By Laura Devaney, Managing Editor, eSchool News, January 11th —   Educators are often reluctant to share published works with students because they fear violation of the copyright laws. But according to the American Library Association (ALA), educators should not worry about using such material to boost student knowledge if it falls under the scope of fair use.

U.S. copyright law includes five exclusive rights: reproduction, distribution, derivative works, public performance, and public display. Creators of copyrighted works have a limited monopoly on those works, meaning they are the only ones able to profit from or sell their works, for a particular period of time under certain conditions. Currently, the “time limit” on copyright is defined as a lifetime plus 70 years.

The article goes on to explain about plagiarism, and defines the term “fair use.” Read the entire article by clicking here