Question - Copying for classroom use

Part I: A professor in the Business Department who has taught a management course for several semesters discovers a few weeks before the start of the term that a new edition of the text book he commonly uses for the course is now available. The changes in the text are not that extensive and, overall, the professor is pleased with the new material that has been added. The only problem is that the new edition does not include a description of a classroom exercise from the first edition that the professor routinely uses the first day of class. After some consideration, the professor decides to just photocopy the exercise from his old text for distribution in class. Later that day, the professor describes the problem to a colleague over lunch. The colleague tells him that he should not have made the photocopies without first obtaining permission from the book's publisher and that he should not distribute the copies in class. Is the colleague right?

Hold your mouse over the blue box below to view the answer:

No. The professor's copying of the article in this instance qualifies as a "fair use" of the copyrighted work. The professor's purpose is educational and not commercial; the copied exercise is a non-fiction work and is only a few pages long (as compared to the several hundred page text book from which it is taken); and the professor's use of the copied exercise does not negatively affect the marketability of the work, particularly since his students have purchased the newer edition of the text book. The timing of the professor's decision to copy the exercise also is critical to a "fair use" analysis. He decided to copy the exercise only upon learning that the new edition of the textbook did not include the exercise and there was insufficient time to contact the publisher for permission before his class began.

Next (Part II of this) question