Thoughts on Copyright

In this new age of Web 2.0 educators not only have more access to resources on the Internet, they have access to publishing their own works for their students and other educators. As a result, Copyright laws and information have become very important for educators and administrators.

According to Newsome (1997) the copyright law covers seven broad categories: literary works; musical works; dramatic works; pantomimed and choreographed works; pictorial, graphics, and sculptural works; motion pictures, audiovisual works; and sound recordings. These types of works may be used or copied if it is public domain, if the user has permission, if there is a legal exception or if it is copied under "fair use."

The Stanford University Library's web page defines fair use as "a copyright principle based on the belief that the public is entitled to freely use portions of copyrighted materials for purposes of commentary and criticism." Unfortunately, if there is any disagreement between the copyright owner and the the user about the interpretation of the fair use, the case may be taken to court. The only guidance provided for letting people know what the limits are for fair use are a few factors outlined in the copyright law. For example, one important factor is whether your use will deprive the copyright owner of income. The factors for determining what is fair use is weighed differently from case to case and the process is often quite subjective (Stanford University Library). For this reason, the fair use guidelines are often tricky to implement properly.

I am particularly concerned with this tricky implementation in educational settings. The educational fair use guidelines apply to material used in educational institutions and for educational purposes. The Stanford Library's web site defines "Educational purposes" as:
non-commercial instruction or curriculum based teaching by educators to students at nonprofit educational institutions
planned non-commercial study or investigation directed toward making a contribution to a field of knowledge, or
presentation of research findings at non-commercial peer conferences, workshops or seminars.

Even though materials may be copied for educational purposes, certain standards must be met. Unfortunately, as mentioned previously the guidelines are not very clear. Nevertheless, teachers cannot claim ignorance of the law as an excuse.

McKensie (1996) provides a good rule of thumb by saying, "students might make rather liberal use of information, text and graphics so long as their resulting works remain within the classroom setting. The moment the works move out of the classroom, they may fall under a "public performance" clause of the copyright law which imposes much greater restrictions and fees. We must distinguish between "practice" publishing and "real" publishing." Students and teachers may not publish on the web or anywhere else unless they have requested and received formal permission to do so by the copyright owner.A great way for teacher to familiarize themselves with the copyright laws to which they will be held accountable to is through reading about it on the Internet. A site that I highly recommend is titled "A visit to Copyright Bay" published by the University of St. Francis. This site has plenty of information on all the copyright laws and it gives specific examples of how they are applied in educational settings. It does all this in a fun way. The site is set up with a graphic that looks like a bay and you can click on different parts that are safe and unsafe based on the fair use standards.

In conclusion, educators today face many challenges when learning to apply the many resources that are available to them on the Internet. In reading the information on the websites that are listed in my references below I have decided that is better to be more careful than risky when copying material. I feel that teachers should assume that all material is protected and always ask for permission.


References

McKenzie, J. (1996). Keeping it legal: Questions arising out of Web site management. Available at: http://www.fno.org/jun96/legal.html [Sept. 26, 2008].

Newsome, C. (1997). A teacher's guide to fair use and copyright: Modeling honesty and resourcefulness. Available at: http://home.earthlink.net/~cnew/research.htm#A%20Teacher%27s%20Guide%20to%20Fair%20Use%20&%20Copyright [Sept. 26, 2008].
Stanford University Libraries (no date). Copyright & Fair Use. Available at: http://fairuse.stanford.edu/ [Sept. 26, 2008]
University of St. Francis (no date). A visit to copyright bay. Available at: http://www.stfrancis.edu/cid/copyrightbay/index.htm [Sept. 26, 2008].