Using Photos of Well-known Photographers on Presentation slides to students

PhotoLecturer

Hi all,

I have a dilema here... Here's the situation.
I'm a photography lecturer and going to start my 1st week of lesson with inspiring my students by talking about the best photographers in different genres of photography. Is it ok to include copyrighted photos in my powerpoint slides when i talk about the photographer (with credit line)? Is that considered fair use for educational purposes?

Problem is, I can't really just get creative common photos or free photos to illustrate my point here as i want to show the photographer's work and talk about how great he/she is.

I personally take copyright very seriously and would remind my students never to copy / publish copyrighted photos without permission or purchase of license to photo usage in their blog / facebook etc. So i would like to set a good example when i do my lectures.

- I will be presenting this presentation slides to a class of 20 students
- This presentation will only be presented in the classroom, one-time.
- This presentation will not be passed on or be copied by staff or student, it will not exist outside of the classroom.

Alternatively, would it be better if i show the students those inspiring top-notch photos straight from the photographer's websites? (it's just a little bit of a hassle that i have to load every websites and photos that i want to show on the web browser and then switch back to my slides to talk about other stuff. But if that's the safest and most ethical way, I'll rather go for this.

Hope someone can provide some advices / solutions here. Thank you

Ferguson

I am not a lawyer or an expert.

You might want to read this: http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ21.pdf and http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-fairuse.html

A complication of photographs is that unlike (say) quoting from a book, it is rare one would take a portion of a specific work. On the other hand, the general thought (as I understand it) is that fair use is generally equated as use in those areas permitted (teaching is one) that do not interfere with the authors use and "the effect on the potential market for or value of" are the words I think used in the original legislation.

Personally (and it is worth less than what you paid for it) I think that teaching in such a case as you describe meets all the right criteria for fair use. If I were doing it in a low key setting in a slide shot and not in material handed out (especially if sold) I would just do it. If I were publishing something for them to take away even if instructional I would consult an expert.

Angelo

I think generally you're OK with using photos for this sort of thing but the questions that comes to mind are:

Where will this be presented? Is there money involved? Are there any type of recordings of the lecture available for sale afterward?

Any exchange of money (other than general tuition to a school in which your lecture is only one of various studies for the students) would raise issues for you.