Copyright and the classroom: showing video tapes in class

Copyright laws are meant to protect people who create something and want to retain control over what they created.  Music and movies are often the center of many copyright lawsuits, especially when it comes to illegal file sharing.  Artists do not like it when people enjoy their work without paying for it, and I don't know anyone else who would feel differently.

Educators are allowed to use copyrighted materials for free, but only in very specific situations and within a short time frame. It's called "fair use," and according to Stanford University,

"someone other than the copyright owner may make limited use of a copyrighted work without permission for purposes such as teaching, research, scholarship, criticism, parody and news reporting."

Again, there are very strict guidelines for this. To learn more about the fair use rule, please visit Stanford University's webpage at <http://fairuse.stanford.edu/Copyright_and_Fair_Use_Overview/chapter0/0-e.html>