Fair Use for Online Video
Wednesday, November 12th, 2008Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Online Video
This document is a code of best practices that helps creators, online providers, copyright holders, and others interested in the making of online video interpret the copyright doctrine of fair use. Fair use is the right to use copyrighted material without permission or payment under some circumstances.
This is a guide to current acceptable practices, drawing on the actual activities of creators, as discussed among other places in the study Recut, Reframe, Recycle: Quoting Copyrighted Material in User-Generated Video and backed by the judgment of a national panel of experts. It also draws, by way of analogy, upon the professional judgment and experience of documentary filmmakers, whose own code of best practices has been recognized throughout the film and television businesses.
Dr. Punya Mishra (punya@msu.edu) is associate professor of Educational Technology at Michigan State University. His research focuses on the theoretical, cognitive and social aspects related to the design and use of computer based learning environments. He has worked extensively in the area of technology integration in teacher education and teacher professional development both in face-to-face and online settings. The Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework for teacher knowledge for technology integration (co-developed with Dr. Matthew J. Koehler), has been described as being the most significant advancement in the area of technology integration in the past 25 years. He has received over $4 million in grants from national and international agencies. He has published extensively in peer-reviewed research journals and has edited two books. Dr. Mishra has received many accolades for his teaching, including a Lilly Faculty Fellowship, the MSU Teacher Scholar Award, the College of Education’s Teaching Excellence Award and the AT&T-MSU award for Instructional Technology. He is also an accomplished visual artist and poet. You can find out more about him by going to 
Dr. Matthew J. Koehler (mkoehler@msu.edu) is an Associate Professor of Educational Educational Technology and Educational Psychology at Michigan State University. His research and teaching focus on understanding the affordances and constraints of new technologies; the design of technology-rich, innovative learning environments; and the professional development of teachers. He has collaborated with Punya Mishra to develop theoretical, pedagogical, and methodological perspectives that characterize teachers who effectively integrate technology, pedagogy, and content knowledge (TPACK). He is current vice chair of the AACE TPACK Special Interest Group (SIG), and editor of the TPACK wiki (www.tpck.org). He has received over $6 million in grants for his research and professional development work. His work has been published in several prominent national and international research journals. Dr. Koehler teaches undergraduate, masters, and doctoral in the College of Education on educational psychology, educational technology, teacher education, and research design. He has recently won the AT&T Instructional Technology award at MSU for best online course. You can find out more about Dr. Koehler at his website, 