Before the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) was passed in 1998, the "Fair Use" provision allowed for short sections of copyrighted materials to be used for personal and educational projects, as long as the material was not being used for financial gain and the use did not detract from the value of the copyrighted material. In general, if a project used less than 10% of a copyrighted work, permission was not needed. A short film clip, for example, could be used in an online review of the film (as long as the clip didn't give away a plot twist, which could be seen as detracting from the value of the work). For images, "Fair Use" allowed for up to five images by one photographer or 10% of a published collection. As long as the original artist is credited, no permission is needed. (See Susan Campbell's summary of Fair Use Guidelines.)
"Fair Use" should be familiar to students, since it is simply a version of standard academic practice: cite your sources. Given proper citation, permission is not required to quote or otherwise reproduce short selections of copyrighted material. However, the DMCA has much more restrictive provisions. While still allowing for "Fair Use" (at least as the law is written), in practice the DMCA makes "Fair Use" nearly impossible in digital media. The DMCA requires that any web page, for example, which uses copyrighted works under a "Fair Use" provision must protect the copyrighted material from "unauthorized" copying. GMU limits academic use of copyrighted works to 15 days after the period of use, unless the web page is password protected. (This 15 day limit applies not only to images, by the way, but to any copyrighted material, including text.)
These new restrictions place the burden of copyright enforcement on fair users. Even with proper citation and documentation of source materials, copyrighted works cannot be placed online indefinitely unless the site is secured. Although the DMCA makes broad exceptions for academic institutions (exempting them from liability for copyright infringment), these exemptions only apply if the institution takes actions to prevent copyright infrigement:
The DMCA offers reduced liability to online service providers (i.e. universities) only if the following stipulations are met:
* Copyright policy education is provided
* Immediate action is taken to remove the alleged infringement
* There is no prior knowledge of the infringement by the OSP
* An agent is registered with the Library of Congress to field all complaints
(Rosemary Chase, Intellectual Property in the Digital Age. Available from www.ipgonline.com)
Rosemary Chase is the registered Library of Congress copyright agent for GMU, and heads GMU's Copyright Assistance Office.
As the DMCA now stands, practical restrictions make "Fair Use" in digital media far more difficult than in other ('traditional") media. As digital media are now mainstream, "Fair Use" in general is threatened. As the University community has so far taken little action to defend "Fair Use," academics (faculty and students) are well advised to make use only of original works on their web pages. Then when someone links to your material, you can sue them and retire.
But seriously— Digital media allow for virtually unlimited, nearly perfect copies. If you plan to use someone else's work (images, graphics, fonts, etc), you must get permsission to do so. Simply citing the source is no longer enough. Consider how you would want your own original online work used by others. Putting something online is a form of publication, but a form which has gotten ahead of copyright law. Until the law catches up (and it is an open question whether or not the DMCA has "caught up"), faculty and students need to be very careful in their use of copyrighted materials online. If the site will only be online for a week or two, or if the site is password-protected, you may still enjoy the benefits of "Fair Use." But it is always better to seek permission to use someone's material, and always be sure to credit the source.
GMU Copyright Assistance
Office
DoIT Copyright
Basics
Virginia Montecino's Copyright
and the Internet Resource page
US Copyright Office
HR
2281:The Digital Millenium Copyright Act — (.pdf)
US
Copyright Office study of the DMCA
Consortium for Education Technology
in University Systems (CETUS)