Copyright and Fair Use

In this guide, the term online class setting is defined as a closed online environment in which the materials presented are limited to students enrolled in a course at Wesleyan College that is part of the Wesleyan College curriculum, or limited to participants who are enrolled in a noncommercial educational experience offered by Wesleyan College. This may include:

• posting materials to a Canvas course page 
• hosting in-class sessions in an online meeting tool like Zoom or Google Hangouts that are not recorded
• hosting in-class sessions in an online meeting tool like Zoom or Google Hangouts that are recorded, but only only shared with students through the Canvas course page

While there are educational activities at Wesleyan College that are not part of the college curriculum, these do not receive the same fair use protections.

If the way in which you plan to reuse copyrighted works is for a purpose that is outside of the college curriculum, please conduct a fair use analysis, consult with one of the campus copyright contacts, or visit the Outside the Classroom FAQ.

• Access
  • Provide Links where possible and avoid directly uploading material.
    • Instead of loading PDFs, provide stable links to articles and ebooks available in Willet Library.
    • Show films or share the link to films that are licensed by Willet Library through Films on Demand and other streaming databases.
• Limitations 
  • Limit the amount of a work you post (10% or one chapter of a book)
  • Only post resources that are central to the course. Provide lists with links for "further reading."
  • Show portions of films during a one-time, non-recorded, synchronous session open only to class members, using media that you or the library owns. Do not upload media to Canvas.
• Audience
  • Only provide access to course materials through Canvas. This will make sure that only students registered for your class will have access to the content and that it will be taken down at the end of the course.
  • If you plan to use the work for multiple semesters, you will need to work with a librarian to obtain a license, find it in a library database, or get specific permission for the work.
  • Images, media, or other creative content that is shared outside the virtual classroom must abide by copyright. 
• Notification
  • Include a notice for your classes that explicitly states that sharing course material outside of the digital classroom is protected by copyright.
    • Example phrasing: Content from this course may be protected by copyright. Therefore, any unauthorized sharing of course materials, including lectures, quizzes, tests, rubrics, lab manuals and lectures is prohibited. Please see  https://wesleyancollege.libguides.com/copyright for more information.

**Do not break the terms of agreement for personal streaming services like Netflix or use software to rip files from protected material.**