Ustream

Frustrated by the confusion and inconsistencies around the copyright exception of fair use, a group of eight U.S. based OpenCourseWare producers have reexamined the principle in order to apply it to their own publications. Realizing that the practice of a group of practitioners solidifies that practice, the code has been written to more actively assert fair use rights in response to the chilling effects of over-zealous copyright holders. Together with the “four factor test”, case law has focused fair use criteria around two questions. 1) Is the re-use “transformative”? that is, does it add value to and repurpose preexisting material for a new audience; and 2) is the amount of material taken appropriate to the re-use?

This code is not a guide to using material offered under a Creative Commons license, nor is it a guide to using material that is already free to use without considering copyright (i.e., U.S. federal government works in the public domain). Rather, it is a guide to help interpret the principle of fair use. The Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for OpenCourseWare builds on the model of Fair Use Codes by documentary filmmakers, media literacy scholars, and online video producers, all available here: http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org /resources/fair_use/. It was written in coordination with Peter Jaszi of the Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property and Patricia Aufderheide of the Center for Social Media, both at American University, and with the valuable input of ccLearn.