In fact, even if you think you know the answers, read on, because you'll soon learn that copyright, permissions, and fair use are not tidy issues. Their very fuzziness is what has prompted this article, which is intended to answer the above questions, clear up a few misconceptions, and shed some light on how copyright law affects your teaching. Professor X from Scenario 1 can copy the article for her class next week, but must seek permission to use it for future classes. The Voices from the Middle article meets this test. The spontaneity test asks a teacher to consider whether the actual copying of the piece occurs at the instance and inspiration of the teacher to use the piece and whether the inspiration and decision to use the work and the moment of its use are so close in time that it would be unreasonable to expect a timely reply to a request for permission.
Cumulative effect limits the total number of works that can be copied each class term.
There should not be more than nine instances of multiple copying for one course during one class term. These nine instances are easy to keep track of if you teach individual classes within a semester or quarter system. Professor X teaches in such a system and so her use of one Voices from the Middle article passes the cumulative effect test. Using the same guidelines to assess the second scenario, Ms. Y's use of these poems is probably fair. Ms. Y needs especially to pay attention to the cumulative effect.