Copyright on Books

[yl358]

I attended classes for the GMAT by one of the big-name companies last year. I noticed that they copied and pasted problems from "The Official Guide to the GMAT" - a book that was neither written nor published by this big-name company - into most of their Powerpoint slides that the teachers then used to give lessons for the students. My question is: they wouldn't have done this unless it were legal, or is it not actually legal? They, of course, purchased copies of "The Official Guide to the GMAT" and gave them to all the students.

The reason I ask is because I am teaching classes for a test preparation organization. If I were to purchase "Test Prep book A" for all my students, can I then make copies of chapters of this book to give to the students for easier note-taking? Can I scan pages and e-mail it to the students? How far can I go with this?

My classes are in NYC.

 

[LdiJ]

I attended classes for the GMAT by one of the big-name companies last year. I noticed that they copied and pasted problems from "The Official Guide to the GMAT" - a book that was neither written nor published by this big-name company - into most of their Powerpoint slides that the teachers then used to give lessons for the students. My question is: they wouldn't have done this unless it were legal, or is it not actually legal? They, of course, purchased copies of "The Official Guide to the GMAT" and gave them to all the students.

The reason I ask is because I am teaching classes for a test preparation organization. If I were to purchase "Test Prep book A" for all my students, can I then make copies of chapters of this book to give to the students for easier note-taking? Can I scan pages and e-mail it to the students? How far can I go with this?

My classes are in NYC.

OK, something you probably do not realize. The publisher of "The Official Guide to the GMAT" most likely is the one who provided the powerpoint slides to go along with the book. That is pretty standard practise these days. The publisher provides the powerpoint slides as an addition to the textbook series. Sometimes they only come with the teacher's version of the textbook, sometimes they come with all versions of the textbook. Sometimes they do not come with the textbook but there are online supplements to the textbook on the publisher's website where you can download the powerpoints.

As long as you buy a copy of the book for each and every one of your students, you can go pretty far as to how you use the book with those specific students. Its only if you copy something from the textbook and provide it to a student who has not paid for a textbook or for whom a textbook has not been purchased that you would have a serious problem.

 

[ecmst12]

More likely the company that developed the class worked together with the company that published the book and has a license to use their material in the classes. Similar to a company that gets a license from a video game developer to use their images and info in order to write a strategy guide to the game.