Re: Question on Copyright

On 04/09/2021 02:31, Wayne Dick wrote:
> Is there a good way for teachers to obtain an accessible format and 
> still qualify for fair-use?

You need to consult a US copyright lawyer for this.  Looking at 
<https://www.copyright.gov/fair-use/more-info.html> it appears that only 
the US courts can truly answer this question, and, in particular, there 
are no set limits on how large an extract ceases to be fair use.  (US, 
because fair use is a US concept.)

If I understand the basis of the law, it is a question of a balance 
between public benefit and the impact on the copyright owner.  Although 
the above reference suggests that novels may be seen less favourably 
than factual content, the whole point of text books is to make money 
from teaching, so I would have thought that any quotation that could be 
used for direct teaching, rather than for comparing how different source 
treated a subject, would not be fair use, but you need to ask your lawyer.

I'm not sure how accessible formats would be treated in the USA, but it 
seems to make sense to me that there is intellectual property in the 
making accessible, as well as the original material.

The UK situation is more restrictive, and I believe schools have to pay 
pooled licence fees, and publishers can opt out.

Received on Saturday, 4 September 2021 11:14:08 UTC