Copyright fuzziness

Yours truly recently attended a session dealing in part with copyright and what can be put on course websites at UCLA.  Now Inside Higher Ed is reporting on a legal case which puts in doubt some of the guidance included in that session.  An initial court decision largely favored university use of publications that could be put on course websites as fair use.  On appeal, however, the initial decision appears to have been - if not overturned - called into question.

You can find the article from Inside Higher Ed at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/10/18/federal-appeals-court-rejects-georgia-state-us-10-percent-rule-determining-fair-use

Some blog readers may recall an incident a few years ago where UCLA temporarily disabled streaming videos used for courses and then restored them due to litigation over copyright.  The lesson is that it's good to have a Plan B for your class if you are using copyrighted material that might be questioned in some court, somewhere, at some time.