Are there copyright implications involved with including exerpts of a book in a free newsletter?
Question
We would like to use excerpts from a book in our quarterly newsletter for the Field Placement Office here in the School of Social Work. The content would be 10% or less of the book. This informational newsletter is sent out (free) to our Field Instructors.
Response
When considering questions of "Fair Use" (under which your question falls), it is always best to review the resources listed here: http://libwww.syr.edu/copyright/materials.html#fair_use
There are four standards by which "fair use" is assessed:
(1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
(2) the nature of the copyrighted work;
(3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole, and;
(4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.
If you can make no claim to, or if you are likely to contravene two or more of these, one might rightly question if your intended use is actually fair use.
Given, however, that your purpose is purely educational, has no commercial resale value or market harm, and involves 10% or less of the work, you might determine it to be fair use for your Field Placement Office newsletter to use the exerpts.
IMPORTANT: You must include full citation attribution for the quotes and bits used.
