The Law  

According to U.S. Copyright law, copyright holders have the exclusive right to copy, distribute, display, and perform their work. Others must weigh four factors to determine if their use of a copyrighted work qualifies as a fair use.

Key Terms

• Legal Use:  Works in the public domain/not copyrighted, used with permission, or used according to the copyright holder’s Terms of Use or Creative Commons license. *Works used according to copyright; no fair use determination needed.

• Fair Use:  Copyrighted works (all rights reserved) used legally by carefully weighing the four Fair Use factors.  *An exception to copyright.

• Copyright Infringement:  Copyrighted works used without permission, in violation of the copyright-holder’s Terms of Use or Creative Commons license, or without regard for the four Fair Use factors.

The Four Fair Use Factors  

All four Fair Use factors must be weighed to determine if a use of copyrighted material qualifies as a Fair Use.

1. Purpose and character of the use -  How will you use it? Are you using it for curricular instruction? Is the work being used for criticism or parody? Have you transformed the original?

2. Nature of the work  -  What kind of work is it?  Factual, creative, consumable?

3. Amount & substantiality of the work -  How much of the work will you use? Acceptable portions are limited according to format and whether you are using the "heart" of the work.

4. Effect on the market for the original - Will your use affect the copyright holder's profits?

Materials included in curriculum or used in instruction must comply with BCPS Copyright Rule 1120 and U.S. Copyright law and Fair Use guidelines. Students and staff can use the resources on this page to ensure that media and materials included in curriculum, instructional materials, and student-published products are used legally. 

• BCPS Rule 1120: Copyright | BCPS Rule 1120/Form A: Copyright Permission Request

  • If showing non-curricular films in school for entertainment/reward: See section VIII. Guidelines for Use of Commercial Media Products.

  • Music teachers:  See especially section VI. Fair Use Guidelines - Print Music Scores/Music. 

  • Copyright restrictions apply to materials posted to the Schoology learning management system or other online platforms. Faculty and staff are responsible for ensuring that the materials they post do not infringe copyright.

  • This article illustrates the importance of protecting our school system, its employees, and students against liability for copyright infringement - Federal jury: HISD staff repeatedly violated copyright laws, owe company $9.2M (AP News, May 25, 2019)

• • Always provide attribution (cite the original source), even when using public domain or copyright-friendly media.

  • Citing images or media from BCPS-licensed Databases (Preferred):  Use the pre-formatted citation provided on the page.

  • It is generally accepted to cite the URL (rather than a formal citation) for digital images used in projects/presentations.

  • If multiple digital images, quotes from digital publications, etc. are used in a document, infographic, etc. it may be acceptable to list the URLs separately in a  "Works Cited."

  • To provide a formal citation, use a citation formatting guide or NoodleTools to format a citation for a digital image, video, text, etc. 

• Citing images found via Google or Bing search:  

  • Google and Bing are NOT the original source or the copyright-holder for images found via an image search there. DO NOT cite Google or Bing as the source. From the image search results page, visit the original source page to obtain the correct URL.