The Purpose of Copyright Bay

"Copyright." It's many things...

To publishers, it's a means to ensure a return on the creative dollar.

To librarians, it's a guarantee to provide information that "promotes the sciences and useful arts."

To educators, it's a pain in the neck.

Unfortunately, copyright is a reality that educators must face in an era when digital technology makes it easy to steal intellectual property. And if research has it right, educators in general have a lot of ground to cover to become familiar with not only what copyright law restricts,but also what it allows in terms of that fuzzy little term, "fair use".

This web page represents the authors best attempt to explore"fair use" in the not-for-profit educational setting and present it in an informative and entertaining way. It's meant to be fun.

It is our hope that, by the time you are through browsing this website:

• You, as a teacher, will be able to apply fair use practices to the classroom or to non-traditional settings.
• You, as a teacher, will also be able to identify copyright practices that are questionable so that infringements may be avoided in the future.

It is beyond the scope of this website to address the issue of computer software.

It is well beyond the scope, and intention, of this web site to offer legal advice in any form whatsoever. All of the content in this web site is derived from research, which is cited in the bibliography. Please do not construe anything written in this site as anything more than informative journalism and commentary, primarily for educators but for anyone else who is interested in the fair use of copyrighted works.

We welcome your comments, and we encourage you to copy whatever content you like from this website and use it as you see fit. The artwork is all original and we respectfully ask that no changes be made to it.

To learn how to use this website, we invite you to revisit the main page and click on the appropriate button: "How it works."