Are teachers who use images from the internet in their power point presentations breaking copyright laws?
It’s impossible to answer yes or no as it will depend on the circumstances and the type of materials they use, including whether their institution has signed any more restrictive agreements with any content providers that supersede the Copyright Act. While, as we discussed, most original works are presumptively covered by copyright a number of exceptions mean that works created by a teacher might not infringe copyright including: • Fair dealing – the use may qualify as for the purposes of research or private study or criticism and review (ss. 29, 29.1 of the Copyright Act) • The work may be in the public domain, ie copyright has expired • The teacher may be able to use copyright exceptions available to educational institutions for the purposes of education (s. 29.4 on) • user rights (CCH) • The work may be licensed to Creative Commons, the Gnu Free Documentation Licence or some other licensing regime that provides for liberal access and reuse of materials Remember that it is generally
