What the law says: Section 107
The Copyright Act gives the owner of a work the exclusive right to make copies. Section 107 carves out fair use, and it names teaching as one of the purposes it has in mind, in so many words: "teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use)", next to criticism, comment, news reporting, scholarship and research. Whether a particular copy is fair is decided by weighing four factors:
| # | Factor | What it looks at |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Purpose and character of the use | Including whether it is commercial or for nonprofit educational purposes |
| 2 | Nature of the copyrighted work | A creative work weighs differently from a factual one |
| 3 | Amount and substantiality of the portion used | Measured against the work as a whole |
| 4 | Effect on the potential market for or value of the work | Whether the copies replace a sale |
The statute gives no word counts. The Copyright Office's fair use FAQ says there are no legal rules permitting the use of a specific number of words or a percentage of a work, and the House report that Circular 21 reprints describes fair use as a doctrine the courts apply case by case. So every number in the next section is something else: a negotiated safe harbor, not a line in the law.
Where the numbers come from
While Congress was writing the 1976 Copyright Act, the House subcommittee asked educators and publishers to work out between themselves what classroom copying they could both live with. The result is the Agreement on Guidelines for Classroom Copying in Not-For-Profit Educational Institutions with Respect to Books and Periodicals, signed on March 19, 1976 by the Ad Hoc Committee of Educational Institutions and Organizations on Copyright Law Revision, the Authors League of America and the Association of American Publishers. It was printed in the House report on the Act and the Copyright Office reproduces it in full in Circular 21.
Two things the agreement says about itself matter more than any number in it. First, its stated purpose is to set the minimum, not the maximum, standards of educational fair use. Second, copying that falls outside the guidelines may still be fair use under Section 107. The guidelines are a zone where the publishers who signed agreed not to object; stepping outside it means making the four-factor judgment yourself. The agreement covers books and periodicals only, not music or audiovisual works, which have guidelines of their own.
Single copies for the teacher
A teacher may make one copy of any of the following, at his or her own request, for scholarly research or for use in teaching or preparing to teach a class:
- A chapter from a book
- An article from a periodical or newspaper
- A short story, short essay or short poem, whether or not from a collective work
- A chart, graph, diagram, drawing, cartoon or picture from a book, periodical or newspaper
This is the easy case: one chapter, one article, one picture, for yourself. The limits start when the copier is set to 30.
Multiple copies for students
Copies for the class, never more than one per pupil, are allowed under the guidelines if they pass three tests at once, brevity, spontaneity and cumulative effect, and each copy carries a notice of copyright.
| Brevity: kind of work | Limit per copying |
|---|---|
| Poem | The whole poem if under 250 words and printed on no more than two pages; from a longer poem, an excerpt of at most 250 words |
| Prose | A complete article, story or essay under 2,500 words; or an excerpt of at most 1,000 words or 10 percent of the work, whichever is less, with a floor of 500 words |
| Illustration | One chart, graph, diagram, drawing, cartoon or picture per book or per periodical issue |
| "Special" works | Short illustrated works such as picture books: never the whole work, at most two published pages and no more than 10 percent of the words |
The word limits may be stretched to finish an unfinished line of a poem or an unfinished paragraph. Spontaneity means the copying is at the instance and inspiration of the individual teacher, and the decision to use the work comes so close to the moment of use that it would be unreasonable to expect a timely reply to a request for permission. A handout planned in August for a lesson in March does not meet that test. Cumulative effect caps how much of this happens in a term:
| Cumulative effect | Limit |
|---|---|
| One course | The copies are for only one course in the school |
| Per author | Not more than one short poem, article, story or essay, or two excerpts, from the same author in one class term |
| Per collection | Not more than three items from the same collective work or periodical volume in one class term |
| Per course | Not more than nine instances of multiple copying for one course in one class term |
| Exception | The per-author and per-course limits do not apply to current news periodicals, newspapers and current news sections |
What the guidelines rule out
The agreement ends with a list of prohibitions that apply even when the copying would pass the tests above:
- Copying to create, replace or substitute for anthologies, compilations or collective works, even if the pieces are handed out separately
- Copying from works meant to be consumed in teaching: workbooks, exercises, standardized tests, test booklets and answer sheets
- Copying that substitutes for buying books, reprints or periodicals
- Copying directed by a higher authority rather than chosen by the teacher
- Repeating the same item by the same teacher from term to term
- Charging students more than the actual cost of the photocopying
The first item is the one that catches well-meaning teachers. Collecting ten short excerpts that each pass the brevity test and stapling them into a course reader creates an anthology, which the agreement forbids whether the pieces are handed out together or one at a time. Tools that join documents make this easy to do by accident: merging PDFs is the right move for your own worksheets and for material you have permission to use, and the wrong one for a reader built from copied excerpts.
Music and films
Circular 21 also reprints separate guidelines for music, agreed in April 1976. For academic purposes other than performance, excerpts may be copied as long as they do not make up a performable unit such as a section, movement or aria, and in no case more than 10 percent of the whole work, with no more than one copy per pupil. Copying to avoid buying sheet music, or to build an anthology, is prohibited there too.
Showing a film is a performance, not a copy, and a different section applies. Section 110(1) exempts a performance or display of a work by instructors or pupils in the course of face-to-face teaching at a nonprofit educational institution, in a classroom or similar place devoted to instruction. The one condition for films is that the copy was lawfully made; a bought disc is, a pirated file is not. The Copyright Office FAQ notes that this covers teaching, not a movie afternoon for entertainment, which needs a license. Section 110(2) extends a narrower version to transmissions, for example a recorded lecture that includes a clip: the material must be part of mediated instruction, sent only to enrolled students where feasible, with the institution applying copyright policies and technical measures that stop students from keeping or redistributing the work.
Making the copies you may make
- Copy the notice with the excerpt. The guidelines require a notice of copyright on every copy. Including the page with the title, author and copyright line satisfies that and makes the source easy to cite.
- Two pages per sheet. Nothing in the guidelines is about paper, but a 1,000-word excerpt fits on one sheet when you print two PDF pages per sheet, which halves the stack for 30 students.
- Quote, do not scan. If you only need a passage for a slide or a worksheet, image to text pulls the sentence out of a photographed page so you can quote it with a citation instead of reproducing the whole page.
- Keep scans small. A phone scan of a magazine article can run to 20 MB. Compressing the PDF before it goes into the learning management system keeps it loading for students on phones.
- Use works that are free to copy. Public domain texts and openly licensed material sidestep the whole question. The guide to Creative Commons licenses explains what each license permits, and the list of free ebook sources covers the public domain libraries.
- Ask when in doubt. The Copyright Office's own advice in its FAQ is that in cases of doubt permission should be obtained. Publishers' permissions desks exist for exactly this.
Quick checklist before pressing copy
- Is it one copy for me? Then a chapter, an article or a picture is within the guidelines.
- Is it for the class? One copy per student, within the brevity limits, and each copy carries the copyright notice.
- Did I decide this recently enough that asking permission was not realistic? If I planned it months ago, ask.
- Is this my tenth instance this term, my second from the same author, or the same handout as last year? Then it is outside the guidelines.
- Is it a workbook page, a test, or a reader built from excerpts? Then it is prohibited under the guidelines regardless of length.
This guide summarizes the Copyright Office's circular and the statute for general information; it is not legal advice, and a school's own copyright policy or counsel decides the cases the guidelines do not settle.
Frequently asked questions
Can a teacher photocopy a whole chapter for the class?
A single copy of a chapter for the teacher's own research or preparation is listed in the 1976 classroom guidelines. Multiple copies for students are limited by the brevity test: a complete article, story or essay under 2,500 words, or an excerpt of at most 1,000 words or 10 percent, whichever is less. A full chapter for every student usually exceeds that, so it would need permission or a separate fair use judgment.
Are the classroom copying guidelines the law?
No. They are an agreement reached in March 1976 between educator groups, the Authors League of America and the Association of American Publishers, printed in the House report on the 1976 Copyright Act and reproduced in Copyright Office Circular 21. The agreement itself says it states minimum, not maximum, standards of educational fair use, and that copying outside the guidelines may still be fair use under Section 107.
Can I show a movie in class?
Section 110(1) of the Copyright Act exempts a performance or display by instructors or pupils in face-to-face teaching at a nonprofit educational institution, in a classroom or similar place devoted to instruction, as long as the copy of a film was lawfully made. The Copyright Office FAQ adds that this does not cover showings for recreation or entertainment, which need a license.
Can I copy a workbook page so students do not have to buy the workbook?
The guidelines list this as a prohibition. Works intended to be consumable in the course of teaching, such as workbooks, exercises, standardized tests and answer sheets, are excluded from the copying the guidelines describe, and copying may not substitute for the purchase of the material.
Do I have to put a copyright notice on the copies?
The guidelines require it for multiple copies: each copy must include a notice of copyright. The simplest way is to copy the page that carries the notice along with the excerpt, or to write the title, author and source on the first page.
Does "educational use" make any copying fair use?
No. Nonprofit educational purpose is part of the first of four factors in Section 107, and the other three still apply: the nature of the work, how much is used, and the effect on the market. The House report quoted in Circular 21 says the doctrine is applied case by case. Copying that replaces a sale of the book fails on the fourth factor however educational the classroom is.
Sources
- U.S. Copyright Office, Circular 21: Reproduction of Copyrighted Works by Educators and Librarians (the text of Section 107 with the four factors; the Agreement on Guidelines for Classroom Copying agreed March 19, 1976 with the single-copy list, the brevity limits of 250 words, 2,500 words, 1,000 words or 10 percent with a 500-word floor, one illustration per book or issue, the special works rule; the spontaneity and cumulative effect tests with the nine-instance limit; the prohibitions; the notice of copyright on each copy; the guidelines for music with the 10 percent limit; the statement that the guidelines state minimum, not maximum, standards; the circular cannot give legal advice)
- 17 U.S.C. § 110, Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School (110(1): performance or display by instructors or pupils in face-to-face teaching at a nonprofit educational institution, in a classroom or similar place devoted to instruction, except a film shown from a copy not lawfully made; 110(2): transmissions to enrolled students as part of mediated instruction, with the institution's copyright policies and technical measures against retention and redistribution)
- 17 U.S.C. § 107, Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School (fair use for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching including multiple copies for classroom use, scholarship or research; the four factors)
- U.S. Copyright Office, Frequently Asked Questions about Fair Use (a nonprofit school may show a lawful copy of a movie during face-to-face teaching activities, not for recreation or entertainment; no legal rules permit a specific number of words or a percentage of a work; in cases of doubt the Office recommends obtaining permission)