This page goes deeper into copyright and related legal issues for educational use of images, music, and film & video, as well as the use of generative AI.

Images • Music & Audio • Film & Video • Generative AI • Data • top ^

Images

The United States Copyright Act protects works of visual art and architecture in much the same way as any other creative or expressive work, and principles of fair use also apply. However, the nature of images can make it particularly challenging to assess the four factors of fair use. 

Resources for determining fair use

Free and licensed resources

Gould Library provides many resources to the Carleton College community that contain licensed images for academic use. The library has also identified a selection of free image resources.

Music & Audio

Music can be protected as both a musical work — i.e. the song’s composition and lyrics — and a specific sound recording — i.e. the performance of a song fixed in a tangible medium. 

If the work you would like to use is not in the public domain, you must either get permission from the copyright holder, license the work, or demonstrate that your use falls under the exception of fair use.

Resources for determining fair use

Free and licensed resources

Gould Library subscribes to many databases that contain audio recordings, notably Naxos Music Library. The library has also identified a selection of free resources.

Film & Video

Creating Content

Several professional groups that support filmmakers have issued the Documentary Filmmakers’ Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use, which outlines general principles for ethically incorporating material that may be under copyright into documentary film.

Screening Movies

Film is a powerful medium for communicating ideas and it’s also an entertaining way to bring people together. You need to know that a public performance license is required for all public performances, regardless of whether you are charging admission, except for a handful of specific situations. 

Here are examples when a film would need to have public performance rights (PPR):

  • If the showing of the video is open to the general public, such as a screening at a public event
  • If the showing is in a public space where access is not restricted, such as a a showing of a film for a class but in a venue that is open to anyone to attend
  • If people attending are outside the normal circle of family and friends, such as a showing of a film by a club or organization

Here are a few examples of exceptions when you would not need PPR to show the film

  • You are showing the film in your home or dorm room, as long as you limit attendance to family and friends 
  • Face-to-face teaching activities in a classroom or similar place devoted to instruction at a non-profit educational institution to students enrolled in the course. Instructors must use a legitimate (that is, not illegally reproduced) copy with the copyright notice included.
  • The movie is in the public domain 

For the specifics see ​​Section 110 (1) of the Copyright Act of 1976 and House Report (94-1476). 

Licensed Content

The library subscribes to several film and video streaming platforms that have limited public performance rights. Many of these allow for streaming in a non-classroom context, such as for events organized by a student group, but be sure to still check the terms of use.  

Additionally, the library has a large collection of DVDs and can screen a film for your class. 

Generative AI and Copyright

The specifics of copyright law as it relates to content produced using generative artificial intelligence tools is an emerging field. Generally, concerns about copyright and AI fall into two categories:

The ability to copyright the output of an AI tool

In March 2023 the United States Copyright Office published its Copyright Registration Guidance for Works Containing AI-Generated Materials. As raw output, content created by a generative AI tool does not satisfy the legal requirement that it be produced by a human. In order to qualify for copyright:

  • Generated content must be substantially edited or arranged by a human author
  • The use of AI would need to be disclosed when registering the work for copyright.  

The right to train AI models with content protected by copyright

This matter is currently making its way through the legal system. There are many high-profile lawsuits that address this issue, including Authors Guild v. OpenAI, The New York Times v. Microsoft, and Getty Images v. Stability AI. The Ethical Tech Initiative from George Washington University maintains a database of current litigation related to artificial intelligence.

Resources:

Data

Data as a set of facts is not usually protected by copyright; however the expression of data, such as with a chart or graph may be. Other parts of intellectual property law such as patents or trade secrets may be relevant, but are beyond the scope of this site.

Resources