This page adapted from the guide, "Copyright and Fair Use: Moodle & Copyright" by the staff of Leland Speed Library at Mississippi College.
Posting an item to a course page in Moodle does not exempt an instructor from copyright regulations. Therefore, instructors are encouraged to follow copyright "best practices" as outlined in the Copyright Clearance Center’s publication, Using-Course Management Systems: Guidelines and Best Practices for Copyright Compliance.
The guidelines suggested below are based on one interpretation of U.S. Copyright Law. Instructors may wish to utilize the Fair Use Evaluator created by the Copyright Advisory Network of the American Library Association's Office for Information Technology Policy, or other tools listed on the Fair Use tab of this guide.
| Content | Allowed | Not Allowed |
| Website containing copyrighted material | Posting a link to the website in your Moodle course. | Copying and pasting the website's information into your Moodle course |
| Copyrighted web image | Post/display in Moodle for a single semester a course is offered. | Repeated use in subsequent offerings of a course in subsequent semesters |
| Article from a library database | Posting a permalink/direct link to the article in your Moodle course. | Copying and pasting the article text into your Moodle course |
| Scanned copyrighted image | Post/display in Moodle for a single semester. | Repeated use in subsequent offerings of a course in subsequent semesters |
| Scanned chapter from a book |
Posting no more than 5% of the total work for a single semester if the book is in-print. Posting no more than 10% of the total work for a single semester if the book is out-of-print. |
More than the allotted percentages and/or repeated use in subsequent offerings of a course in subsequent semesters |
| Scanned article from a journal, magazine, trade publication, or other periodical source | Posting a single article for a single semester | Posting multiple articles from the same publication and/or repeated use in subsequent offerings of a course in subsequent semesters |
| Audio files |
Posting a link to a public domain audio file. Posting a permalink to an audio file found in a library database. Posting an audio clip of no more than 30 seconds in length for a single semester without permission from the copyright holder. |
Repeated use of an audio clip over multiple semesters and/or exceeding the allotted limitations. |
| Video files |
Posting a link to a public domain or publicly available video file. Posting a permalink to a video file found in a library database. Posting a video clip of no more than 10% or three minutes, whichever is less, for a single semester without permission from the copyright holder. |
Repeated use of a video clip over multiple semesters and/or exceeding the allotted limitations. |