Copyright and Fair Use Guidelines

One of the most interesting things I learned from Saturday was the copyright and fair use guidelines for teachers. I use a lot of powerpoints when I teach, especially for my social studies class. In making these powerpoints, I will often do a google image search to find pictures to put on them. I had always wondered if this violated any copyright laws. I suppose I could have looked it up, but I preferred to be ignorant. That way, I had an excuse just in case it turned out I was breaking copyright laws. Since I'm using the powerpoints for face-to-face instruction and am certainly not making any money off of them, it appears as if I'm safe. I found all the information regarding copyright and fair use guidelines to be interesting and relevant to my classroom.