1. NAVIGATING FAIR USE
AND COPYRIGHT LAW:
A Case Study on How Students Compose
Multimodal Compositions – Nicole Williams, Ball
State University

2. “Copyright is a form of protection provided by the
laws of the United States (Title 17, U.S. Code) to
the authors of ‘original works,’ including literary,
dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other
intellectual works. This protection is available to
both published and unpublished works.” (US
Copyright Office)
Copyright Law

3. 1. The purpose and character of the use,
including whether such use is of a commercial
nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
2. The nature of the copyrighted work;
3. Amount and substantiality of the portion
used in relation to the copyrighted works as a
whole; and
4. The effect of the use upon the potential
market for or value of the copyrighted work.
Fair Use: The Four Factors

4. How do I teach my students something that I
have trouble understanding?
How do I explain something to them that has
no cut and dry rules for them to follow?
Does it hinder their creativity? Do they think
about the law at all?
Do they limit their options because of the law?
Is the quality of their projects and learning
affected by it?
Questions: My Focus

5. Instructor of FYC
Qualitative Study
Two part interview study of students
composing multimodal projects in FYC
Analysis of interviews and projects
All names have been changed for
confidentiality
Case Study and Context

6. 1. How many multimodal compositions (projects that
combine image, audio, or text) have you created for
high school or college classes?
2. What type of project are you creating for this
multimodal assignment?
3. What is your plan, step-by-step, for creating this
project?
4. Where are you finding materials such as images,
audio, and text for your project?
5. How are you using these modes (images, audio, and
text) in your project?
6. Have you run into any problems or complications with
creating your project so far?
Interviews Questions: Set
One

7. 1. Describe your final project to me.
2. Did you have to make any adjustments to the initial
plan you discussed with me in your first interview? If so,
what?
3. Were you able to find all the images, audio, and text
you required for your project?
4. Where you able to use all the images, audio, and text
you wanted to for your final project?
5. How did you document the sources you used for your
project?
6. Did you have to change your plan or project in any
way due to limitations of fair use and copyright law?
Interview Questions: Set Two

8. “no…I went to Google and
found it pretty easy”
“it changed completely…I
thought it would be more
difficult using IMovie cause
you would have to find clips
and cut it down for
plagiarism…so I think my
project is easier now.”
Interview One: Diane

9. “from different websites and I
actually encountered a problem
with the first website because I
scrolled down to the bottom and it
was like you can’t use this because
of copyright laws…that put me at
hold for a minute so I had to do
more research to find more
images.”
“I have to give credit where credit
is due and the images I have are
credited to someone so when I do
my works cited it will be pretty
Interview Two: Ann

10. “I am nervous about
getting around
certain fair use
things…I don’t know
my limitations…I’m
going to talk to my
teacher”
Interview Three: Mike

11. “No. Maybe I
should be a little
more conscientious
about it, but I am
not going to get in
trouble…I’m just
going to have to
cite everything.”
Interview Four: Kate

12. “I’m using Google to
find a broad range of
images and the video I
converted from
Youtube and clipped it”
“As long as I do my
works cited right it will
be alright”
Interview Five: Justin

13.  “No cause I didn’t
use any music and
the videos that I
used were from
CNN and YouTube”
Interview Six: Michelle

14. “The images I found fairly easy but
citing them is going to take awhile
because there are a good 20-25 of
them. The music was easy cause I
already had the CD’s, so I used
Audacity to cut down the songs to
where they were short clips to avoid
copyright infringement”
“there were a few pictures I really
liked, but I couldn’t find the origin of
the pictures”
“I had to shorten one song a little
more cause I didn’t want to use to
much of the song in my project for
Interview Seven: Jamie

15. Two Issues:
o Hinders creativity
 Confused with citation
Case Study: Results

16. Pedagogical methods
Understand students confusion
Language of fair use doctrine
The Future