“The Fair Use Doctrine: History, Applicaiton, and Implications for (New Media) Writing Teachers,” by Marine Courant Rife

Rife, Martine Courant. “The Fair Use Doctrine: History, Application, and Implications
for (New Media) Writing Teachers.”  Computers and Composition. 24.1, 2007: 154-178.

Rife provides a historical overview of copyright and fair use laws, and applies the understanding and use of these laws to instructors using new media in their composition classrooms. Rife argues that it is crucial for instructors to become knowledgeable and aware of the laws of copyright and the “four-factor test” of fair use law if we are to effectively use new media as student-produced texts. Not only are we responsible for knowing and understanding the law and fair use principles, but we are also responsible for teaching our students to make critical and well informed decisions when creating their own multimedia productions. The purpose of this stance is not only to relieve ourselves of the liability of infringing on copyright laws, but it is also to acknowledge our ethical responsibility to intellectual property rights and the use of digital media.

Rife compares the issue of copyright law and fair use to the issue of plagiarism. Just as we are to instruct our students on the ethics against plagiarism and guide them in strategies for attribution and credible use of sources, we should also instruct them in how to determine how and when to use digital media fairly. We should provide an overview of copyright law and “might further teach the doctrine by modeling fair use behavior and by demonstrating our own critical consciousness (and ability to learn) of the legal issues that shape writing practices in digital environments” (157).

The four components of fair use are as follows:

1.    the purpose and character of use (commercial or educational use)
2.    the nature of the copyrighted work (creative, factual)
3.    the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the work as a whole
4.    the effect of the use upon the potential market

Use of copyrighted materials should be regulated under these guidelines, and Rife provides examples of the few court cases that have been determined on fair use guidelines. Obviously, these guidelines provide a challenge for writing instructors using new media. The fair use guidelines are subject to interpretation, and where one individual may make the decision he or she is protected by fair use, another may have a different view. Nonetheless, it is important to know the guidelines and raise awareness of fair use, creative commons license and the available means of avoiding copyright infringement. Of particular interest is Rife’s position that instructors should not make the mistake of avoiding the use of all copyrighted material just to be on the safe side of things. There are fair uses for copyrighted materials and we should be able to incorporate copyrighted digital materials in multimedia compositions as long as we do so with the appropriate knowledge of the fair use guidelines.

This article is of particular interest to me as I prepare my students to produce their multimedia projects. Each semester I have made improvements on how I address copyright and fair use with these multimedia projects. Rife offers confirmation that a majority of the work my students are doing would pass the four rule test of fair use; however, she does provide guidelines that will help me implement a more comprehensive pedagogy for dealing with these issues that are unique to multimedia in composition studies.