A.  Many libraries  have embarked on loaning Kindles with pre-loaded e-books.  As different than buying a published book, however, the use of a Kindle and the downloading of electronic books to the device is governed by a user agreement.  Contract law supersedes copyright.  At this time, Amazon has taken the position that the user agreement doesn’t permit the loaning of the Kindle with the e-books, while libraries have challenged the wording of the Kindle agreement.  The Amazon agreement also states that the wording of the agreement may be changed at any time and once changed, it becomes effective and governs all use.

The libraries that have proceeded with implementation have argued that it is no different than loaning out a copy of the book and that only one copy of a book is loaded on each Kindle.  In addition, libraries, in order to protect themselves from possible user abuse, have contacted Amazon which cooperated with libraries in providing information on how to deactivate the registration on the Kindle on loan so that the user can’t download additional content and when returned, the library can reactivate the Kindle registration.  At this point, Amazon hasn’t taken any direct action in the form of lawsuits.  It may be that Amazon is waiting to see if such use of Kindles diminishes or enhances book ordering and the possible impact on Kindle sales.

One of the problems in being on the bleeding edge of change in technology is that some bleeding sometimes does take place.  So, at this point, I cannot provide you with a definitive yes/no response to your question, other than providing you with the facts as to where the situation stands at this time.

A. All of the recording activities you have indicated require prior permission.  Unless the school district, when adopting a textbook and ancillary materials, negotiated duplicating rights, the fact that recordings were purchased, doesn’t give the right to make copies.  The purchase of a book doesn’t give one the right to convert that book into another format  and then to make further copies of that format.  The act of making such copies potentially infringes the rights of the author for making copies of their works and being able to create derivative works based on their works.

In reference to iTunes, the use of the site and the downloading of content from that site is governed by the license one agrees to when using iTunes.  License agreements are contracts and contract law supersedes copyright.  iTunes only permits downloads to be used for personal use.  Even though a teacher or a school opens an iTunes account, this doesn’t grant the teacher or school additional privileges.  However, unless there are further restrictions stated on the site, materials purchased may still be eligible for claims of Fair Use and there still would be the opportunity to use portions according to various guidelines that exist, such as the Educational MultiMedia Guidelines or the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education.

A. Reading a book onto audio tape or video tape constitutes making a copy of the entire book and changing the format. Both are potential violations of the rights of the copyright holder. Then, taking the copied work and airing it over a transmission system, without transmission rights, is another potential violation.

What would be permissible would be a “book talk” where the book is summarized and a few, brief sections are read in order stimulate interest in having students read the book(s). It would also be permissible to read the book live without recording the presentation.