As I understand it (and I am definitely not expert in this area), the legal
principle of 'fair use' in educational settings has become more complicated
in the last two decades. Before 1978, at least, teachers could freely
reproduce and distribute published texts but new laws (e.g., PL 94-553) now
require that teachers, or anyone else for that matter, obtain written
permission from the author or publisher.
Under current fair use law (as I understand it) teachers may however copy
and distribute published materials to students if they observe three
criteria: brevity, spontaneity, and cumulative effect. The criterion of
"brevity" means prose works of less than 2,500 words my be copied
completely; over that limit no more than 1,000 words or 10% may be excerpted
(whichever is lower). "Spontaneity" allows a teacher to reproduce materials
if there is insufficient time to obtain written permission but regardless
"cumulative effect" limits the total number of copyrighted works used
without permission in a course to a maximum of nine (9) works of which no
more than two (2) may be from the same author.
If someone has more recent information on the legal concept of fair use wrt
education I'd be happy to hear it but in any case I don't think pdf format
gets you around any of it. The distinction between 'copying' and
'publishing' in digital format(s) is too fine and, regardless, is not the
core issue which is duplication and dissemination. It's largely a
control-of-property thing.
All in my humble opinion of course :-)
Rolfe Windward
Dept. of Education, Lindsey Wilson College
windward who-is-at lindsey.edu
"We know more than we can say" -M. Polanyi