Adviser Update Adviser Update Spring 2017 | Page 22
use a lot of the things they find
on the internet. Students could
illustrate a
review of
Seventeen
magazine
with a
photo
of the
cover. For a review of the
movie “Guardians of the
Galaxy Volume 2,” they could
go to Marvel Studios’ official
website for the film and
legally download a photo of
a scene from the movie. For
a story about new streaming
TV shows, they could visit the
sites of the streaming services
or producing studios and
legally download publicity
photos of the shows talked
about in the article. For an
article about the work and
career of Green Day, students
could legally visit the band’s
official website and download
publicity photos of the group
on stage or the covers of their
discs to complete their need
for illustrations.
All of this would commonly
GARY CLITES
Gary Clites, MJE, advises The
Patriot Press newsmagazine and
WNHS-TV at Northern High School
in Owings, Maryland. He holds
degrees in journalism from WVU
and the University of Maryland. He
has been a columnist for the Dow
Jones News Fund’s Adviser Update
for 20 years. Clites has a CSPA
Gold Key and was a 2004 DJNF
Distinguished Adviser. He is acting
president of the Maryland-D.C.
Scholastic Press Association.
be considered fair use of
the material and, one might
note, would constitute
student journalists’ using the
same kind of illustrations
and publicity materials that
are commonly distributed
to writers for major press
outlets by the studios and
stars to generate the publicity
and coverage they need
to promote their products.
Copyright law asks two things
of your students, however:
that they get their material
directly from the owner of
the copyright, and that they
identify the owner of the
copyright when they use
it. This requires that a note
be published along with
any illustration indicating
the source of the material
(“photo courtesy of Paramount
Pictures,” for example).
What are the limits of the
fair use doctrine? A student
writing a story about Bryce
Harper might be able legally
to visit the Washington
Nationals official website to
grab a publicity photo. That
student could not, however,
visit Sports Illustrated’s site to
download a photo of Harper
published by the magazine.
Doing so would definitely
violate the magazine’s
copyright. A
student writing
about students’
use of social
media could