The Cover Conundrum

Is it a copyright violation to scan book covers and post the images on our school's Web site to accompany book reviews written by our students and faculty?
—Cindy Lafferty, media specialist, Trinity Catholic High School, Ocala, FL

Reproductions of book covers for school or library Web sites are fair uses. The purpose of the use is nonprofit and has an educational focus—the encouragement of reading. The effect on the work's market is a positive one. The books have been acquired lawfully and those who visit the Web site and learn about them may decide to purchase their own copies. While the second factor of fair use (the nature of the work, in this case, highly creative) and its third factor (entire image used) weigh against a finding of fair use, factors one (the purpose of the use) and four (the effect on the market) seem to override these considerations.

Our digital-video class wants to make its own music videos to accompany popular songs. The students plan to use the entire song in their videos. Must they obtain copyright permission? What if they want to enter the videos in a student contest or festival?
—Amy Ryder, practicum student, Simmons Graduate School of Library and Information Science, Boston, MA

If the students are preparing videos as part of their coursework, the use of the recorded music is probably a fair use and the performance of the music in the video is also excused because it falls under the category of "classroom use"—an exemption under Section 110 of the copyright law.

But if the videos are screened at festivals or shown to outside groups—in other words, taken out of an educational context—then the fair-use argument is much more difficult to justify. In addition, the videos are not exempt from the exclusive right of "public performance," which is defined as a performance that occurs "at a place open to the public or at any place where a substantial number of persons outside of a normal circle of a family and its social acquaintances is gathered."

To obtain a public-performance license for the music, one must contact the work's author and the company that recorded the performance. However, by contacting a royalty agency, such as the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) or Broadcast Music International (BMI), both the author's and recording company's copyrights can be cleared.

If students make copies of the videos and give them away or sell them, a "mechanical license" is also needed. The Harry Fox Agency (www.harryfox.com/mechanical.html) handles these types of licenses.

In case you're wondering, school districts can obtain a blanket license from one or more of the royalty agencies to cover performances of nondramatic musical works that typically occur in schools, such as orchestral or choir concerts.

If a teacher wishes to create an index for a book that doesn't have one, is it necessary to obtain permission from the author? And what about publishing the index or including it on a Web site?
—Kathryn Carrier, reference, Traverse Area District Library, Traverse City, MI

Permission to create an index is not necessary because no rights of copyright are infringed. The teacher is identifying words and noting the location of those words in the text. One might believe that the index is a derivative work (a new work created based on the original), since the index itself cannot exist without the original. But, no creative expressionis used or taken from the original work—the words themselves are not an expression and are not protected by copyright.

However, one could argue that the resulting index is protected by copyright since the selection of words from the original work does require some creativity and originality. But the arrangement of words is not protected. Remember, facts and compilations of facts that have been organized in unoriginal ways—in this case, in alphabetical order—are not protected by copyright law.