I'm looking into copyright law as it stands regarding the legitimate academic use of music - essentially can academics upload songs as MP3s to university servers in order for students to study them?
This IFPI PDF brochure - http://www.pro-music.org/pdfs/Copyright_Use_and_Security_Guide-Academic.pdf - advises universities against staff and students using university servers to breach copyright etcetera, and uses the phrase "legitimate academic purposes", but doens't truly define what "legitimate academic purposes" actually are.
Does anyone know precisely what you can do, in the UK?
― Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Monday, 20 February 2006 15:22 (nineteen years ago)
I think there is a provision for critical appraisal of the song, which is similar to the one for printed works. Or have I made that up?
― tissp! (the impossible shortest specia), Monday, 20 February 2006 15:28 (nineteen years ago)
Of course, proving you are critically appraising something as opposed to just listening to it, well...
― tissp! (the impossible shortest specia), Monday, 20 February 2006 15:29 (nineteen years ago)
But academics aren't allowed to go around mass-photocopying chapters from copyrighted books for their students to read, are they?
― Alba (Alba), Monday, 20 February 2006 15:30 (nineteen years ago)
The is almost certainly a PRS implication, cos those bastrds get everywhere (you have to pay PRS on hold music!)
― Pete (Pete), Monday, 20 February 2006 15:35 (nineteen years ago)
In the US I believe that the principle of "fair use" would apply, as with printed copyrighted materials. There is lots of good material online explaining how fair use is judged, but the main four points the law considers are:
# the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for non-profit educational purposes;
# the nature of the copyrighted work;
# the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
# the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.
In your case, if you limit access to the songs to currently enrolled members of your class, and limit the availability of the songs to the semester of your class, you are improving your position of fair use. Providing only excerpts or portions of the complete work (or recording) would be even better (legally, though maybe not academically).
― arch Ibog (arch Ibog), Monday, 20 February 2006 16:15 (nineteen years ago)
I'm not sure there's any *copying* of music that counts as fair use. I think you can *play* a song to a class of students but not provide them with copies.
xpost: well maybe I'm wrong.
― Archel (Archel), Monday, 20 February 2006 16:17 (nineteen years ago)