Copyright for Educators: The Basics

Copyright law protects original works including things like novels, songs, software, or works of art. 

Only copyright holders may:

• reproduce the work
• create modified versions of the work
• distribute copies of the work
• publicly perform or display the work

For more details, see What Does Copyright Protect? from copyright.gov.

U.S. copyright law provides some exceptions for educational institutions.

• Section 110 - on publicly displaying and performing copyrighted works in the classroom
• Section 108 - on reproductions for libraries and archives
• Section 107 - "fair use" for certain purposes. See Fair Use section for more details.