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What is allowed?

Under the “fair use” provision of copyright law, a person may make limited use of another author’s work without asking permission. As  noted elsewhere in this guide:

"There's no one right answer as to what constitutes a "fair use" of a particular copyrighted work. The answer varies from situation to situation."

Posting an item to Blackboard does not exempt an instructor from copyright regulations. Therefore, instructors are encouraged to consult these guidelines. In order of preference, these include:

  1. Link to your article from a library database (see below for more information).
  2. If a persistent link is not available, complete a Fair Use Evaluation, scan your article, and then upload it to Blackboard.
  3. Repeated use over multiple semesters weighs against fair use. For repeated use you will likely have to contact the publisher and request permission.
Item Probably Allowed Not allowed
Web site containing copyrighted material Link to the web site via Blackboard Copying and pasting the information into Blackboard
Copyrighted web image Must be educational in nature; display in Blackboard for one semester Repeated use over multiple semesters
Article from a library database Direct linking to article allowed Copying and pasting the article into Blackboard
Scanned copyrighted image Must be educational in nature; display in Blackboard for one semester Repeated use over multiple semesters
Scanned chapter from a book

5% of the total work if in-print, 10% of the total work if out-of-print--allowed for only one semester

 More than the allotted percents or repeated use over multiple semesters
Scanned article from a journal, trade publication, or magazine A single article for one semester Multiple articles from the same publication or repeated use over multiple semesters
Audio files No more than 30 seconds without permission Repeated use over multiple semesters
Video files 10% or three minutes, whichever is less

Repeated use over multiple semesters

 

(The courts are not bound by these amounts and the Copyright Act contains no such amounts. Therefore it is always advisable to err on the side of caution and complete your own Fair Use Evaluation before scanning and posting to Blackboard.)

 

Questions?

Questions about which library databases have persistent URLs or on how to set up your link in Blackboard? Please contact: