This document provides an overview of copyright law and fair use considerations for nursing educators. It explains that copyright is intended to balance allowing future use of works while protecting artist and creator rights. U.S. copyright law is outlined in the Constitution and allows for fair use exceptions. Fair use depends on the purpose and amount of use, and its effect on the work's value. The TEACH Act updated copyright provisions for distance education but relying on fair use is still best. Automatic copyright protects works without needing to register. Open access and Creative Commons materials may limit usage rights. Best practices include using minimal content, limiting sharing, crediting creators, and obtaining permission for extensive use.

1. What Nursing Educators
Need to Know About Copyright
Rob Cagna, MA, MSLS, JD, AHIP
Director
WVU Charleston Health Sciences Library
www.slideshare.net/cagna

2. What is copyright?
• It’s a balancing act to make sure works are able to be used by
others in the future, and to make sure the rights of artists
and creators are protected.

3. Copyright law

4. In the US Constitution
The Congress shall have Power … To promote the
Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for
limited Tımes to Authors and Inventors the exclusive
Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.
United States Constitution, Article I, Section 8

5. When not an infringement: fair use
In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case
is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include—
• (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. (US Code, Title 17, §107)

6. What’s very important in considering fair use
1. Transformative usage
2. The amount of usage relative to what is needed
3. Customs and practices of the creative communities
(From Peter Jaszi’s analysis of Supreme Court cases)

7. The TEACH Act
• Modernized sections 110 and 112 of the Copyright Act to
reflect current usage of materials in distance education, and
the use of recorded materials, a little bit…
…but it’s still best to rely on fair use, because it’s hard to
qualify for all the elements of the TEACH Act

8. Automatic copyright
• Works created after March 1, 1989, do not need a copyright
notice and do not need to be submitted for copyright
consideration to be considered protected under copyright
law

9. Other considerations
• Open access
• Governmental documents - usually not problematic to use
• Your own publications that you have written: remember your
contract with the publisher trumps copyright law; you have
probably turned over your copyright to the publisher

10. Open access
• Green open access: you’ve archived your final pre-
publication article in your institution’s document repository
or similar online place
• Gold open access: your article is in an open access journal;
you and/or your institution may have had to pay to have it
published
• Open access usually does not mean the end user has
unlimited rights

11. Creative Commons
Creative Commons material does not necessarily grant
unfettered usage rights

12. What about photos, drawings, videos,
interactive creations, and audio clips, in
addition to books and articles?
These all usually are subject to copyright law

13. Presentations
• Classroom (lecture with Powerpoint)
• Live Webinar
• Webcast (recorded, asynchronous presentation)
• Presentation within the school to faculty
• Conference presentation
Questions: Are these being transmitted live? And/or are they
being recorded? If so, will they be available on the Web to the
public, or just to a limited number of people via password
protection?

14. Presentations (continued)
• Conference poster…usually the live presentation is not
recorded, but your poster may be online at the conference
site…is it available to all or only to conference attendees?
• Journal article or book…remember, you probably don’t own
the copyright, but usually the publisher gives you certain
author rights.

15. Take away: best practices
• Use as little as needed (proportionality)
• Share only with those needing the content (students,
teaching assistants)
• Make sharing somewhat limited (locked, or must go through
institutional ID access)
• Credit the creator
• Obtain images from a royalty-free place, make your own, or
ask permission
• Get permission for extended or extensive usage, or for
materials that were not available at hand in the institution’s
library system

16. Take away: best practices (continued)
• Continue to post a copyright notice on every online course
• Link to the URL of an article instead of posting a PDF (better
yet, have the student find the article at the library’s database
list online; this way they get practice using CINAHL, PubMed,
etc.)
• For graphics that illustrate nursing models, get the
publisher’s permission or make your own
• For survey instruments, always get permission if you would
like to use that instrument for your own research project
• Remember contracts usually trump fair use and other
copyright privileges
• Read the “Author Permissions” section on a journal’s site

17. Thank you!
Robert Cagna
Library Director
WVU Charleston
304-347-1287
rcagna@hsc.wvu.edu
www.slideshare.net/cagna