Scenario 1: Digital Images

To practice storyboarding in an online animation school, the instructor asks his students to screen shot the movie UP, a production of Pixar Company, and makes a photo roman of important phases of story development. The work of students will be showcased in course website and will be peer reviewed. Instructor believes that technically running the DVD on personal computer and capturing images from it is ok. Moreover, he believes that presenting a collection of pictures extracted from movie on course website is not violating the copyright law as well. Is there any copyright infringement here?

The Purpose and Character of the Use
The student will use the digital images in an academic course assignments and the purpose of using them is only educational.

The Nature of the Copyrighted Work
Since the pictures used for this assignment are not available directly from the publisher and the video already has been published, the students may use some still images of video to describe their storyboard.

The Amount and Substantiality of the Portion Used in Relation to the Copyrighted Work as a Whole
Students are required to use only less than 15 images which is in alignment with the copyrights guidelines.

The Effect of the Use upon the Potential Market for a Value of the Copyrighted Work
Since the amount of used still images is about 15 and the finished assignments will be showcased in secure electronic network which is restricted to students enrolled in the course, there won’t be any effects on the potential Market.

Scenario 2: Video
John an online instructor working for a distance education system considers providing a video to students as a learning material. The instructor obtained the video from his colleague, who has produced this video in their school, and as a token of goodwill, he gave it to John to present in his online class. John is happy about this opportunity and intends to upload the video to the course website as part of his teaching material. Is John violating the use of copyrighted materials?

The Purpose and Character of the Use
The purpose of the use is only educational. John has any intention to profit from showing this video to his students.

The Nature of the Copyrighted Work
The video has been produced in different college and been given to John by his friend. Although, there is no violation in producing the video, but using the property of one institute in another educational set without permission may violate the copyright regulation for fair use.

The Amount and Substantiality of the Portion Used in Relation to the Copyrighted Work as a Whole
John intends to show just portion of this video to his students which is about 10% of the whole.

The Effect of the Use upon the Potential Market for a Value of the Copyrighted Work
Since John intends to present a portion of this video to his students, there might be no harm to potential market for a value of the copyrighted work. However, john may use the video in his class, but it would be wise to have permission from the other institute.

Scenario 3: Printed Materials
Professor Delaware finds that the workbook, he received from the publisher has numerous useful examples. He thinks adding these examples to students’ online accounts may improve their learning performances. He then makes a copy from that chapter and put it up in course website. Students are advised not using more than one copy of provided chapter. Is he correct?

The Purpose and Character of the Use
Prof. Delaware, as a teacher, has permission to make a limited reproduction and distribution of copyrighted materials. The use of these printed materials is for educational purposes.

The Nature of the Copyrighted Work
The material used for this course is a workbook. Teachers may not copy workbooks that were created for educational use.

The Amount and Substantiality of the Portion Used in Relation to the Copyrighted Work as a Whole
The guideline for copyrighted materials does not allow teacher to use any portion of it and considers it a violation of fair use.

The Effect of the Use upon the Potential Market for a Value of the Copyrighted Work
The reproduction of workbooks may act as replacement for purchasing the book and this may harm the potential market. So the fourth fair use factor doesn’t come into play here.

Scenario 4: Internet Resources
The instructor of an online course finds the content of a web page is very informative to her students. She doesn’t want to redirect students to that site by providing a hyperlink. Instead, she thinks by using an I-Frame technique she can have that site on the course web site directly as if it is part of the course website structure. Is she violating the intellectual property rights of the actual site owner?

The Purpose and Character of the Use
The instructor’s intention is to provide students a content which is directly accessible from the course website. He apparently does not know that the use of the intellectual properties of other people indirectly might be an infringement to copyright.

The Nature of the Copyrighted Work
The practice of I-framing leads to several problem. Mostly it confuses the content on different sites, which raises issues of copyright infringement. That is, the boundaries between content on different servers will be blurred.

The Amount and Substantiality of the Portion Used in Relation to the Copyrighted Work as a Whole
This is a method of copying materials from internet and presenting somewhere else without giving credit to it. The amount used in this practice is in the same proportion of the original one.

The Effect of the Use upon the Potential Market for a Value of the Copyrighted Work
The effect of using I-farming techniques would harm the potential market for that specific content. However in some cases the use of I-frame may help the potential market as well. For example, in advertising products, the I-frame may help to widespread the message. So it is not clear if the use of I-frame poses a threat to potential market.

Scenario 5: Video Conferencing
Professor Heineken intends to publish on the course website a recorded video conference. The video has been recorded by him without having permission of other participants in this video conferencing. The primary intention to record this event was for his private collection, but he found out that the content of the video might be of interest to other students as well. Is Prof. Heineken allowed to do this?

The Purpose and Character of the Use
The purpose of the use is solely educational.

The Nature of the Copyrighted Work
This might be a problem. The video conference recorded by our professor won’t bring him the ownership of the content presented in this video conferencing event. The video presents tangible materials recorded from several people and resources each of which requires clarification.

The Amount and Substantiality of the Portion Used in Relation to the Copyrighted Work as a Whole
Our professor intends to show the whole recorded event via course website which might not comply with our third factor of fair use.

The Effect of the Use upon the Potential Market for a Value of the Copyrighted Work
This might have an effect on quite different areas. This might affect the potential market of music or audio clips, the licensed materials, and performances used in this video conferencing. So using this recorded video conference session very likely won’t comply with the fair use policy.

Scenario 6: Music
As part of a film-editing course, the instructor asks students to think about a piece of music to synchronize with the film images they recorded earlier in his class. He asks students to search the net and make mash-ups music. After finishing the video, students are required to post it as a weblog and reflect on their own work. Are students violating the copyrighted materials?

The Purpose and Character of the Use
The use of the music is for educational purposes. Students will learn how to edit sound along with the images. The published pieces have no commercial uses.

The Nature of the Copyrighted Work
The mash-ups music is a song which is rearranged from a master track or put together from different audio fragments. By analogy, copyright violation to sampling and visual arts can be applied to Mash-ups as well.

The Amount and Substantiality of the Portion Used in Relation to the Copyrighted Work as a Whole
Since students are required to use at least 20 different songs for about 30 seconds sounds track. The portion of each song will be very little which may comply with the third fair use factor.

The Effect of the Use upon the Potential Market for a Value of the Copyrighted Work
The market harm caused by this action is negligible. The use of these mash-ups would not be a verbatim copying, so the fourth fair use factor comes into play.