Copyrighted Material and the Internet

It is hard to imagine a more valuable instructional tool for college and university faculty than the Internet. Information that previously was nearly impossible to make available to students is suddenly easier to obtain than ever before.

In either reproducing information that is printed off an Internet site or downloading files off the Internet, however, an instructor should be mindful of copyright law, and the potential violations of that law that may result from using materials off the web.

As In Brief advised you last winter, Maricopa has recently authored Copyright Guidelines for its employees and students. (Those Guidelines are available from the Legal Services Department's website. Go to www.dist.maricopa.edu/legal and visit the "Intellectual Property" section.)

Maricopa's Guidelines note that the owner of a copyright in a particular work has "the exclusive right to copy the work, prepare derivative works based on the work and distribute the work via sale or other transfer of ownership or via rental, lease or lending."

They further admonish, however, "copyrightable materials are often available on the Internet without any indication of their copyrighted status, such as a copyright notice.

"As a result, you should assume everything you find on the Internet is copyrighted, unless otherwise labeled. This rule of thumb applies to all categories of copyrightable works, such as pictures, articles and music."

Simply that copyrighted material might be accessible from the Internet, however, does not provide authority to print, download, and distribute the works for students. Unless such activity is expressly allowed under copyright law, a user should first obtain permission from the copyright holder.

New technology has made works in all sorts of media accessible from the Internet. These works are no longer limited to the traditional print or text media.

The technology known as Peer-to-Peer, or P2P, for example, allows for the transmission of music, videos, movies, software, video games and other materials-most of which is subject to copyright protection.

Easy access to this information might make it tempting for an instructor to download it for instructional use, whether or not it is then reproduced for distribution to students.

Frequently, however, merely downloading these works, transferring them to a disk or other medium, or sending them to students or colleagues constitutes an infringement on the rights of the copyright holders.

Trafficking in such material without the prior permission of the copyright holder violates copyright law.

Posting such information to a website can be especially problematic. As the Guidelines note, "you should only post copyrighted materials on the MCCCD website, individual MCCCD college sites, or any other site hosted by MCCCD servers if you have specific, written permission from the copyright owner to post their materials on the Internet.

"Permission to use or copy materials for other purposes may not include the right to post that same material on a website. Posting copyrighted materials on a website without permission may also constitute infringement of the right to reproduce, distribute, display or perform that work.

"It may also make you contributorily liable if third parties access the work for infringing purposes."

Not only would unauthorized downloading of such materials violate copyright law, but it would violate Maricopa administrative regulation as well. Under Maricopa's copyright regulation, employees may not engage in copying activities that are not otherwise allowed by copyright law, fair use guidelines, licenses or contractual agreements, or other permission.

Additionally, the Maricopa Computing Resource Standards prohibit both employees and students from the "use of software, graphics, photographs, or any other tangible form of expression that would violate or infringe any copyright or similar legally recognized protection of intellectual property rights."

Instructors and other employees who deal directly with students, then, should do what they can to ensure that students are aware of their obligations under copyright law. A student who violates the provisions of either the copyright regulation or the Computing Resource Standards is subject to disciplinary action under the college student discipline code.

Published in the Spring 2003 Edition of In Brief