Nashville: Classroom Guidelines

Instructors may make a single copy, without obtaining permission, of the following materials for teaching or research purposes:

• Chapter from a book
• Article from a periodical or newspaper
• Short story, essay or poem
• Chart, graph, diagram, drawing, graphic, illustration or picture from a book, periodical or newspaper

Instructors may make multiple copies, without obtaining permission, of an item for classroom use if it meets certain criteria of brevity, spontaneity and cumulative effect:

•  Brevity
  • Complete poem if it is less than 250 words and is printed on no more than two pages
  • Excerpt of a poem if it is no more than 250 words
  • Complete article, story or essay that is fewer than 2,500 words
  • Excerpt of a article, story or essay if it is no more than 1,000 words or 10% of the work, whichever is less
  • One chart, graph, diagram, drawing, graphic, illustration, or picture from a book or periodical issue
  • Excerpt from a special work that is no more than two published pages and no more than 10% of the texts
• Spontaneity
  • The copying of the material must be at the occasion and inspiration of an individual instructor
  • The decision to use the work and the maximum teaching effectiveness must be within a time frame that is too short to reasonably to expect a timely reply to a request for permission
• Cumulative Effect
  • The copy is for only one course
  • No more than one short poem, article, story essay or two excerpts may be copied from the same author during one class term
  • No more than three works may be copied from the same collective work or periodical volume during one class term

Note: Each copy must include a notice of copyright and multiple copying is limited to no more than nine instances per course per class term

Copying of consumable materials is never permitted.  Examples of consumable materials are workbooks, tests, answer sheets.

Copying and distribution of copyrighted multimedia (CD-ROMs, DVDs, and VHS) is never permitted. 

CopyRight!: Academic permission. (2002). Danvers, MA: Copyright Clearance Center, Inc.