Nowhere is this statement truer than in the educational arena. In
fact, educators fall under a special category under the law known as
"fair use." The concept, which first formally appeared in the 1976
Copyright Act, allows certain groups to use intellectual property
deemed to benefit society as a whole, e.g., in schools for
instructional use. However, it deliberately did not spell out the
details. Over the years, fair use guidelines have been created by a
number of groups-usually a combination of educators, intellectual
property holders, and other interested parties. These are not actual
laws, but widely accepted "deals" the educational community and
companies have struck and expect each other to follow.