Can I post a scanned newspaper article to my course web site?
Question
What are the copyright implications of scanning an article from, for example, the NYT that appears the night before a class and posting it on the course web site for students to look at before they come to class in the morning. I believe that it would be acceptable to make copies of that article and distribute the next day, but can it be posted on the web site instead?
Response
Thanks for using our copyright web form. You raise and interesting and valid question. There's a short answer and a long.
The short: In the particular instance of the NYTs that you cite, it is very easy to get the daily edition electronically as a "free" e-mail service from NYTimes.com
Furthermore, a simple photocopy of the article distributed in class is also permissible as is scanning on an interim serendipitous basis provided the user population is controlled and teaching is the purpose.
The long answer has to do with a) the frequency with which you would want to scan NYTs articles (every day for class? every week? e.g. regularly recurring use?) and to do with b) the persistence or duration of digitally storing a growing cache of scanned articles for long-term repeated use. Creating a surrogate NYTs archive locally on a personal or SU server is certainly not advisable under copyright law.
Fair Use and the TeachAct (information on both is clearly linked from our SU website) allow limited, targeted pedagogic use, either in photocopy or digital format. Digital, of course, assumes some sort of controlled online environment like courseware or a password protected or limited access web-site. In both, "temporary" access is advised.
We do however recommend that you contact the NYTs and get permission if you intend long-term regularized repeated use of their copyrighted articles. Our experience is that the NYTs is quite liberal in granting such permissions for teaching purposes. (For them it's a great marketing tool to students.)
In all cases, faculty have the responsibility to get appropriate copyright permissions when applicable (see: http://www.copyright.com/ ) because responsibility for compliance with U.S. copyright laws rests with you.
