Scrupulosity: "I'm just following orders"

[JimG]

Some years ago I was sponsoring a person who was going through RCIA. The person teaching it was using a book, whose title I don’t recall. Each class, he copied one chapter and reproduced it for the class.

I wondered a little about this, but it was not my business. Then one class, he explained his reasoning.

Someone had told him about copyright law. One chapter was fair use.
So he only copied one chapter. A different one each week! By the end of the class he had copied the entire book. I nearly laughed out loud.

I guess I should have tried to explain it. But maybe he was better off with invincible ignorance!

 

[JSSebastianoP]

I just skipped to the end to post a reply, so excuse me if this has already been said.

I, being a student, have also been troubled by copyright laws (because breaking copyrights and plagiarism are two completely different categories. You can still be breaking a copyright if you give credit to the author, for example). However, I’ve researched into this and found some “legal loopholes.” Something called, Fair Use Rights.

I found this great checklist, too, that helps determine if using something is Fair Use. Here in the USA, this means that under certain circumstances you can ‘ignore’ copyright laws.

Here’s a useful Fair Use explanation: library.umf.maine.edu/plagiarism/copyright/fair_use.html

and a detailed worksheet for determining: d.umn.edu/lib/copyright/worksheet.htm

EDIT: Seems that I’ve come pretty late to the game hopefully my links will help you though

Thanks! These helped a lot.

So, I know it’s not exactly my original post, but I have another copyright question that’s probably just me being scrupulous again, but…

I make a Mass sheet for our community every week with the readings (the translation into English of which is copyrighted). I was looking at the fair use links suggested by wworld and I think I’d be okay except in one section which is the amount of the work I’m copying… If I do this every year for the College community (we have Mass in a chapel), then I will, if not of the Old, have copied a large part of the New Testament.

Do people think this falls under fair use?

If it helps to decide, the Priest has asked me to do this, so I’m leaning towards “it’s okay” but I felt guilty and wanted to check…

Thank you so much for putting up with me

Pax,

Sebastiano