already has a copy that was purchased he has paid market value for the material previously. The copy he has is only 2 years old so I would hope that there are not that many changes that need to be copied. (this would address point 3) Our district guidelines address this under Brevity section 1 point b "... either a complete article, story, or essay of less than 2,500 words, or an excerpt from any prose work of not more than 1,000 words or 10% of the work, whichever is less, but in any event a minimum of 500 words."