Can I use a quote from a teacher’s lecture in an article for the school newspaper?

The first question we have to address is whether copyright law protects your teacher’s lecture in the first place. Believe it or not, anyone can receive a copyright, not just famous artists. There are two requirements that someone must meet to receive a copyright on their work. First, the artwork must be fixed in a tangible medium. This means that it has to be in a recorded form such as written down, recorded on a video, captured in a photograph, or some other form. Second, it must be original, meaning that it has to be somewhat creative. This means that those Soundcloud rappers at your school have a copyright on their work as long as their songs are recorded and are somewhat creative and original.

For your teacher to have a copyright on her lecture, she just has to satisfy those two prongs, which are relatively easy to meet. Let’s look at the first prong. Are your teacher’s lectures fixed in a tangible medium? Probably. Even though her words aren’t in a tangible medium while she is giving the lecture, she probably has a lesson plan where everything is written down. Many courts have held that live, verbal speeches can receive copyright protection despite not technically being saved in a tangible medium because the speech is usually written down. So, as long as your teacher has notes, a lesson plan, or something planning her lecture, she probably meets the first prong.

Second, are your teacher’s lectures creative and original enough to receive copyright protection? Although the information that she is teaching isn’t necessarily creative or her own work, the way she arranges the facts and words to teach is creative. Your teacher’s work is considered a “compilation” in copyright law, which is where someone puts together a bunch of facts in an original way. This means that your teacher’s lectures are creative in the way that she puts the facts together.

Because your teacher’s lectures meet these two prongs, she has a copyright on her work. But don’t worry, this doesn’t necessarily mean that you can’t use a couple quotes from her lectures. Keep reading to find out why!

Okay tell me! How can I use a couple quotes from her lecture without getting in trouble?

So, there’s this thing called fair use, and it’s pretty amazing. It’s a defense to copyright infringement and is the reason why Saturday Night Live and Weird Al Yankovic exist, why we can cover songs, and use parts of copyrighted works without getting in trouble. Fair use is a copying of copyrighted material for the purpose of making a comment on or criticizing the original work. There are four prongs (because you know that lawyers LOVE prongs) we look at to figure out whether the copying of a work of art is fair use. Courts look at:

1. the purpose and character of the original work versus the second work, 

2. the nature of the copyrighted work, 

3. the amount that the second work took from the first work, and 

4. the effect on the market of the first work after the second work was created. 

Basically, the more differences between the two works, the more likely that the second work will be protected under fair use.

For example, you know when you’re listening to a song and you recognize a couple lyrics that come from a totally different song? (This is known as sampling, if you’ve heard the term before.) The reason artists can do that is because of fair use. Now, odds are the artists contracted and made a deal for the second artist to use part of that original work. But, even if they hadn’t come to an agreement, as long as the second work is using just a part of that original work for the purpose of making a comment on the original, then the artist who used the original work will not get in trouble, thanks to fair use.

Alright, so here’s how fair use relates to your question. Under the first prong of fair use, the purpose of your teacher’s lecture versus your use of publishing it in a student newspaper are pretty different. She used the lecture for teaching, while you’re simply reporting on the lecture. Second, the nature of the original lecture was educational, while the nature of your news article was more commercial and entertaining. Third, you only took a tiny amount of the lecture—just a couple small quotes rather than the entire thing. And fourth, there’s not really a market for people who want to purchase a high school teacher’s lecture, but even if there was, we highly doubt your school newspaper would affect that market.

Because your newspaper article is so different from your teacher’s lecture, and it passes the four prongs of the fair use test, you are probably good! Even though your teacher has a copyright on her lecture, you used it in a commentary way, which is protected under fair use. Click here to learn more about fair use!

Is there any other reason I would get in trouble?

There is one last thing we have to consider—privacy. Even though your teacher knew that you were recording your lecture which is perfectly fine according to school policy, does publishing it in the school newspaper violate her privacy rights? Your teacher likely has an expectation of privacy over her lectures because she probably didn’t anticipate that the recording would be used for anything other than class activities. 

Some states have recording statutes that govern people’s rights when recording other people. For example, you usually cannot record a private conversation between two people without their consent. In Michigan, this is known as the “Eavesdropping Statute.” Always remember that state laws vary, so be sure to check your state’s laws on this subject. However, your situation is a little different because you had the consent of your teacher to record her but not her consent to publish a couple quotes from her in the school newspaper. 

Whether you can get in trouble for publishing a part of this lecture really depends on your teacher’s expectation of privacy in her classroom. There is likely an implied agreement between teachers and students that the students would only use the recordings as a study aid. You as a student cannot unilaterally, which means that you made the decision on your own, change this implied agreement and publish part of the lecture without your teacher’s consent.

So, here’s our final takeaway regarding privacy—get your teacher’s consent. You probably won’t get in trouble under any recording laws because your teacher knew that you recorded the lecture, but you may get in trouble for publishing these statements without your teacher’s consent. At the end of the day, you’ll have a better relationship with your teacher anyway if you disclose to her that you want to publish her lecture, rather than going behind her back.