Fair Use

Fair use is a legal defense mechanism that allows one to utilize copyrighted sources, to an extent. Fair use may only be claimed if the nature, amount, and content fits a certain profile. You may borrow only a small amount of a given work, and you may not change the content in a manner that affects meaning or destroys initial work. According to Kate Thompson, "a copyrighted work can be used or copied for educational purposes as long as the use is not solely a substitute for purchasing the work" (Thompson, 2005 p.11). In the classroom, an example of fair use, would be showing a video of an archaeological dig to your students, during a lesson on ancient Egyptian tombs. This would be considered fair use because no fees are charged to view the film, the film contains facts that would certainly aid in the children's understanding of the topic, if the video is simply used as an additional resource and not the main source for the unit, and if the documentary was made for mostly educational purposes thus not expecting it to make much of a profit outside of the educational field. Credit must ALWAYS be given to he/she/they who created it. 

Thompson, K. A. (2005). Copyright 101. Learning & Leading with Technology, 32(7), 10-12.