The Influence on Instruction of Regulating Teachers' Use of Copyrighted External Resources

The Fair Use exception to copyright law allows teachers to use copyrighted material for instruction within certain guidelines. If teachers use copyrighted material in ways not permitted under Fair Use, the teacher and school could be held liable and sued for copyright infringement. Schools use copyright regulations, such as Internet filters and copyright policies, to control student and teacher use of copyrighted material. However, copyright regulations may discourage or prevent teachers from using copyrighted material they have a legal right to use and deprive students of educational resources. This qualitative study examined the effects of copyright regulations on teachers' use of copyrighted material for instruction and how this affected the implementation of copyright regulations. This was done in light of institutional theory. The specific copyright regulations that were examined were restrictions on technology, procedures to get permission to use copyrighted resources, and copyright policies. This study assessed how the different types of copyright regulations influenced assignments, innovation, and teachers' perceptions of copyright regulations. Data for the study were collected from a high school faculty in western North Carolina, who were asked about their experiences with their school's copyright regulations and were analyzed using Constructivist grounded theory. Analysis of the data showed that some copyright regulations were tightly coupled with implementation, meaning the execution of the policy matched the intent of the policy, while others were loosely coupled, meaning the execution of the policy did not match the intent of the policy. The copyright regulations that were tightly coupled were ones that the district had direct control or were associated with these copyright regulations. The copyright regulations that were loosely coupled required teacher cooperation. Further study on the two most common types of copyright regulations, Internet filters and copyright policies, was recommended.