LibGuides: Copyright & Educational Fair Use: Learning Management Systems (LMS)

LMS & Fair Use/Copyright

Posting an item to the learning management system (LMS) does not exempt an instructor from copyright regulations. Therefore, instructors are encouraged to follow copyright "best practices" as outlined in the Copyright Clearance Center’s publication, Using-Course Management Systems.

Note that the guidelines suggested below are based on one interpretation of U.S. Copyright Law. If in doubt, it is always advisable to err on the side of caution and complete a fair use evaluation.

Item	Allowed	Not Allowed
Web site containing copyrighted material	Link to the Web site via the LMS	Copying and pasting the information into the LMS
Copyrighted Web image	Must be educational in nature; display in the LMS for one semester	Repeated use over multiple semesters
Article from a library database	Direct linking to article allowed	Copying and pasting the article into the LMS
Article, book, book chapter, or DVD obtained through interlibrary loan or otherwise borrowed from another library	Permission must be obtained	Permission denied or not obtained
Scanned copyrighted image	Must be educational in nature; display in the LMS for one semester	Repeated use over multiple semesters
Scanned chapter from a book	5% of the total work if in-print; 10% of the total work if out-of-print; allowed for one semester	More than the allotted percentages or repeated use over multiple semesters
Scanned article from a journal, trade publication, or magazine	A single article for one semester	Multiple articles from the same publication or repeated use over multiple semesters
Audio files	No more than thirty seconds without permission	Repeated use over multiple semesters
Video files	10% or three minutes, whichever is less	Repeated use over multiple semesters