Question on Lesson Plans

[troopernflight]

Is it acceptable to use FAA diagrams in my lesson plans? Or any diagram I can find online for that matter. I figured since it was not something I would be selling, rather, just using as a teaching aid that it would not be an issue. I would rather do that than try to draw my own cheesy diagrams or illustrations.

 

[drunkenbeagle]

Is it acceptable to use FAA diagrams in my lesson plans? Or any diagram I can find online for that matter. I figured since it was not something I would be selling, rather, just using as a teaching aid that it would not be an issue. I would rather do that than try to draw my own cheesy diagrams or illustrations.

If the Federal Government publishes it, you are generally safe to use them without fear of copyright infringement - they are public domain. Thats why everyone else uses them too

 

[rframe]

Yes the Federal Government work is fine to use. Heck Jeppesen, ASA, and some other companies print the entire books and charge for them.

As far as "any diagram I find online", no you don't have a right to use random stuff you find on the Internet, even if you aren't charging for it. Will anybody know or care? Highly unlikely, but technically you have no right to use or redistribute them.

 

[hammerhat]

I'd argue you CAN use random stuff you find on the intertubes or elsewhere if it's for noncommercial educational purposes. See Fair Use doctrine http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html

 

[rframe]

I'd argue you CAN use random stuff you find on the intertubes or elsewhere if it's for noncommercial educational purposes. See Fair Use doctrine http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html

You don't charge for flight instruction?

 

[drunkenbeagle]

You don't charge for flight instruction?

You can charge for teaching something you don't own the copyright to. Fair use also gives you some latitude to use portions of copyrighted works for academic purposes.

 

[rframe]

That's not necessarily a legitimate application of fair use.

I'd say it's very questionable if you could claim fair use in using one person's diagrams cut and paste into your lesson plans on aeronautical knowledge. If they were included in a student's term paper on aerodynamics, then yes, but being used by a CFI in the conduct of selling professional services... most likely no.

Academic fair use might include analyzing a portion of a pop song in an academic music theory paper or similarly quoting a passage from a novel in a literature class.

However, factors in determining fair use include both the nature of the work and "The effect of the use upon the potential market for, or value of, the copyrighted work". If I were the developer of some great aeronautical knowledge visualizations and I had intended to include those in a book I published and to help sell that book I posted some of my diagrams on a web site promoting my book and then other CFI's chose to rip them off for their own use without my permission, these factors of fair use would rule that use out.

http://www.copyrightfoundation.org/files/userfiles/file/EducatorsGuide.pdf

 

[troopernflight]

Ok, thanks for the input.

 

[hammerhat]

You don't charge for flight instruction?

Well I don't charge for flight instruction directly The FBO does that for me. But I see your point. It's a gray area. Many college professors use copyrighted materials in the classroom under Fair Use doctrine (even though students pay exorbitant amounts for those classes) So I doubt there will ever be a precedent.

Also note that commercial vs non-commercial is just one of many factors that should be considered. There were precedents when copyrighted work was reproduced and sold for profit but the Court still found it to be a Fair Use based on other factors (e.g. Bill Graham Archives v. Dorling Kindersley Ltd.)

I'm not a lawyer and this is not a legal advice, but I wanted to use a V-G diagram from a commercial training material I wouldn't have a problem with that. It's for educational purposes, it's a small portion of the copyrighted work, it's more factual than creative, and I'm not charging for it (even though I may charge for my time). And of course common sense must be used. If the website says in bold red font "Copyrighted material. No parts can be reproduced without prior written permission etc" then don't use it. If you receive cease and desist letter then stop using it.

 

[rframe]

I'm not a lawyer and this is not a legal advice, but I wanted to use a V-G diagram from a commercial training material I wouldn't have a problem with that. It's for educational purposes, it's a small portion of the copyrighted work, it's more factual than creative, and I'm not charging for it (even though I may charge for my time). And of course common sense must be used. If the website says in bold red font "Copyrighted material. No parts can be reproduced without prior written permission etc" then don't use it. If you receive cease and desist letter then stop using it.

Yeah, as far as the practical side goes, I have very little concern about any of this for an individual CFI enhancing their personal teaching materials. I wouldn't have any personal problem using diagrams in the way the OP stated, so long as I already have purchased the original author's work/books and so long as I'm not putting them into some lesson plans that I intend to sell to others, some other book I might sell, or even in some lesson or blog I'd make publicly available on a website or distributed article.