The Playbook for Copyright and Fair Use
What is copyright? What
does it mean? Even if you don’t know and
understand the legal terms and use of it, most people know that it means to not
claim something as being yours, that has been written by someone else. Most people first heard the definition of
copyright in school; however, the word that was probably used was plagiarism,
also known as copyright. When gathering
information from the internet or print material, the fear of breaking copyright
laws seem to cross people’s mind. There
are a lot of situations where people can go wrong when it comes to copyright
laws. For instance, print material,
summarizing an author’s information, using images and/or audio from Google,
information from the internet, etc. So what is copyright and how do you avoid
breaking the laws? Let’s find out!
Copyright is “a legal concept, enacted by most governments,
giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a
limited time. Generally, it is "the right to copy", but also gives
the copyright holder the right to be credited for the work.” When talking about copyright, the phrase “fair
use” always comes into play. Fair use is
“the right to use copyrighted material without permission or payment under some
circumstances—especially when the cultural or social benefits of the use are
predominant.” There are many unknown
facts that are socialized with fair use.
Some of these facts include, fair use is sometimes very unclear and hard
to follow at times. Others say that you
can use common sense when it comes to copyright and what seems fair and what doesn’t
seem fair. The Code of Best Practices in
Fair Use for Media Literacy Education clearly states simple rules and guidelines
that easy for people to follow to avoid breaking copyright laws.
As educators, it our job to teach our students the correct
way to use information, that is not our own.
It is very important for students to know, especially high school
students, the rules and regulation for using someone else's information or
material. I have personally always been
told, if I did not think it, then I need to cite where it came from to prevent plagiarism
and breaking copyright laws. If you are
uncertain on whether the information you are using could possibly break
copyright regulations, use the “The Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for
Media Literacy Education” as a source to check or copyright laws that can be
found on the internet. I always say, it’s
better to be safe than sorry.
I think there is definitely some sort of initial fear surrounding copyright laws, but teachers are fairly disconnected from it. I think there is a general respect for giving credit where credit is due, and yet it doesn't seem like enough teachers understand the ins and outs of fair use. Copyright laws seem complicated and unless there is a simplistic yet thorough way of presenting the regulations, I think teachers will continue to slide by with confidence that their common sense will prevent any infractions.
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ReplyDeleteEach year, it is my responsibility to give a professional development over copyright laws. I pass out a brochure that teachers can refer to when questions arise. I also give a PPT presentation using different scenarios that teachers must consider. I still have to refer to the brochure and search for answers to make sure I give out the correct advice when teachers come to me because there are so many rules.
ReplyDeleteWhen teaching students about copyright, I always compare it to someone coming to their room and stealing something of theirs and saying it belongs to them. They know that is wrong.
I disagree with Mary: I don't think there is too much fear at all for teachers with regards to copyright law, except maybe in what they put out on the internet.
ReplyDeleteThis is what I know about teachers...they don't wanna pay, because they don't have any money! If we are talking about sharing pirating online resources, subscriptions, and workbooks, and making multiple copies...teachers are bad.
Now copying chunks of books and sending them home with the students is another matter. Order the books, for heaven's sake. (But I think this is only because teachers don't want to stand there at the copy machine copying pages and pages out of a book.
My frame of reference is so limited because of where I teach...a primary school, first grade. I don't know what a history or literature teacher might do in terms of getting enough copies of a text he/she wants to teach.
It's easy enough to credit someone for their work (music and pictures online, and proper citations in research papers, etc), and that's what we teach students with regards to plaigarism.
The tougher part of Copyright is the Fair Use part. When resources are limited, how to we get our hands on what we want to use for homework, or for instruction, without cheating the author out of their living?
I tell the kids (middle school) there are three reasons to cite sources. 1) protects you... inaccurate info that is not cited is claimed as "yours" so if there are errors, the errors are yours and will impact your grade 2) you are good people... authors/creators don't hide their work away; its published in books and on the net for others to see/use. All they ask is that you say THANK YOU, give appreciation and credit for their hard work by citing. 3) avoid consequences... which at middle school could be failing the assignment, at high school could be failing the course, and in college will be getting kicked out (with no refunds).
ReplyDeleteTeachers are tougher, especially for images copied and pasted into power points and copies of workbook pages or video CDs (buy one for the department, make copies for each member of the team). I don' t see a lot of them concerned with Fair Use.
Most students hear the term don’t plagiarize, but don’t really know what it means. They think you can’t copy someone else’s work. Little do they know they “cite” other peoples’ work all the time. By forwarding or posting information or video on a social networking cite they are citing another’s work. Showing students the proper way and improper way to use copyright material is a powerful tool, instead of saying don’t plagiarize.
ReplyDeleteA fellow teacher saw a book she wanted to use in the classroom. She was under the impression that since it was copyrighted she could not use it. I asked her how she was going to use the book, and I explained the use fell under the fair use policy and to use it in the classroom.
I have to agree with Susan. Teachers want what is cheap and easy and often times do not take copyright into consideration. Many times I feel like teachers just do not understand all of the laws and are not intentionally breaking them. I have personally never been at a school that has done a good job of explaining all the ins and outs of copyright laws. I also know that many teachers do know the copyright laws and choose to just not follow them.
ReplyDeleteAs a part of the teacher library orientation, copyright information is provided. It has been a challenge to work with the students to understand that it is not a bad thing to cite and give credit to the person who produced the original work. Many students do a better job after an explaination is provided. It has been a difficult task to get the students to follow the procedures for all types of projects. Essays, power points, perzi's are all subject to copyright laws.
ReplyDeleteI also have teachers who continue to want to copy large portions of books for class use. Policing the faculty and students is a very time consuming job. However, it is necessary to keep these issues in the forefront of the customers mind.
I worry about breaking the copyright laws myself. I certainly do not want to get into trouble. I think a lot of people assume that if it is for educational use, we can do what we want because it is fair use. So often, however, that is not the case. I agree that it does not hurt to check the laws whenever we are not sure in order to be in compliance. A little bit of time spent checking here or there is worth it!
ReplyDeleteI teach first grade and of course I teach them about copyright laws and plagerism but for them it is still very abstract in my opinion. When we teach them how to write an informational piece of writing it is hard for them to change the information into something new but still saying the same things. They end up copying the sentence from the book onto the graphic organizer and that is what comes out in their writing. Plus, the books we use for them to conduct the research is so basic (A polor bear has white fur.) it's hard to change that wording. It is an ongoing process for them as we all know.
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