I Homeschool. What can I copy?
If you're the typical homeschooler, you appreciate the effort of those who produce the curriculum you use. They help make your homeschooling easier, and you acknowledge that by paying for the curriculum you use knowing that gives the author incentive to create additional curriculum. You wouldn't expect your dentist to clean your teeth for free or your grocery store to pass out free milk and bread. Sure if they offer to do so, you'd accept, but most people agree that people should be paid for their work.
The Internet and computers have made sharing intellectual property much easier. The tendency among tightly budgeted homeschoolers is to seek as much free material as possible. The trick is to do so without crossing the copyright line. We read headlines from time to time about the continued wrangling over copyright especially in terms of music files. If lawyers can't agree on what's legal, how are the rest of us to figure it out?
Educators have their own set of unique rules to follow called educational fair use. Much of today's problematic copyright abuse in the educational market is due to misunderstanding of educational fair use. We invite you to explore our section on educational fair use. The information posted there will help you determine what you can and cannot do.
If your desire is to do what's right, then you need to have a clear understanding of the law. If you're sure you truly understand copyright law, we challenge you to take our copyright quiz and prove it.