Fair Use Working Group

Patricia Aufderheide & , Co-Chairs

Fair Use Working Group Forum

FAIR USE CAUCUS 2011 Report

After the “Fair Use: In the Classroom, the Library and the Field ” panel at UFVA, we were joined by a group of professors for a Fair Use Working Group lunch & caucus to discuss current issues with professors who are not only trying to encourage fair use in their students' work but practicing fair use themselves in their teaching. From the discussion, we at The Center for Social Media have a lot of ideas for new resources to add to the fair use section of our website.

For instance, when it came to examples of fair use in practice, while there are quite a few examples of fair use used well on our site (which you can find here ), when a professor wanted to show her class a clear example of a creator claiming fair use incorrectly, that was harder for her to find. For student work to spark classroom discussion of how well the creators did (or didn't) employ fair use, you can check out our Did These Mashups Use "Fair Use"? You Decide! page.

Some professors requested a “Yes We Can!” document for our site that could clear up any misconceptions for educators and could encourage them to take advantage of all that fair use offers them in their own work as well as in their classrooms. For now, if you have a question about fair use, you can check out the answers to questions that others have written in to us here ; maybe someone has had a similar problem!

A few professors also wondered about how strictly to hold their students to fair use guidelines in their students' work. One professor noted that just because these students are in the "sandbox" of a classroom doesn’t mean they shouldn’t learn to practice pre-professional habits, and another stated that she simply wouldn’t allow students to turn in work that, if applicable, didn’t pay attention to guidelines of fair use. For professors looking for help in instructing their students about fair use, the teaching resources on our site can help you give your students the tools they'll need to utilize fair use from the classroom to the field.

If you'd like more one-on-one mentorship as you teach fair use, I'd be happy to help - you can reach me at kb7266a [at] american.edu . There was also a lot of excitement over the idea of bringing not only the Center’s materials (like the Codes of Best Practices in Documentary Filmmakin g, or The Code of Best Practices for Media Literacy Education or The Code of Best Practices for Online Video ) back to campuses across the country, but for potentially holding fair use events on campuses as well. For these events, film professors could testify to the effectiveness of the codes of best practices and could collaborate on the event with other departments.

If you’re interested in holding one of these events and want more details, or want to spread the word about fair use in another way, please contact us at socialmedia [at] american.edu . We’d love to hear from you!