Students should go to the following link for a concise explanation of the Fair Use Policy that governs uses of copyrighted material for educational use. The use of copyrighted works or media is protected by law for many reasons. It is protected to ensure that the creator of a work
is justly compensated when it is used by others who did not have any expenditures of capital or energy to produce the work. It creates a climate that ensures the continued search for new ideas, and therefore people constantly are challenged by the goal of creating unique and individual works, rather than just copy or mimic existing works or technologies.
    Without copyright protection people would become intellectually stagnant and wait for someone else to create a product, work, or invention and then try to unfairly capitalize on the efforts of those persons who dedicated themselves to producing unique intellectual property. Imagine a world where nearly every song sounded like another one and all clothing, paintings, books, movies, video games, and cars looked, felt, sounded, and cost nearly the same. The world would lack the intellectual diversity that produces many of our greatest literary and technological inventions. You would still be buying 45 Lp's and dancing to music that sounded like it did in the 1950's. No one would try to produce anything original when they knew that copying a certain sound or formula or drawing would produce just as much fame, money, and consequence as anything they might happen to create without copying.
 
 

1) Motion Media:
    Up to 10% or 3 minutes, whichever is less, may be included in a single multimedia
    project without permission from the copyright holder.

2) Text Material:
    Up to 10% or 1000 words, whichever is less. An Entire poem of less that 250 words, but
    you are not allowed to include more than 3 poems by the same author in one educational
    multimedia project without obtaining permission from the copyright holder.

3) Music, Lyrics, and Music Video:
    Up to 10%, but no more than 30 seconds of the music or lyrics can be included in a
    multimedia project or project without the expressed
    written permission of the copyright license holder. Alterations that change the
    basic the basic melody or foundation of the work are not allowed.

4) Illustrations and Photographs:
    No more than 5 photos or images by one artist may be used. When using published works
    that are collected, no more than 10% or 15 images may be used without permission.

5) Numerical Data Sets:
    You may use up to 2500 field or cell entries or up to 10% from a copyrighted database
    without obtaining permission.
 
 

1) Yes, you will need to seek permission of any copyright holders that you have included in your
    multimedia presentation if you wish to commercially distribute or reproduce it.

2) When you plan to exceed Fair Use duplication limitations

3) When you plan to distribute your educational multimedia project over electronic networks
    ( example: the Internet).
 

Many web sites contain content that is compiled of a mix of works in the public domain and those of copyrighted material, therefore you should be aware that just because you can access something over the internet does not preclude you from the responsibility to seek permission for use of copyrighted works. Also, remember that some copyrighted works may have been posted without permission of the copyright holder, or the time limit for their permission may have expired.

You should show and credit sources of copyrighted material and display the copyright notice and ownership information (if included in the original) whenever you are using or incorporating these materials into your own educational multimedia projects. Copyright information always includes the name of the copyright holder, the copyright notice,  and the date of the first year of publication.

The opening screen of an educational multimedia project must contain notice that the project contains copyrighted works under the Fair Use exemption guidelines permitted by U.S. copyright law.

Whenever an alteration is made to a copyrighted work incorporated in an educational multimedia project, you must also include notation documenting your changes.

If you think that your project could eventually be distributed on a broader scale than you originally expected, you should seek to obtain permission from the copyright holders of all the protected material included in your multimedia project.

Fair Use guidelines may not protect you from legal restitution if your project includes materials that are subject to licenser or contractual obligations. You should find out if there are any additional copyright restrictions beyond the standards delineated in Fair Use guidelines.