# Teaching/creating PowerPoint lectures from copyrighted material. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 11, 2014, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teaching-creating-powerpoint-lectures-from-copyrighted-material/704383 "2014-11-11T23:18:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![sitchensis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sitchensis/32/4892_2.png) [@sitchensis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sitchensis)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2014, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teaching-creating-powerpoint-lectures-from-copyrighted-material/704383/1 "2014-11-11T23:18:10Z")
I sometimes run across really good educational media, such as websites and workbooks, created by different forms of government (federal, state, colleges, cooperative extensions). I would love to turn some of this information into PowerPoint presentations for classroom lectures. I would edit and simplify the material, turn it into bullet points, but the basic idea would be to just copy paste whole sections of material. (No slightly altering bullshit) An example would be if I were to teach a class involving measuring stream flow and pollution levels, and the state of Minnesota had already created a workbook for state employees titled “Measuring stream Flow and Pollution Levels” that contained 95% of what I wanted to teach. Could I just turn that book into PowerPoints and teach it? What about if it was a Canadian work, or a state college or extension service? The audience would be only students who are in the class, though they are paying for the product. Any other thoughts on understanding the law would be helpful. ---
**Author:** ![Alley\_Dweller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alley_dweller/32/430_2.png) [@Alley\_Dweller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alley_Dweller)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2014, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teaching-creating-powerpoint-lectures-from-copyrighted-material/704383/2 "2014-11-11T23:39:07Z")
One small point: Material created by the federal government in the United States is not subject to copyright, you may use and abuse that freely. However, note that the federal government may have a copyright on materials it obtains from other parties, for example if it purchases the rights to a document from a private party or seizes the assets of a publisher for unpaid taxes. ---
**Author:** ![Alley\_Dweller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alley_dweller/32/430_2.png) [@Alley\_Dweller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alley_Dweller)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2014, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teaching-creating-powerpoint-lectures-from-copyrighted-material/704383/3 "2014-11-11T23:47:46Z")
Ooops. Edit window expired. But do not attempt to make unauthorized use of the name or image of Smokey Bear (formerly known as “Smokey the Bear”). [That carries stiff penalties.](http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/711) ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2014, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teaching-creating-powerpoint-lectures-from-copyrighted-material/704383/4 "2014-11-12T00:30:54Z")
[Or Mickey Mouse](http://www.snopes.com/disney/wdco/daycare.asp). Ricky Rouse is okay, as well as Monald Muck. FWIW, I saw a recent teaching posting which stressed not using copyrighted material. I don’t know if they really enforce it. As far as the class textbook, many publishers have image sets that they let you use. On GIS, you can specify free-to-use or edit images. Wikipedia is also a great source as I believe it’s all Creative Commons. With text, paraphrase and cite. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2014, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teaching-creating-powerpoint-lectures-from-copyrighted-material/704383/5 "2014-11-12T00:38:41Z")
The federal government does not copyright its works, but states can: > **[Copyright status of works by subnational governments of the United States](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_status_of_work_by_U.S._subnational_governments)** > > The copyright status of works produced by the governments of states, territories, and municipalities in the United States varies. Copyright law is federal in the United States. Federal law expressly denies U.S. copyright protection to two types of government works: works of the U.S. federal government itself, and all edicts of any government regardless of level or whether or not foreign. Other than addressing these "edicts of government", U.S. federal law does not address copyrights of U.S. Th... It says that Minnesota’s laws are kinda grey. If you can find contact information, you can always seek permission from the authors. Generally, though, this type of use would probably fall under fair use if you’re doing it for non-profit educational purposes. But charging for the materials might make it a grayer area. More info: > **[Measuring Fair Use: The Four Factors](https://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/fair-use/four-factors/)** > > Unfortunately, the only way to get a definitive answer on whether a particular use is a fair use is to have it resolved in federal court. Judges use four factors to resolve fair use disputes, as ... That said, there is no definitive answer to this question until and unless the State of Minnesota decides to sue you for a copyright violation and you lose a fair use defense. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of that actually happening in practice – states suing educators for using their materials – but then again I’m not a lawyer. If you wanted to be safe, standard textbook publishers probably have license clauses that let you make PowerPoints. Otherwise there’s wikibooks, stuff from the [USGS](http://water.usgs.gov/edu/measureflow.html) (federal), CC-licensed [Appropedia](http://www.appropedia.org/How_to_measure_stream_flow_rate), etc. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2014, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teaching-creating-powerpoint-lectures-from-copyrighted-material/704383/6 "2014-11-12T00:41:06Z")
Mickey Mouse is not a work of the government, it’s Disney’s copyright. Using Smokey unauthorized for profit is not a copyright violation, it’s a violation of a separate law. ---
**Author:** ![Stinky\_Pete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Stinky\_Pete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stinky_Pete)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2014, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teaching-creating-powerpoint-lectures-from-copyrighted-material/704383/7 "2014-11-12T05:10:53Z")
I formerly ran a school computer lab and taught PowerPoint. Section 107 of the Copyright Act allows teachers to use copyrighted material. There are limits but it will keep you out of trouble. Cannot use the copyrighted material for profit. Cannot put it out there on the Internet where just anyone can access it, however if you have a limited network that requires login and passwords to access it (therefore only available to the classroom students) then you can use it in this circumstance so that your students can access the copyrighted material from the school or classroom website. Okay, certainly you and your students want to use pictures and maps and graphics and soundbytes from the Internet for creating their PowerPoint projects. Well pretty much I found that everyone will look the other way and pay no attention to the copyright legalities. No one has an intention of robbing the the owning party of meaningful royalties. Your other option is pay the bucks for copyrighted material from websites that sell soundbytes and graphics. That is a difficult road to follow for more reasons than you might guess. I will not go into all the reasons but there are elements that will consume large amounts of time in addition to the expenses that are incurred. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2014, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teaching-creating-powerpoint-lectures-from-copyrighted-material/704383/8 "2014-11-12T08:31:23Z")
[Section 107 of the Copyright Act](http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html#107) is just the Fair Use provisions I stated above. It is not a blanket permission for credentialed teachers to do whatever they want with copyrighted material; the nature and scope of the copy/copies must still be taken into account. You have to take all the criteria into consideration (amount of content copied, how significant it is compared to the whole work, what it’s being copied for, and whether it diminishes the ability of the copyright owner to profit off the work). There’s no special provision for on Internet works vs off, or logged in vs not (otherwise exclusive movie pirating clubs would be legal), etc. For example, if you xeroxed entire commercial textbooks and sold them or gave them to students, that is almost certainly a copyright violation even if it’s just your 20 students in the classroom. If you took a paragraph out of a 1000-page book, cited it, and posted it all over the internet for public consumption, that is almost certainly still fair use. But it’s probably true that they will look the other way in the OP’s case. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2014, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teaching-creating-powerpoint-lectures-from-copyrighted-material/704383/9 "2014-11-12T14:23:59Z")
> [@Reply](#): > > Mickey Mouse is not a work of the government, it’s Disney’s copyright. Using Smokey unauthorized for profit is not a copyright violation, it’s a violation of a separate law. To be pedantic, Micky Mouse and Smokey Bear (never Smokey THE Bear except in a song but it was not a name change - it was a rhythm thing) are trademarks hence why Disney and DoA are so protective of them. If you do not defend your trademark you lose them which is completely different than copyrights. As a teacher, you may want to read [this](http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ21.pdf) to find out what you can and cannot do. However … IIRC there was a SCOTUS ruling and I want to say it was College Savings Bank v Florida Prepaid Postsecondary Education Expense Board that implied that a _public_ institution or school and thus a teacher acting in their professional capacity could not be sued for copyright infringement unless the state consented to the suit under the doctrine of state sovereignty. Private schools were not likewise protected.