Copyright
To this day I believe copyright is one of the hardest things to be taught to students and even adults. The concept seems simple, if you are the original creator, speaker, or artist of a piece of work, writing, speech, etc, then ultimately you have the rights to the work. Rights to make a financial gain, rights to redistribute the work, rights to share with others, etc. However copyright laws differ from one piece of work to the next, and that is where it gets sticky and may even lead to criminal charges. During my research I ran across this article that provides 10 steps that are extremely beneficial for us as educators to be aware of. To be honest the copyright law in its entirety is wordy and filled with legalities that I am not sure I will ever understand. This article on the other hand put out 10 steps we can all follow to guarantee we are protecting ourselves as well as our students.
http://www.techlearning.com/article/34092
"Top 10 Ways 21st-Century Schools Can Protect Themselves from Copyright Violation"
Fair Use
The owner of the copyrighted material has the right to allow others to use their work for educational purposes according to restrictions, this falls under the fair use doctrine. Copyright laws give four standards to determine if material is being used under fair use. First being the purpose of the use- is the material used for teaching, reporting, scholarships or to enhance the learning opportunities. Second being the nature of the work- essentially the amount of the material. A paragraph of work would be fair use as opposed to a chapter from an original work. Third being the extent of the material used such as duplicating a short piece in relation to the original work would be considered fair use. The fourth standard is the effect on marketability- what effect will the use of the material have on the potential value of the copyrighted work. For more detailed information on fair use please explore the link below.
http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html
Creative Commons Licenses
Creative Commons Licenses is essentially an extension of the copyright. The creative commons licenses gives power to the original owner to dictate how others make use of the copyright. During my research I was able to find the six different types of creative commons licenses. They are Attribution, Attribution Share Alike, Attribution Non-Commercial, Attribution No Derivatives, Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike and Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives. With Attribution being the lease restrictive licenses and Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives being the most restrictive.
For an in-depth look at Creative Commons Licenses and the rational behind the six different types of licenses please refer to the link below.
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/
At this point I would not consider myself an expect in copyright, fair use or creative commons licenses but I hope I have provided you with enough information to help you gain a better understanding.
Great information about copyright. While I was doing research I learned so much. Your post shares a lot of the same information that I found! Nice job. Your resources are great and helpful. When I was doing my research I was reminded that I need to do a better job as a teacher and teach my students all these copyright laws.
ReplyDeleteCopyright is one of the hardest things. I don't know that anyone but a legal expert could ever decifer all the regulations. I always ask someone else if I am doubt. You have posted some great resources especially about creative commons.
ReplyDeleteThe advancement of technology makes copyright infringement so easy to do and so difficult to track. However, teachers need to be aware of the ways that they can utilize copyrighted material legally. Fair use and creative commons licenses are 100% necessary for the amount of media that teachers have access to on the internet.
ReplyDelete