Web Publishing Guidelines
Copyright issues surrounding publishing on the web
The Internet has grown from a relatively small government project to a world-wide computer network. As an educational institution we should be aware of the necessity of conforming to all laws, regardless of how they may be perceived on the Internet. The guidelines stated herein are not only for our own protection but also for teaching by example those principles we wish to instill within our students.
The copyright law and the courts have provided exceptions to the rules that govern the behavior of teachers, students, and schools. In general terms, teachers, students and schools are allowed to make "fair use" of materials for instructional purposes. "Fair use" has been interpreted to include those limited uses which are not likely to deprive a publisher or an author from income.
"Fair use" of Internet resources by teachers, students, schools or district personnel should parallel the use of printed resources. Teachers and students might make limited use of some text and graphics within their own classrooms. They should not "publish" those same materials across other classrooms within the building by posting on a local area network (LAN) or across other classrooms in other building on a wide area network (WAN) or the World Wide Web.
Teachers and students might make rather liberal use of information, text and graphics so long as their resulting works remain within the classroom setting. The moment the works move out of the classroom, they may fall under a "public performance" clause of the copyright law which imposes much greater restrictions and fees.
Many schools and district departments have purchased clip art collections to use within their classroom or department. In most cases, the agreement is printed on some kind of seal which is broken upon opening. In most cases there is specific language outlining your web rights. Most of these agreements require you to print a credit line on any document which you are publishing which includes one or more graphics from the collection. The best advice is to read and follow the stipulations within the agreement.
Teachers, students nor district personnel may safely make use of other's materials (graphics, text, etc.) when they publish on the Web unless they have requested and received formal permission to do so. This would include downloading or "whacking" another web site's material down to their school server. This should only be done after obtaining written permission from the author of the desired site.
To avoid problems with what to use or not use, the following statement should be our guide. Unless there is a clear statement that art, photos and text are "public domain" and available for free use, one should assume that they are copyrighted. This material should not be used for republication on a local area network, a wide area network or a Web site unless permission is granted from the owner.
