Copyrights & Fair Use

I'm sure you're all aware of copyrights and their importance in protecting the work of the creators of unique and innovative educational materials such as TotallyStressedOut.com.

Fortunately, for teachers and students there is something called "fair use."  Simply put, fair use is the exception that allows teachers and students to use (within some very restrictive guidelines) copyrighted materials for educational purposes in the classroom.  I've found that many teachers are unaware of the specifics regarding fair use of copyrighted materials like web sites.  ( I, too, was quite uninformed in this area until I started to do some investigating! )

For students, fair use is easy!  Students can use graphics and content all they wish (without permission) as long as it is for a class assignment.  The only restrictions are that the "borrowed" content cannot be displayed in a public forum such as a web site (e-portfolios come to mind here) without the permission of the copyright holder and the content cannot be put into a situation where it can be distributed or copied.  (Students cannot give the content to someone else for use.)

For teachers, it's a bit more complicated and MUCH more restricted.

• Amount - A teacher cannot use more than 1000 words or 10% (which ever is less).  For Finance FREAK, this would be 1000 words.  (Once 1000 words are used, a teacher can no longer legally use content from this source in the classroom without securing a site license for classroom use.  This also includes a teacher simply reading the lessons and using them to guide lesson plans.)  A maximum of 5 graphics can be used.
• Type of Use Allowed - Face-to-face instruction, student self-study, evaluations of teaching performance and job interviews
• Duration of Use - A teacher can use the 1000 words of content for 15 days.  (Once the 15 days are up, the teacher can no longer use the content without obtaining a site license.)
• Copying - Copies cannot be made and students cannot be given copies (digital or photocopy) as this would open up the opportunity for additional copies to be made and distributed.
• Inspiration for Use - This one is a bit odd, but, here it is.  A teacher cannot provide the 1000 words of material to another teacher for use.  The INTENT for use must come from the teacher who gets the material.  An example of this would be if a school's librarian found some material and provided it to the teachers for use.  This would be a violation of the copyright.  However, if Ms. A went to the librarian (on her own) and asked for the materials, it's OK.

So, where does this put us with Totally Stressed Out?

Teachers:  Coolmath.com, Inc. is granting you the right to use Totally Stressed Out in the classroom as much as you'd like -- AS LONG AS YOU VISIT THE SITE LIVE!  You cannot print the lessons and you cannot download (or cache) the lessons onto your hard drive.  You cannot simply read a print-out of the lessons to your students.

Please understand that we can only afford to continue to maintain our web site and create new and innovation learning materials if we can be reimbursed for our time and expense.  We can only make money from the live web ads that appear on our sites!  Your assistance in this area is greatly appreciated!  How can you help us?  Please ask your school and your district to create links on their official websites to both StudentSuccessWeb.com and Coolmath.com.  These links help our rankings with search engines such as Google.  The higher our rankings, the more students we can reach!

For more information about copyrights and fair use, please check out section 107 of the copyright law.  The above guidelines were created at the Conference on Fair Use (CONFU) over a period of two years and were finalized in 1997.

Thanks for your interest in Totally Stressed Out!