The 20-Questions Fair Use Copyright Quiz

Answer True or False to each of the following. Then compare your answers with ours.

1. The owner of the local Blockbuster Video store supports the school by donating one videotape rental-free to the school every Friday. The video is shown in the multipurpose room to reward students with perfect attendance that week. This is fair use.

2. A teacher buys a single-user software program with department money and puts it on the local-area network (LAN). It is frequently used by several teachers at the same time. This is done in violation of a written district policy against using single-user programs on the LAN. After two years, the software company takes action against the individual teacher. The district is also liable.

3. A history teacher taped the original ABC news report showing Richard Nixon leaving the White House after he resigned. She made it at home on her personal VCR and used her own tape. She uses the entire news program every year in her classroom. This is fair use.

4. A teacher rents Gone With the Wind to show the burning of Atlanta scene to her class while studying the Civil War. This is fair use.

5. A student doing a multimedia report discovers how to copy the QuickTime movie of Kennedy's "We shall go to the moon" speech from a CD-ROM encyclopedia. He presents the report to his classmates, then posts it on the school LAN. This is fair use.

6. Copyrighted material used in multimedia projects may remain in the student's portfolio forever.

7. A student finds a photo online dramatizing a pre-Columbian Viking landing in America. Since the school symbol is the Viking, he uses this photo as a graphic element on the school's Web page--giving credit to the site from which it was copied. This is fair use.

8. A science teacher asks the school librarian to record a great episode of Bill Nye the Science Guy on its original broadcast in September 1998. He figures on using it for years. This is permissible.

9. A student building a multimedia art project uses copyrighted images of Frank Lloyd Wright buildings downloaded from the Web. He submits this project to a multimedia competition honoring classroom work and wins a prize for the school. This is covered under fair use.

10. The teacher of the winning multimedia project mentioned above shows it at an art conference for educators. It cost $50 to attend the conference and the teacher is awarded free attendance because he is a presenter. This is fair use.

11. Using a legal copy of the program Webwhacker, a district technology specialist downloads and caches educational and noneducational Web pages for school Internet trainings. By copying these pages onto the school's server she is violating copyright law.

12. A school purchases one copy of a typing tutorial program, which is housed in the library. It is checked out to individual students to take home for two-week periods. This is permissible as long as the homes erase the program at the end of the two weeks.

13. "Seinfeld" has an episode on personal hygiene that a health teacher tapes and uses the following week in class. The local television station denies permission when asked and states this is a violation of copyright law. They are correct.

14. A student brings in an audio cassette copy of the national anthem that he copied from an audio CD lent to him by a friend. Another student digitizes this into a HyperStudio stack. This is fair use.

15. A high school video class produces a student video yearbook that they sell at community events to raise money for equipment for the school. They use well-known popular music clips. The money all goes to the school and the songs are fully listed in the credits. This is covered under fair use.

16. A school can only afford one copy of Kid Pix. It loads this onto the library computer and all students and all classes have access to it all day. The teachers copy and install Kid Pix Player on their classroom computers to evaluate the student work. This is permissible.

17. A teacher creates his own grading program for use with his students. He transfers to another school and forgets to delete the program from the network. Everyone at his old school copies and use the program. He sues the school and wins. He is likely to receive a significant monetary reward.

18. An elementary school transcribes the lyrics from the album "Cats" and puts it on as the school mini-musical. A teacher plays the music by ear on the piano and the students perform every song. There is no admission charge. This is legal.

19. A media aide tapes "60 Minutes" every week in case teachers need it. This is fair use.

20. A professor at a prominent University of California campus copies an expensive software program for every student in his class. This state university is taken to court by the copyright holder. The university loses.

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