----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Just passing on what you probably have already seen...just in case Jo Schaffer Academe Today: News Update NEWS UPDATE for Wednesday, October 16, 1996 _______________________________________________________________________ Agreement Reached on Fair-Use Rules for "Educational Multimedia" Agreement Reached on Fair-Use Rules for "Educational Multimedia" A coalition of educators and publishers on Tuesday announced an agreement on "fair use" guidelines that advise professors and students on how to use copyrighted music, video, and other materials in such educational tools as videos and CD-ROMs. The guidelines for what the coalition called "educational multimedia" are the first of several that are expected over the next few months as the Conference on Fair Use, a group that represents more than 100 publishing, library, and academic organizations, completes its work. Other guidelines will cover such topics as the use of electronic material in distance learning and the use of digital images over computer networks. The "educational multimedia" guidelines were created by a committee under the auspices of the Consortium of College & University Media Centers. The guidelines set limits on the amount of a copyrighted work that can be "reasonably" used in a multimedia work -- for example, up to 10 per cent or 30 seconds, whichever is less, of an individual musical work. They also place restrictions on the number of copies students and professors can make of the CD-ROMs or videos they create. The guidelines allow such works to be used in distance-learning programs, provided that access to the material can be restricted by technological means, such as the required use of a password, to enrolled students. Academics and publishers say the guidelines will help to clarify how to apply "fair use" in an age when technological advances have made it much easier to reproduce copyrighted material. Publishers and music and video producers recognize that the copyright law's existing "fair use" provisions allow professors and students to use protected material for educational purposes, but they argue that, in some cases, such uses need to be limited. At a press conference on Capitol Hill Tuesday, the negotiators presented their results and announced that a House of Representatives panel -- the Subcommittee on Courts and Intellectual Property -- had endorsed the guidelines. Having that Congressional imprimatur does not give the guidelines the force of law, but it could give courts a sense of how lawmakers intended "fair use" to be interpreted under particular circumstances. More than a dozen academic and industry groups have also endorsed the guidelines, and more endorsements are being sought. The guidelines should give educators "peace of mind," said Lisa Livingston, co-chair of the committee that developed the guidelines. If educators stay within the established limits, she said, they will be free to use material without having to obtaining permission or to pay a fee. Some educators might wish that the rules were more generous, said Ms. Livingston, who is also director of instructional media at City College of the City University of New York. But she said the limits were workable because "multimedia is a format of portions." And, she said, at least the guidelines will make it much easier for students and professors to use the material without fear of being sued. "That means that people will actually use the technology," she said. --Goldie Blumenstyk Background story from The Chronicle of Higher Education archive: + "Talks Progress on 'Fair Use' of Copyrighted Materials," 9/20/96 Information in Depth: + A report on fair-use guidelines for educational multimedia