Current technology makes much material available for private perusal such as graphics offered in Google searched sites but it is forbidden for this material to be used in the classroom as a violation of copyright. Aside from the salary of the instructor, there is no financial gain from the use of this material and it could immensely broaden the spectrum of educational materials. Doubtlessly much of this material is used illegally since the absolute supervision of its use is impossible. Considering the benefit to the public to permit free educational use of this material and the lack of benefit to the originator in forbidding educational use of this material it seems to me almost entirely negative to maintain the ban of educational use of this material
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Doesn't some of the use fall under "fair use" provision?
The paradoxical issue that I currently face is that my students and I all have access to a database of journal articles. We can each download and article and print it out for ourselves. But it seems that I can't print it out and copy it for them (even though they could do that for themselves). As a result, fewer students do the readings.
Who? I keep a mental owl for reaction to passive sentences and other language that obscures the actor. Is this ban actually enforced by legal action? By what governmental entity? My view, carried over from my teens, is that any rule that is not enforced is fictional.
Or is this ban the product of some zealous administrator at an educational institution. An administrator who insufficiently occupied with his own duties. In that case, I suggest:1. It is easier to ask forgiveness than to get permission.2. If an administrator wants to micromanage, keep asking for detailed guidance about alternatives.
And precisely what is banned? The use of material in a class does not generally violate a copyright. Unauthorized reproduction is usually an essential element of copyright violation. If students could privately access a web page, I doubt that projecting it in a class would qualify as unauthorised reproduction, particularly if the display were directly from a computer and not otherwise reproduced.
If you want to extract and reproduce a graphic, the issue could be a bit cloudy. Most professional journals have rather liberal restrictions on reproduction of their graphic content, especially for instructional and educational purposes. "Fair use" doctrines would protect some other uses, partularly those that treat the material as an illustration or example. Many collections of clip-art are available at low cost on the web. Just google on "clip art".
The basis for this recommendation is not theoretical. I live in Helsinki. A schoolteacher friend of mine was admonished for using downloaded material in her classroom and informed that someone else who did this was fined quite heavily. A general notice was posted in her school as to the legal dangers.
If I understand the problem, a simple solution would be to ask the owners of the material for permission to use the material in the classroom. It shouldn't take more than a few minutes to draft an email, and the response could be forwarded to school administrators.