Copyright in Library Streaming Services

Acceptable Use Policy and Fair Use Guidelines
Everyone at Cal Poly Pomona must adhere to our Acceptable Use Policy when dealing with copyrighted materials.

Understanding Fair Use at CPP

Fair Use is an exemption to the exclusive rights a creator has to his or her work. Criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright under Fair Use.

There are four factors to use in considering whether or not your use of material falls under Fair Use:

1. the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
2. the nature of the copyrighted work;
3. the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
4. the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

The four factors do not offer absolute rules; courts weigh each one, and no single factor determines the outcome. Generally, the use is more likely to qualify as fair if it is:

• Nonprofit and educational in nature
• From a published work
• Limited to a small excerpt
• Unlikely to affect the market value of the work

It is recommended that you use a Fair Use Checklist provided by Cal Poly Pomona prior to using materials under this exemption to copyright law.

What if media use does not appear to favor fair use?
If the answer to 2 or fewer of these questions is no, then you may be at risk for violating copyright compliance. If you are unsure if use of a work is fair use, contact your subject librarian for alternative resources.

Source: U.S. Code Title 17 Ch.1 section 107
Source: Using Copyrighted Materials

DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) does not allow for most individuals to circumvent copy-protection to make clips, but there are special exemptions made for our instructors and students. 

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, or DMCA, which was passed in 1998 that created a new protection on copyrighted materials through "circumventing" "technological protection measures."

As stated in Section 1201 Circumvention of copyright protection systems, no person shall descramble a scrambled work, to decrypt an encrypted work, or to bypass, remove or deactivate a technological measure that effectively controls access to a copyrighted work and that is considered a copyright violation. 

The 2010 DMCA exemption for DVD use regarding "Circumvention of Access-Control Technologies" provides some provisions for the higher education institution:

Circumvention of the encryption on a DVD is not a violation of the DMCA when circumvention is accomplished solely in order to accomplish the incorporation of short portions of motion pictures into new works for the purpose of criticism or comment, and where the person engaging in circumvention believes and has reasonable grounds for believing that circumvention is necessary to fulfill the purpose of the use in the following instances:

• Educational uses by college and university professors and by college and university film and media studies students
• Documentary filmmaking
• Noncommercial videos

These exemptions do not apply to ripping content from Blu-Ray discs or other encrypted media other than DVD.

Source: DMCA via Copyright.gov

The TEACH Act grants accredited, nonprofit U.S. educational institutions certain rights to use copyrighted materials in organized instructional activities beyond face-to-face traditional classroom settings. Specifically, it allows instructors to perform or display copyrighted works in distance education environments. However, these rights come with a number of restrictions and conditions that must be met for lawful use.

The Teach Act does not apply to: 

• Commercially available digital educational materials: Works specifically marketed for online instructional activities.
• Unlawfully acquired copies: Copies of copyrighted works that the institution "knew or had reason to believe" were not lawfully made and acquired under U.S. copyright law.

Source: Legal Information Institute

Under specific conditions, the TEACH Act allows for:

• Performance of nondramatic literary or musical works
• Performance of reasonable and limited portions of other types of works
• Display of works in an amount comparable to what would typically be shown in a live classroom session

Examples of allowable uses for enrolled students via platforms like Zoom include:

• Reading a poem, book, or other nondramatic literary work aloud
• Performing a musical piece
• Reading a reasonable and limited portion of a play (dramatic literary work)
• Sharing a limited portion of an audiovisual work (e.g., a TV episode or film) or a sound recording
• Displaying an image in an amount typical for a live classroom session

To qualify for the TEACH Act, the following conditions must also be met:

• The performance or display is conducted by, directed by, or under the supervision of an instructor as part of a regular class session within the institution’s systematic instructional activities.
• The performance or display directly supports and is essential to the teaching content.
• Transmission is limited to students officially enrolled in the course.
• The institution has established copyright policies (CPP copyright policy found here) and applies technological protection measures for digital transmissions.

Source: ALA on Copyright: Distance Education and the TEACH Act
Source: Using Copyrighted Materials at Cal Poly Pomona
Source: Copyright Clearance Center: The TEACH Act

Useful Checklist: Basic TEACH Checklist: For Institutional Users Faculty, Staff, and Students