Genuine Imitations

One of our supervisors has a single copy of an informative flyer on Mali. We would like to distribute copies of it to all of our elementary school classes. Since the publisher is no longer in business and the publication is out of print, is it lawful to make copies of it?
—Susan Fitchko Library Media Supervisor Newport News (VA) Public Schools

Typically, copying an entire work would be a copyright infringement. But we can make a very good argument that this particular usage is fair use. For starters, the flyer will be used for nonprofit, educational purposes. Also, the material being copied is of a factual nature. Although the entire publication is being copied, there would be no effect on the market. It is likely that the Mali booklet may not be available elsewhere. However, I recommend conducting a quick search of distributors of out-of-print periodicals. If a distributor has the Mali booklet, it probably doesn't have enough copies for every student (so you would have to make additional copies anyway). Another point in your favor is that the copyright law specifically lists multiple copies for classroom use as an example of a fair use.

We are thinking of making posters that look like the American Library Association's (ALA) "Read" posters—only instead of showing celebrities, we'd use photographs of our staff and students. Is adapting ALA's idea a copyright infringement? Also, is it a violation to use images of book covers? I had planned on making a PowerPoint presentation, promoting the titles on a Texas Tayshas booklist. Ideally, I would like to include images of book covers. Although our school owns all of these titles, I'd be taking the images from Amazon and Brodart in order to show covers without bar codes.
—Carolyn Pearl Librarian Westfield High School Houston, TX

Ideas cannot be copyrighted so you have no problem using the same format as ALA's "Read" posters. (Although an expression of an idea, if creative and original, can be copyrighted.)

The use of book covers, however, is a fair use issue. No other copyright exemption addresses this topic, and to my knowledge, guidelines do not exist. Using images of book covers involves making a copy of them, and, one could argue, it also involves "publicly displaying" the works. Libraries have always displayed book covers—but that is not the concern here. I think this particular usage is fair use of the copyrighted works. Why? Primarily because making copies of the book covers has no effect on the market for the works and actually promotes reading. Also, because this use is not for commercial purposes, and the library is not collecting money that would have otherwise gone to the original artist or publisher.

Several teachers would like to copy school-owned VHS videotapes onto DVDs to use with our computers. Is there a copyright issue here?
—Ilka Morse Curriculum/Technical Coordinator Shenendehowa Central Schools Clifton Park, NY

Copying videotapes onto DVDs is a copyright infringement. These titles are probably available for purchase in the DVD format. If a videotape is not available as a DVD, call the distributor and ask if you can copy it. He may charge a fee.

If your library has titles in "obsolete" formats, digital copies may be made. By "obsolete," I mean a format can no longer be viewed because the machines necessary to view it are no longer manufactured. So you could wait until VHS is completely dead, and then copy the videotapes onto DVDs. But there's a catch: copies transferred to a digital format may not leave the library premises.